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You avoid this problem by not restricting APIs to what works on every phone, but providing optional APIs for the more capable devices. Good apps will be well i

by jsankey 17y ago

You avoid this problem by not restricting APIs to what works on every phone, but providing optional APIs for the more capable devices. Good apps will be well integrated with multiple devices - where those devices have enough market share to be worth targeting. The alternative of only having one device to rule them all is unrealistic. It's a kind of lowest common denominator approach to matching users to phones (as opposed to matching apps to phones).

pospischil 17y ago
That might solve the problem for great apps -- but lets face it, a lot of the apps we see in the app store(s) out there aren't great. Which phones are end-users going to buy? The ones with cool features that no apps use, or the cheaper one that runs all the same apps as the high end phone? And it doesn't solve the different resolution problem.... (Just playing devils advocate here -- your strategy is basically what apple has done w/ iPhone 1, 2, 3--and has been quite successful thus far. But had apple built a dozen phones in that time frame I don't think things would be playing out the same way).
kogir 17y ago
J2ME does just what you suggest. They're called JSRs. I know from experience that doesn't work, because even if the platform doesn't target the lowest common denominator, app developers will out of necessity. It's too expensive to optimize for every device. It all sounds great until there are multiple extension APIs to access the same thing, all of which are subtlety different and none of which are common across OEMs. What's even worse is when the API is shared, but each OEM implements it differently. For instance, one OEM's phones regularly return pictures rotated 90 degrees clockwise. Each problem by itself seems small, but combined they're formidable. It sucks for users too. They may hear that app X is awesome from a friend, only to find that the same app sucks on their own phone.
- jsankey 17y ago
  It's too expensive to optimize for every device. Agreed. The "solution" I suggest just allows you to avoid the lowest common denominator - it doesn't make it cheap, or even viable for all devices. But for the most popular devices it should be economical. I guess it depends on how fragmented things get - but I don't think a phone monoculture is any kind of solution, it just shifts the problem.

by jsankey 17y ago

pospischil 17y ago

That might solve the problem for great apps -- but lets face it, a lot of the apps we see in the app store(s) out there aren't great. Which phones are end-users going to buy? The ones with cool features that no apps use, or the cheaper one that runs all the same apps as the high end phone? And it doesn't solve the different resolution problem.... (Just playing devils advocate here -- your strategy is basically what apple has done w/ iPhone 1, 2, 3--and has been quite successful thus far. But had apple built a dozen phones in that time frame I don't think things would be playing out the same way).

kogir 17y ago

J2ME does just what you suggest. They're called JSRs. I know from experience that doesn't work, because even if the platform doesn't target the lowest common denominator, app developers will out of necessity. It's too expensive to optimize for every device. It all sounds great until there are multiple extension APIs to access the same thing, all of which are subtlety different and none of which are common across OEMs. What's even worse is when the API is shared, but each OEM implements it differently. For instance, one OEM's phones regularly return pictures rotated 90 degrees clockwise. Each problem by itself seems small, but combined they're formidable. It sucks for users too. They may hear that app X is awesome from a friend, only to find that the same app sucks on their own phone.

jsankey 17y ago
It's too expensive to optimize for every device. Agreed. The "solution" I suggest just allows you to avoid the lowest common denominator - it doesn't make it cheap, or even viable for all devices. But for the most popular devices it should be economical. I guess it depends on how fragmented things get - but I don't think a phone monoculture is any kind of solution, it just shifts the problem.