I'm unsympathetic. The only thing that held back non-Apple mobile platforms was the app ecosystem. The Play Store has definitely caught up with the App Store. Even if you don't think it does, the versatility of Android really does beat that of iOS. iOS isn't going anywhere for the general populace, but I see little benefit for its use in the tech community. I'm not one of those "iOS is a toy for idiots" detractors, b…
What did Ford say about people wanting the faster horse?
IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
31–40 of 47 posts
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#32The 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…
Isn't this the dream of the Microsoft Surface and similar tablets? Give them multitasking, a keyboard case, and boom instant productivity. I personally just think it comes down to screen real estate. Small screens are hard to do anything productive. I still remember trying to type up a paper in college on an Acer netbook. Even with a full "laptop experience", it was a horrible and scarring experience.
Writing a paper is full blown work that they know they cant do on a mobile device. But they expected a lot of the micro-moments to work.
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#33I 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…
This article puts into perspective why this could be a potentially huge strategic play.
If you can convince people to use MailBox as their client, saving every attachment to DropBox by default, and continuing to push for DropBox integration in other iOS apps, DropBox could become the unofficial file system of iOS and the solution to the "complex workflows" cited in the article.
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#34To 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…
Based on some early customer development, I have found that people who want to be productive go on a spree of gathering too many productivity tools around them. As I mentioned earlier, some people feel productive just by getting a productivity tool. So even if a user has downloaded the app, they now have to migrate their existing items and start to fully incorporate this new tool into their life. It's much easier to…
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
After two years, I disagree with this. I have to consistently concentrate on the physical act of typing and not what I'm trying to write.
Then you're doing it wrong. Either you don't use proper typing style on a physical keyboard (all 10 fingers, each responsible for a specific set of keys), or you haven't put the effort into adapting that typing style for virtual keyboards. Typing is about training your muscle memory for each finger for each keystroke it could possible be responsible for. Once your muscle memory is trained, it becomes a subconscious s…
Tactile feedback is a big advantage to physical typing which allows you to know your fingers are in the right place prior to making a keystroke. Without it, you don't know until after the touch has registered. Ignoring that and saying it amounts to nothing is short sighted at best. Even beyond that, there are plenty of people who aren't that coordinated and/or stable, period, which amplifies this deficiency.
Additionally, this doesn't account for the fact that in most scenarios, the person using a mobile device is, in fact, mobile, and may not have a flat, stable area to place the device, but rather they are balancing it on their lap or holding it with one hand and typing with the other. Nor does it capture the fact that when you have the device in your lap, the screen isn't going to be at an ideal angle to view at the same time.
So sure, the same concept applies, but to pretend that the experience isn't inferior is just turning a blind eye to reality, imho.
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#36The final problem was round-tripping. i.e. if I work on a slide deck in Keynote for iPad, which is pretty fabulous as a stand-alone, and then take it to the desktop (via many steps as described in the linked article) to edit it, there's a ton of minor differences in the slides that are infuriating to deal with.
Even worse: iPad 3 + logitech smart cover keyboard = thicker & heavier than an 11" MacBook Air.
I expected Apple to fix the IAC issue with remote view controllers, and hoped they'd offer a smart cover keyboard to counter the Surface, but WWDC rolled past without any news.
Apple did expend a lot of effort to solve problems no one actually had but would help guarantee platform lock-in (i.e. SpriteKit). Sigh.
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then you're doing it wrong. Either you don't use proper typing style on a physical keyboard (all 10 fingers, each responsible for a specific set of keys), or you haven't put the effort into adapting that typing style for virtual keyboards. Typing is about training your muscle memory for each finger for each keystroke it could possible be responsible for. Once your muscle memory is trained, it becomes a subconscious s…
Your response accounts only for one piece of the experience, which is the muscle memory. Perhaps you move like a robot, and muscle memory is enough for you to precisely strike the small tap targets of a keyboard, but you are off target to tell someone they are wrong based solely on that. Tactile feedback is a big advantage to physical typing which allows you to know your fingers are in the right place prior to making…
My response to taude still stands. If you constantly need to concentrate on the act of typing then you need to train your muscle memory.
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#38The 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…
Isn't this the dream of the Microsoft Surface and similar tablets? Give them multitasking, a keyboard case, and boom instant productivity. I personally just think it comes down to screen real estate. Small screens are hard to do anything productive. I still remember trying to type up a paper in college on an Acer netbook. Even with a full "laptop experience", it was a horrible and scarring experience.
I suspect that most people who really wanted a hardware keyboard (lots of people don't even want them) for a mobile device will agree with me when I say that if your keyboard case requires a table in order to be used, then you may as well not even have bothered to try.
I purchased a Clamcase Pro for my Ipad, and it's absolutely amazing. I have fairly large hands, but I can still type on the device in a manner that's completely natural and comfortable, at about 90wpm. I've used several different netbooks, and they all felt cramped in comparison. So far, I've completed dozens of essays and reports on the device. I even use it for some light web development. The best part, however, is that the case can actually be used like a normal laptop.
If IOS had better productivity apps, a decent multitasking system, a file system, and sublime text, it would be the best computer I've ever owned.
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#39To 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.
My take-away was that I wanted precise pointing and a keyboard and a big screen for those tasks, because I'm fussy about the results.
But like a lot of the HN audience, I'm not very typical, so my experience may mean little ;-).
Regarding payment model, payment wasn't the issue. It was functionality.
Re: IOS productivity app market on the cusp of change?
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your response accounts only for one piece of the experience, which is the muscle memory. Perhaps you move like a robot, and muscle memory is enough for you to precisely strike the small tap targets of a keyboard, but you are off target to tell someone they are wrong based solely on that. Tactile feedback is a big advantage to physical typing which allows you to know your fingers are in the right place prior to making…
I agree that tactile feedback is an advantage to physical typing. I'm not ignoring that aspect when I say that virtual keyboard typing is fine . Virtual keyboard typing is not as fast as physical keyboard typing. I type 80 WPM on a physical keyboard and 50 WPM on my iPad. It's slower... but fine. My response to taude still stands. If you constantly need to concentrate on the act of typing then you need to train your…