The font in this post isn't legible at all.
IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
11–20 of 47 posts
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#12I agree with the statements presented by the article (i.e doing real work on iOS sucks), but I don't really see what the title of the article has to do with its content. What led them to draw the conclusion that the productivity app market is on the "cusp of change"? I see only an explanation that the market has a systemic and fundamental problem -- not that there is any definable change in sight.
Sorry, I should have added more references in that connected the dots better. A lot of capital and talent is flowing into solving the problem. Thus, we are likely to see some big shifts.
--$4 billion invested into "business/office" software on iOS since 2010
http://readwrite.com/2013/06/25/a-new-golden-age-of-producti...
--Mailbox's exit to Dropbox
--Quip openly calling for a change to the word processor
https://quip.com/blog/introducing-quip
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#13To get someone to pay, you need to prey on their impulses. Games accomplish this with instant gratification and addiction. For productivity apps, people can justify a purchase because their productivity is worth at the least that price. These are typically pay per downloads and then involve a user to switch to a completely new system. I wouldn't be surprised if engagement & retention are very low despite these high r…
Curious as to why would engagement and retention be low? As regard's pay per download models...looks like "Attach" business model's are becoming more popular.
"Attach" means charging for something outside of the app store. Dropbox, Uber, Square all do it. I remember seeing a Chris Dixon post about this on HN a few months ago.
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#14iOS gives priority to ease of learning over efficient workflow for power users. I agree this gave them a HUGE advantage early on, but as users become more sophisticated in using mobile devices this "priority to beginners" philosophy is going to let Android slowly eat their lunch.
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#15The font in this post isn't legible at all.
Yikes. Fixed the fonts to make it more readable.
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#16The displayed workflow is horrendous. And that's just one aspect of the sub-par experience of doing "real work" on pure touch screen devices.
The poll sums it all up nicely. What users want is real multitasking, a keyboard, and features that are on a desktop. Seems pretty clear that the users don't want an iOS/Android device, they want a laptop/desktop with a real OS. No app can solve that, no matter how much funding it gets.
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#17A really good assessment of the situation. I really enjoyed the qltv and qtv analysis - but this being HN part of me was hoping there was an actual solution. For me personally, the keyboard is the most frustrating, second to lack of cross-app integration.
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Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#18I agree with the statements presented by the article (i.e doing real work on iOS sucks), but I don't really see what the title of the article has to do with its content. What led them to draw the conclusion that the productivity app market is on the "cusp of change"? I see only an explanation that the market has a systemic and fundamental problem -- not that there is any definable change in sight.
Sorry, I should have added more references in that connected the dots better. A lot of capital and talent is flowing into solving the problem. Thus, we are likely to see some big shifts. --$4 billion invested into "business/office" software on iOS since 2010 http://readwrite.com/2013/06/25/a-new-golden-age-of-producti... --Mailbox's exit to Dropbox --Quip openly calling for a change to the word processor https://quip…
Ah, thanks for the followup. So basically the point is that people are recognizing the problem isn't just a growing pain of early mobile adoption, but rather is a serious and fundamental problem that needs lots of money and effort to tackle (but which offers correspondingly massive rewards, they expect).
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#19The displayed workflow is horrendous. And that's just one aspect of the sub-par experience of doing "real work" on pure touch screen devices. The poll sums it all up nicely. What users want is real multitasking, a keyboard, and features that are on a desktop. Seems pretty clear that the users don't want an iOS/Android device, they want a laptop/desktop with a real OS. No app can solve that, no matter how much funding…
> and features that are on a desktop
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#20iOS gives priority to ease of learning over efficient workflow for power users. I agree this gave them a HUGE advantage early on, but as users become more sophisticated in using mobile devices this "priority to beginners" philosophy is going to let Android slowly eat their lunch.
iOS7 is already doing that. It's switching from skeuomorphic buttons to just typography.
This doesn't address your larger point, given that the switch to lines doesn't mean that they're bringing advanced functionality yet, but it's a sign that they are willing to trade away easy of learning.