3 ms·

Couldn't agree more. It's not the users or Apple who are racing the app market to the bottom. It is the developers and the competition amongst them. And it's be

Couldn't agree more. It's not the users or Apple who are racing the app market to the bottom. It is the developers and the competition amongst them. And it's because creating an app is not that hard. Perhaps designing a great one one and creating and and building a market for it is quite hard. But cloning that exact app [even if it is inferior] and providing it for free or supported with IAP or ads is really not terrifically difficult or time consuming once the idea is proven. It is basically impossible to build a competitive moat. Games are a bit different given how much art and content is often associated with the production, but users are looking for a fun distraction. Perhaps one should try to build a $2 game with a $50,000 art budget rather than a $500,000 art budget. The users don't really care. It sounds more profitable. Tiny Wings FTW.

k-mcgrady 13y ago
>> "creating an app is not that hard" How is this true at all? It depends on the programmer, what they are building and the tools they are using to build it. Apps are no different to building desktop or web software. In fact the constraints arguably make it more difficult.
- Kurtz79 13y ago
  I would say at least that it's much easier now than it was a few years ago. XCode and iOs have improved tremendously in terms of usability and functionality, compared to the first releases, and I expect that the Android SDK has gone through a similar evolution. In addition, you'll probably find a tutorial or a Stack Overflow answer for every problem or question you could possibly have, while at first it was largely undiscovered territory. In short, barriers of entry have lowered tremendously.
  - matwood 13y ago
    For the raw coding part you are describing that is true, but the bar for what people consider a worthwhile app has also risen substantially in the same amount of time. I can build a native iOS app in a day, but I wouldn't consider it releasable to the app store without a good bit more work.
- notatoad 13y ago
  No, i think it's true. Programming for mobile and programming for desktop are both about equally challenging, and have their unique difficulties, but the threshold for what constitutes an "app" is a lot lower on mobile than it is on other platforms. Desktop apps are expected to have a full feature set, mobile apps are often only expected to do one usually simple task. Think about how hard it would be to write the client-side of 'app' for iPhoto on Mac vs the instagram app.

k-mcgrady 13y ago

>> "creating an app is not that hard" How is this true at all? It depends on the programmer, what they are building and the tools they are using to build it. Apps are no different to building desktop or web software. In fact the constraints arguably make it more difficult.

Kurtz79 13y ago
I would say at least that it's much easier now than it was a few years ago. XCode and iOs have improved tremendously in terms of usability and functionality, compared to the first releases, and I expect that the Android SDK has gone through a similar evolution. In addition, you'll probably find a tutorial or a Stack Overflow answer for every problem or question you could possibly have, while at first it was largely undiscovered territory. In short, barriers of entry have lowered tremendously.
- matwood 13y ago
  For the raw coding part you are describing that is true, but the bar for what people consider a worthwhile app has also risen substantially in the same amount of time. I can build a native iOS app in a day, but I wouldn't consider it releasable to the app store without a good bit more work.
notatoad 13y ago
No, i think it's true. Programming for mobile and programming for desktop are both about equally challenging, and have their unique difficulties, but the threshold for what constitutes an "app" is a lot lower on mobile than it is on other platforms. Desktop apps are expected to have a full feature set, mobile apps are often only expected to do one usually simple task. Think about how hard it would be to write the client-side of 'app' for iPhoto on Mac vs the instagram app.