4 ms·

Having lived through windows 8 and the .net frameworks, I really hope Apple can do better.

mtgx 9y ago
Spoiler: It won't. You need UX that is tailored for the device type and form factor. It's like gravity - you can't escape this. Both Google and Microsoft learned this the hard way. Even Apple had to basically encourage developers to write tailor-made tablet apps. If iPhone and iPad apps can't be "universal" what hope is there to unify them across an even larger range of form factors?
_rpd 9y ago
I don't think it is possible. Different hardware means different user experience. You can pretend it is the same application, make one sale and provide different software for each device. But this is more of a marketing gimmick than anything.
- falcolas 9y ago
  It's not even the hardware, it's the user interface. Touch interfaces are too large for desktops apps well, and desktops interfaces are too fiddly to be used with touch.
  - macintux 9y ago
    Agreed, but if anyone understands that UI platforms are different with different needs, it's Apple.
- gambiting 9y ago
  We can't even make unified websites which work well on a desktop and mobile. There's always something missing from the mobile website which makes the customer revert back to desktop version on mobile, which is a horrendous experience(like functionality which is there on desktop version but disappears as soon as you shrink the screen past a certain point). Very very very few companies get it right.
IBM 9y ago
Spoiler: they will. Apple is the back-to-back champ of these platform transitions.
Someone1234 9y ago
> .net frameworks I believe you mean Metro/Modern/Universal Application Platform, the .Net Framework dates back to 2002[0] and was likely created to compete with Java after the 2001 Visual J++ court case[1]. .Net wasn't an attempt to combine mobile/tablet/PC applications together, in particular as it predates smartphones and modern day tablets. Metro/Modern/UAP was however designed to accomplish that goal in Windows 8. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework_version_history#.NET_Framework_1.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework_version_history... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_J%2B%2B#Sun's_litigation_against_Microsoft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_J%2B%2B#Sun's_litigatio...
- scarface74 9y ago
  .Net Framework Compact Edition has been around since 2002. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Compact_Framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Compact_Framework
pjmlp 9y ago
The difference will be that instead of complaining, Apple devs will find explanations why it makes sense and adopt it.

mtgx 9y ago

Spoiler: It won't. You need UX that is tailored for the device type and form factor. It's like gravity - you can't escape this. Both Google and Microsoft learned this the hard way. Even Apple had to basically encourage developers to write tailor-made tablet apps. If iPhone and iPad apps can't be "universal" what hope is there to unify them across an even larger range of form factors?

_rpd 9y ago

I don't think it is possible. Different hardware means different user experience. You can pretend it is the same application, make one sale and provide different software for each device. But this is more of a marketing gimmick than anything.

falcolas 9y ago
It's not even the hardware, it's the user interface. Touch interfaces are too large for desktops apps well, and desktops interfaces are too fiddly to be used with touch.
- macintux 9y ago
  Agreed, but if anyone understands that UI platforms are different with different needs, it's Apple.
gambiting 9y ago
We can't even make unified websites which work well on a desktop and mobile. There's always something missing from the mobile website which makes the customer revert back to desktop version on mobile, which is a horrendous experience(like functionality which is there on desktop version but disappears as soon as you shrink the screen past a certain point). Very very very few companies get it right.

IBM 9y ago

Spoiler: they will. Apple is the back-to-back champ of these platform transitions.

Someone1234 9y ago

> .net frameworks I believe you mean Metro/Modern/Universal Application Platform, the .Net Framework dates back to 2002[0] and was likely created to compete with Java after the 2001 Visual J++ court case[1]. .Net wasn't an attempt to combine mobile/tablet/PC applications together, in particular as it predates smartphones and modern day tablets. Metro/Modern/UAP was however designed to accomplish that goal in Windows 8. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework_version_history#.NET_Framework_1.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework_version_history... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_J%2B%2B#Sun's_litigation_against_Microsoft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_J%2B%2B#Sun's_litigatio...

scarface74 9y ago
.Net Framework Compact Edition has been around since 2002. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Compact_Framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Compact_Framework

pjmlp 9y ago

The difference will be that instead of complaining, Apple devs will find explanations why it makes sense and adopt it.