Spilling the Beans
Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
I personaly await the iPad, and I believe it will become a great success, with that said, the success of the iPad is utterly dependent on quality 3rd party applications.
Developers are probably working all around the world, to finish their iPad Application in time for launch, motivated by their great idea, and the rumors of ‘binary-gold’ at the end of the rainbow.
There is one problem though, I fear there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, we are all in a completely different situation than when the App Store launched for the iPhone, back then millions of devices suddenly became an uncharted gold mine, and very few people could program for the device.
The iPad is an entirely different situation, as of today, we have zero devices in the wild, and thousands of developers who are working really hard to get their application on the iPad App Store.
The increased competition is not the only challenge for developers with gold-fever, Apple recommends it’s developers to bundle iPad and iPhone applications together, this means if a developer chooses to put an iPad interface on an existing application, he/she may achieve loads of downloads, but since must early iPad adopters already have an iPhone, there is a good chance they payed for the application once, meaning no additional income for the developer.
I personally hope Apple finds a solution to the ‘bundle-paradox’, as a consumer I would be confused if the App Store was flooded with similar applications, yet as a developer I would be frustrated not being able to charge my users for all my hard work.
iPad applications will probably have a higher price than we are used to on the iPhone, fewer devices means people have to pay more for the party. If developers choose the bundle model the paradox strikes us again, why should iPhone users pay for the iPad interface, and visa versa.
I am of the opinion that $1 Apps are hurting developers, and I would be delighted to see more developers dare to charge more, maybe the iPad can give developers more gut.
In conclusion I see the iPad can become one of four things: The $1 App inquisitor, The developer resource drainer, The second coming of the iPhone, or completely irrelevant (which seems least likely).