4 ms·

Once you get to 100,000, the number stops being important I've been saying this for a while. You have to cover the major bases but beyond that it's just gravy.

Once you get to 100,000, the number stops being important I've been saying this for a while. You have to cover the major bases but beyond that it's just gravy. I've been tempted to dip my toes into the WP market anyway because frankly the iOS market is saturated already and Android is a pain in the ass for well documented reasons and I no longer have any particular goodwill towards Google. I think with C# Microsoft has the best development language, at least on paper.

ghshephard 15y ago
The issue isn't so much the number - I totally agree that you really don't need 500 solitaire applications in order to be a competitive platform for the user. What is important, though, is that the 15,000 to 20,000 Tier-1 Apps, and, most importantly (critically), the 1,000 or so AAA Apps are found on your platform. It's also important that the App developers show a little heart - six months in and my mother _still_ can't add her location on Path on her HTC-Desire-HD. 95% of the time, when a AAA App comes out, you can be certain that you'll have a full featured version of that application on an IOS device. That's true about 85% of the time on the Android - and it drops off a cliff immediately thereafter for the Blackberry and WP7 platform - with some Tier-1 developer who have already ported to the Blackberry starting to abandon that platform (Kayak) Owning an Android or IOS device means, today, being reasonably certain that the App you want will be on your device. Microsoft is showering people with money, training and hardware to make sure that will be the case for WP7. Now they just have to ship a killer phone and we'll have a horse race on our hands!
- cageface 15y ago
  A counter-point: my fiance and her sister each recently bought a new iPhone 4S. They use them constantly all day but the only non-stock app they care about is Skype. I have a feeling there are a ton of mobile users like this that are easily satisfied by a solid foundation of Web, Email, SMS, and Facebook.
  - SlipperySlope 15y ago
    How right you are!!! Android smartphones will continue to dominate the lowest spec hardware, especially in developing markets like China. Because the Microsoft OS cost adds to the device bill-of-materials, and Android -being open source- does not have this cost. By analogy, its very hard to see how Microsoft will produce low-spec tablets that are cheaper than what Amazon does with the Kindle Fire - and its successor products.
    - Mythbusters 15y ago
      Don't forget the copyright tax that most android devices have to pay. Last I read majority of manufacturers were paying this for using android.
  - ghshephard 15y ago
    Good point - there is clearly a spectrum of smart phone users. But, even for your fiancé and sister, "Skype" was a pretty important app - and if it hadn't been on the device they purchased, then that would have been a negative. I spend about 2-3 hours a day on my iPad+LTE with Skype (Fewer dropped calls than trying to use my iPhone + AT&T, better quality sound) - so I appreciate the importance of Skype. Could somebody who valued Skype on their tablet consider the Blackberry Playbook? Doing a quick google search suggests that isn't the case (as of Feb 2012).
    - cageface 15y ago
      I agree that there are some apps that any mobile platform needs to be a contender. But I really think there aren't so many of these. If you look at iOS app store sales charts it's obvious that games utterly dominate there but I really don't think that games are dealbreakers for most buyers. I predict that apps are going to be increasingly part of some larger overall business plan and less something sold for direct profit. Big players like Facebook and Nike need native apps in the store but they also have deep enough pockets to fund ports to Android and WP. We're already seeing that Apple's dominance in the app market doesn't translate to dominance in phone sales and I think platform-specific apps are going to be even less decisive in the coming years.
bane 15y ago
It's weird, but when the Android app store hit 100,000 I don't remember being terribly overwhelmed with the offerings. It seems to me that the really great apps didn't really start to come out till sometime near the end of last year/start of this year. Perhaps I just missed them, but there seems to be a greater maturity in the quality of the apps that I'm seeing there vs. even 12 months ago (even for AAA titles).

ghshephard 15y ago

The issue isn't so much the number - I totally agree that you really don't need 500 solitaire applications in order to be a competitive platform for the user. What is important, though, is that the 15,000 to 20,000 Tier-1 Apps, and, most importantly (critically), the 1,000 or so AAA Apps are found on your platform. It's also important that the App developers show a little heart - six months in and my mother _still_ can't add her location on Path on her HTC-Desire-HD. 95% of the time, when a AAA App comes out, you can be certain that you'll have a full featured version of that application on an IOS device. That's true about 85% of the time on the Android - and it drops off a cliff immediately thereafter for the Blackberry and WP7 platform - with some Tier-1 developer who have already ported to the Blackberry starting to abandon that platform (Kayak) Owning an Android or IOS device means, today, being reasonably certain that the App you want will be on your device. Microsoft is showering people with money, training and hardware to make sure that will be the case for WP7. Now they just have to ship a killer phone and we'll have a horse race on our hands!

cageface 15y ago
A counter-point: my fiance and her sister each recently bought a new iPhone 4S. They use them constantly all day but the only non-stock app they care about is Skype. I have a feeling there are a ton of mobile users like this that are easily satisfied by a solid foundation of Web, Email, SMS, and Facebook.
- SlipperySlope 15y ago
  How right you are!!! Android smartphones will continue to dominate the lowest spec hardware, especially in developing markets like China. Because the Microsoft OS cost adds to the device bill-of-materials, and Android -being open source- does not have this cost. By analogy, its very hard to see how Microsoft will produce low-spec tablets that are cheaper than what Amazon does with the Kindle Fire - and its successor products.
  - Mythbusters 15y ago
    Don't forget the copyright tax that most android devices have to pay. Last I read majority of manufacturers were paying this for using android.
- ghshephard 15y ago
  Good point - there is clearly a spectrum of smart phone users. But, even for your fiancé and sister, "Skype" was a pretty important app - and if it hadn't been on the device they purchased, then that would have been a negative. I spend about 2-3 hours a day on my iPad+LTE with Skype (Fewer dropped calls than trying to use my iPhone + AT&T, better quality sound) - so I appreciate the importance of Skype. Could somebody who valued Skype on their tablet consider the Blackberry Playbook? Doing a quick google search suggests that isn't the case (as of Feb 2012).
  - cageface 15y ago
    I agree that there are some apps that any mobile platform needs to be a contender. But I really think there aren't so many of these. If you look at iOS app store sales charts it's obvious that games utterly dominate there but I really don't think that games are dealbreakers for most buyers. I predict that apps are going to be increasingly part of some larger overall business plan and less something sold for direct profit. Big players like Facebook and Nike need native apps in the store but they also have deep enough pockets to fund ports to Android and WP. We're already seeing that Apple's dominance in the app market doesn't translate to dominance in phone sales and I think platform-specific apps are going to be even less decisive in the coming years.

bane 15y ago

It's weird, but when the Android app store hit 100,000 I don't remember being terribly overwhelmed with the offerings. It seems to me that the really great apps didn't really start to come out till sometime near the end of last year/start of this year. Perhaps I just missed them, but there seems to be a greater maturity in the quality of the apps that I'm seeing there vs. even 12 months ago (even for AAA titles).