Wowsers, that little
App Store side project Apple has going on sure doesn't seem to be settling down. After launching in July of '08 and hitting 100 million downloads in September, the App Store has just crossed the 500 million download mark -- a mere six months after opening. Compare that to the iTunes Music Store, which took two whole years
to cross the 500 million mark, though to be fair we have little idea of the paid to free ratio of app downloads. There are over 15,000 apps in the App Store currently, and sure, 14,500 of them are crap, with the rest being tip calculators, but we gotta hand it to Apple for pretty much unprecedented success in the mobile download space -- now let us download SNES emulators!
[Thanks, Richard]
posted Jan 16th 2009 10:58AM
Fortunately, Im not one of them..
BB! :D
I'm waiting for a more family friendly version. say... Wind Breaker
@Shugg:
You make it sound like people can't criticize what they don't own. I suppose you've owned every single one of those handsets you listed as well. Golly Shuggs, jumping off the side of a mountain sure sounds risky, but you'll never know until you try yourself!
Seriously, iPhone envy? I'm glad I didn't get pulled into trying to justify the success of 'iFart'.
Interesting fact: Not a single cell phone has created the unprecedented amount of d-bag fans as the iPhone since the Motorola RAZR.
I too used to clown on the iPhone. But then a few days ago I went in to get a new phone. And I played with an iPhone. For 45 minutes. And I loved it. It was something I had to have. I didn't even care I had to install iTunes. I am converted.
@shugg: I own a 3G iPhone. Here - let me prove you wrong:
It's easy to get a huge number of downloads in a short time if most of your stock are freebees. I suspect if half of the songs on iTunes were free - you'd have have seen them break 500M pretty quickly too. While we're at it - how are these counted? Is an update considered a download? I've had some apps get updated once or twice a week. How about when you download the same app twice as I recently had to do when moving my iPhone authentication from my laptop to my desktop caused it to panic and delete ALL MY FRIGGING APPS?
Colour me unimpressed.
That's always the problem when you open things up... you will have a significant percentage of junk. Innovation is cool; but when it dilutes the quality of the overall offering, then how much value is it really providing?
These are the early days of the app store. Give it time.
Users will eventually reward the great apps and fads like ifart will become a smaller part of the store.
One will have to wonder if objective - C wasn't a barrier to a lot of (mostly amateur) developers, who don't want to invest in learning Cocoa, how many more junk there would actually be available.
Think what it would be like with the zillions of developers who know C++ , or Javascript/HTML/CSS :D
What are you talking about? How does it dilute any other app if some lame ones exist? The app store is still BRAND NEW and of course it won't have every revolutionary app created in the first 6 months. The fact is no other offering from any other phone make even comes close to what Apple is offering here and it will continue to DOMINATE every other phone out there. They sell ONE model to ONE carrier and that's enough to carry them over every other manufacturer besides Nokia. I know it's so hard for you geeks to realize but copy and paste, push, and bluetooth file transfer PALE in comparison to a phone that's fun and intuitive to use. I'm glad Apple didn't take all of your asinine suggestions seriously when creating the iPhone because it's those same asinine ideas that delayed the creation of a truly great device. Bend over, grab your ankles, and take Apple's momentous success up the ass while you admit you truly don't know how to create a successful phone.
And the next iPhone, to be released in about 6 months, the same time as the Pre, will make it's rip-off job seem even more pathetic. Prepare to handle that cringe in your stomach when you see the domination continue.
Now hurry and rate this comment down, I'm sure the truth hurts. Maybe that might make you feel a little bit better to know the other out of touch nerds feel the same way. QUICKLY NERDS! HURRY!
@TitaniumMan
The barrier that Objective-C poses to any competent software developer is a joke, and Cocoa is the fundamental framework that underlies both OS X and the iPhone. My guess is that at the very least, it's enough of a barrier to keep the incompetents from filling the store with utter garbage and asking $0.99 for it.
"Golf claps"
Objective C is about as big a barrier as VB.NET was to VB 6 programmers.
If you know C, or even JavaScript or PHP which basically use C like syntax, and you understand object oriented programming, then Objective C should be no problem at all. I use VB 6 (don't ask) VB.NET, PHP and JavaScript on a regular basis (obviously not on the same projects). Objective C should not be a barrier for a competent developer. The biggest barrier was having to buy a Mac. I have to say that I was very impressed with Apple's X Code IDE. Pretty good for free.
Being an iPhone user, I'd be more impressed if 10 million of those 15 million apps weren't flashlight or other useless novelty junk.
I'd much prefer to have multitasking and push notifications (or god forbid copy and paste) than ten beer drinking apps.
Er, make that thousand, not million... My bad.
iFart being on the top of the charts for so long is a sad, sad commentary on the current state of mankind.
yeah... pull my finger?
Sorry for the plug but if you dont like iFart then check out iFight!
You need to take a deep breath and relax.
i think you saying "iFart" is a pretty good commentary on how you are a manchild
never mind i just realized that iFart is an app and not some lame commentary on the iPhone so please accept my apologies, i am a huge tool
that is pretty depressing actually
Was it just me or did anyone else burst out laughing at the article title?
iFart... ooh, I'm so jealous! Good job Apple for selecting such an awesome app.
joe23521, i would but the air is so full of noxious fumes that it's kind of hard to relax.
Thanks or you comment, and for all this Apple fanboy answers.
This is amazing, you are such Fanboys that you will kick this poor guy's ass because he said iFart sucks ...
My oh my ! I don't want to think about what you would have done to him if Steeve had coded this iFart crap.
Just so you get me right : I'm not saying iFart is useless or that I disapprove of such a useless app, I found it funny for like 10 seconds, I'm just trying to underline that 500 million apps downloaded means NOTHING when iFart account for like 10 million of more.
Now you can low rank this comment and go back to your iFart-rocks-the-app-store-is-the-best-idea-apple-has-ever-had-even-if-google-actually-invented-the-concept-long-before wanking.
Ty.
Felix, he didn't say iFart sucks. He said that it being on the top of the chart is a "sad, sad commentary on the current state of mankind." I suspect that you are predisposed to see apple fanboysim everywhere you look, and you fail reading comprehension. Even if English is not your primary language, I don't see how you could possible conclude that the apple fanboys are piling on because he said iFart sucks.
Lighten up dude. Geez.
iFart is not even funny..
Just the thought that million after million of us humans got excited about, and paid for an app based on an invisible object is f**king depressing.
Interview with Steve Ballmer April, 2007
Q: People get passionate when Apple comes out with something new — the iPhone; of course, the iPod. Is that something that you'd want them to feel about Microsoft?
A: It's sort of a funny question. Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market? (Laughter.) I want to have products that appeal to everybody.
Now we'll get a chance to go through this again in phones and music players. There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance....I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2007-04-29-ballmer-ceo-forum-usat_N.htm
Among thinking, reasoning people, those numbers are correct. Unfortunately most people are not.
Hail Ballmer.
If you mean universal or overall market share for "smart" phones, you are probably right. If you mean current market share, as in last 12 months, current quarter, etc, which is what manufacturers care about, then those figures are way off. Nobody really cares about among all smart phones ever sold, how many are iPhones. What they care about is in the last 12 months, last quarter, what percentage of phones in that class were iPhones. It's a lot more than 3% according to multiple news sources.
December 2008 figures for market share (US) were:
iPhone 23%
Blackberry 41%
Palm 9%
Motorola 4%
Even if you assume that everything other than iPhone and BB are WinMo (which we know is not the case), 100% - 23% - 41% < 60% to 70%, and it's certainly less than 80%
Based on publicly available information from multiple sources, I'd have to say that Ballmer could not have been more wrong.
At CraigJ
Let's be fair, the US market is quite different than the market world wide.
2008 world wide:
New data from Gartner indicates that the successful launch of the iPhone 3G was enough to push iPhone market share over that of the entire range of Windows Mobile devices. Nokia, meanwhile, maintained its number 1 spot with 42.4% in market share. iPhone market share jumped up to 12.9% during the third quarter of 2008, which represents an incredible 327.5% increase in worldwide market share for the same quarter a year ago.
World wide, Nokia + Apple = 55.3% + RiM (not mentioned but we know it is significant, for the sake of argument let's say 5%) is 60%. last time I checked 100 - 60 is 40, and even if MS had all that 40 to themselves (they don't) 40 is < 60, 70 and 80.
According to Gartner, which has been no friend to Apple in the past, for Q3 2008 iPhone market share exceeded WinMo market share globally.
Honestly, I like a lot of Microsoft stuff, and I've been to the campus many times, I use Visual Studio on a daily basis and I like it just fine. My only real beef with them lately has been the premature release of Vista (but 7 looks awesome so far), but things in Redmond seem to be going down hill since Ballmer took over as CEO, as entertaining as chair throwing and monkey dancing is. I don't think if Bill was CEO he'd have let Vista out the door before it was ready, for example. He learned his lesson with Me, and I doubt he would have made those iPhone comments that Ballmer made.
@CraigJ
Uh.....Bill Gates was fully in charge of Microsoft as the CEO when Vista was released....
Uh, no, he wasn't
Steve Anthony Ballmer (born March 24, 1956) is an American businessman and has been the chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation since January 2000...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ballmer
Here's another Ballmerism that is likely going to prove false: "Ballmer dismisses Google Android" - http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10083590-94.html "They can hire smart guys, hire a lot of people, blah dee blah dee blah, but you know they start out way behind, in a certain sense," he said. "blah dee blah dee blah" - classic Ballmer.
Note to Ballmer. Just because you say it, and the media reports it doesn't make it true. I predict that history will show Ballmer to be at best a 3rd rate CEO and at worst and epic failure.
Say what you want about Apple and Jobs, what Jobs did for Apple is far more impressive than anything Ballmer has done for Microsoft, and the obvious comparisons with Bill Gates make it even more obvious that Ballmer should not be running Microsoft. They need someone with real vision, not someone who's best is to try to copy other companies.
"There are over 15,000 apps in the App Store currently, and sure, 14,500 of them are crap, with the rest being tip calculators"
Classy, Engadet! Way to insult *all* of the iPhone developers, many of which likely (used to?) read your site.
awwwww did they hurt your feelings because the App store is full of useless apps? please, share with us what app you've developed.
awww. did engadget hurt your little feelings? can you not admit most of the applications you "developers" have been making are crap?
please, share with us what you've contributed to the App store.
Yes some of us iPhone developers do read your blog every day and we also happen to think that some of the stuff you write about is crap. Now let e give you a slap with my iFight App!
http://tingalin.com/Blog/tabid/109/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/66/iFight-App-Video-Demo.aspx
@losifreak107:
I'm not a developer (nor do I play one on TV). However, if I were, I would have been insulted by Paul@Engadget's generalized slamming of all iPhone apps. Here are just a few of the great apps I use regularly:
- Google Earth
- Gas Cubby
- eWallet
- PhoneFlix
- Shazam
- Pandora
- iheartradio
- Now Playing
- TiltMeter Pro
- Total Body
- Epocrates Rx
- Urbanspoon
and yes, some games:
- Wurdle
- Rolando
- Fieldrunners
oh boy, so of the 15,000 apps, you've only found 15 that were useful enough to actually download/purchase?
that means you think only 0.1 percent of the apps are useful.
so you're being more rude than engadget is........
asshat.
now realize that they are correct, and a large percentage of the apps are worthless little fun things like iFart and the hundreds of flashlight apps....
so what.
if people download them just to try them out and laugh, even if they are crappy little apps, didn't it serve it's purpose?
Once people get used to downloading apps, and the fad of each successive "crappy little funny app" goes away, those same people are now used to downloading things to their phone, the process for doing so, and potentially the thought that they should be paid for.
now Apple has a marketplace, a set of customers, and a group of people selling products.
it's called a market economy, and once you get it set up, you'll see tremendous potential for exchange.
All of which leads to money for Apple.
it's basic business.
and believe me, Apple and most people )and developers) realize that the large majority of CURRENT apps are crap, but you have to start somewhere.....
@No thanks
I have 8 full pages on my iPhone home screen, and I'm working on my 9th one. The iPhone has a lot of great games on it:
Mazefinger
SciFly
Raging Thunder
Dactyl 2
Inferno/Rollercoaster Pinball
2079
TapDefense
Rolando
Brothers in Arms (a REAL first-person shooter)
Spore Origns
Rick Rocketson
Choppy (No, Really!)
and more... The App store was designed for games, not utilities.
So what is it with Apple and sentence fragments? They seem intent on using them for every piece of marketing they publish.
15,000 apps and I'm STILL waiting for a last.fm scrobbler. None of the jailbreak ones work anymore and neither does the official last.fm client. :(
Does anyone know when a legit SNES emulator is coming out for the iphone?
Legitimate? lol. Nintendo has their DS to sell their NES games on it, they've given nothing that they would like to develop on the iPhone
SNES*
my iPhone has a NES emulator, but I haven't looked for a SNES... will do tonight!
Screw Apple's approval process.
Rules are made to be (jail)broken!
That's a pretty good accomplishment.
.... and the job's only half done, next stop: 1 billion!
congrats!
I was looking through the App Store today.
I could only find a few applications that were actually useful. I estimated that probably 80% is games or stupid, useless applications. Some of the apps that are useful, come with other smartphones (document editing, file viewing, conversions, etc).
I was not overly impressed with the business, education, or productivity applications and nothing on the app store could make me switch to the iPhone. Maybe if I was a young kid and wanted to play lots of games, but as a working adult, I need applications that allow me to be a useful, productive, person.
Hopefully developers will start creating useful applications for the iPhone. As of right now, it is kind of silly.
isnt that true for Windows? most apps are crap.
There are several productive apps that I use on a regular basis for my business.
AirShare - allows me to transfer files to my iPhone over WiFi from any browser. Also allows me to view Word, PowerPoint and Excel files.
Evernote - Allows me to take notes in the form of text, picture or audio sync it with Evernote cloud service and sync with my Evernote client app on my Mac
ToDo - powerful todo list with categories, priorities and twitter/sms alerts. Syncs to my Toodeledo cloud account and with my mac.
Mint.com - keeps tabs on all my checking, savings, credit card and investments all from one app.
Bloomberg - quick and powerful stock app
iTalk - audio recorder with WiFi sync back to my Mac
SalesForceMobie - I dont use this one but I have seen it in action at it's very impressive
I havent seen apps like these on any other smart phone. I for once would like to hear what apps are on BlackBerrys, WiMo, Palm etc that are so much better than whats on an iPhone. I just dont get what the draw is to these other phones.
m....
......e..h
Perhaps "legitimate" was not the word I was looking for. What I mean is "Someone show me where I can get a working SNES emulator for the Iphone. I miss Zelda: A Link to the Past..."
Check out the demographics of people who are interested in the silly apps iFight Demographics
My U.K. iPod touch lists 6,513 apps. So there are about 9,000 that are either iPhone-only or not sold here. What am I missing? Does anyone have a better breakdown of the numbers?
How many separate developers do we guess are responsible for those apps? If each developer had created 4 apps that would be $375,000 in developer program fees. If they had each bought a mac mini and an iPod touch (which is what I did), it would come to ten times that. Not a huge amount by Apple's standards I suppose but not to be sneezed at.
I find the whole fart-joke thing incredibly depressing. It seems it really is impossible to underestimate the consumer. Here I am trying to craft clever bits of cutting-edge technology and the people making the big bucks are the fart-joke merchants. It honestly makes me want to give up on technology and find a new job.
if you thought that the people buying Apple products were somehow not prone to lowest common denominator mentality just like any other computer system......
you were seriously wrong......
The number of downloadable programs and apps "advertised" reminds me of Apple's touting how many programs are available for their computer OS. Past 3 or 4 dozen mainstays, the second tier defines the word "lame." It reminds me of 3rd rate shareware being hawked on download sites that look like they were composed on a Geocities app. For the applets- notice I didn't say Apple's first tier programs are lame. No need to howl piteously and righteously.
Personally, I think the app store for the iPhone was a stroke of genius. It really provides an infrastructure to keep people in that environment. Kudos to the talking and walking heads at Apple. Notice how many others are now copying that idea?
Finally, thanks to the foaming mouth rabid fanboys ... you know who you are. It's always mildly amusing to read outraged and passionate attacks on any product that others might even remotely admire or want to purchase. It's touching to witness the love of corporation. Really.
Oompa Loompa?
(btw, completely agree with your post)
Sorry but Google talked about an application downloading platform directly accessible through your android device long before Apple announced the App Store.
So Yes it's great, No Apple didn't invented it. (only the $99 fee, the killswitch and such restrictions).
Thank you for respecting the truth.
Well, I do appreciate the information and I'm perfectly happy to cede the conceptualization to Google, but the actual implementation of the idea was pioneered by Apple.
Nice going Cupertino Skeletor! :)
Another stupid app. These things are fun for kids. Other than that, what is the use for them? There are very few apps that are truly useful and that is why other smartphones are much better for people who need them for PIM, email, and getting work done.
Who do you think buys most iphones?
Kids.
Congratulations from Spain!
What I wanna know is when are the fanboys finally going to get tired of that 4x4 icon page as their "Home" screen. Kinda sad, but I'm sure you can customize it to whatever you want, right? (/s)
I wonder that, too. I have a nice GPE summary applet on the home page with my N810. I just pull it out of my pocket, glance at the screen and know exactly what's on my calendar. No touching necessary. (Not even to unlock it).
It makes iPhone people sqirm.
@Dubb
It's actually more like 4x5...
@Tombio
The four on the bottom don't move to my knowledge.
Is this somehow your way of justifying a crap interface?
"to the best of my knowledge"
nope. try again.
@Dubb
How does not moving make them not be there?
Anyways it's pointless to argue how many icons iPhone has per screen. My experince on iPhones UI is pretty positive compared to many other mobile devices. I can see why some people don't like it but I do. Reason to that is simplicity.
HEY GUYS PLEASE SIGN THIS DOCUMENT IN REGARDS TO STEVE'S HEALTH. SPREAD THE WORD!
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/getwellsteve/index.html
If you guys think the Apple App Store is full of junk, wait until the Android store or whatever the hell it will be called comes out. Every jackass will be posting worthless and poorly written apps. It will be like....well, like Mac shareware vs PC shareware.....
Complain all you want about Apple and THE MAN.... Obviously Apple knows how to do what most businesses are supposed to do....
The Android Market has been out since the launch of the G1.....
Are people really this clueless?
Three shameless plugs in one set of comments (so far), huh?
Can't say I'm not jealous though - you probably have thousands of iFart owners all giving their money to you as I type.
Engadget makes money out of our readership and comments. Does it hurt to try and get a little back out of my own comments? :)
well since you're not paying their bills....
yes.
set up your own blog, and get millions of people to read it and then you can do what you want.
Laugh (or not) all you want at iFart. The sheer brilliance is illuminating when applied at the right moment.
My only App Store complaint (and iPhone, generally speaking) is the lack of a Word doc editor.
Congrats Apple!
When will you get it ?
The iPhone is a toy !
You want to edit .doc ? get a fucking blackberry already !
You know what's worst than an Apple fanboy? A rabid anti fanboy.
I might have to agree with you. I expect a little stupidity from applets but I expect more from geekazoids. There's all sorts of gear for all sorts of people. Why wouldn't' we want choice?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
BoulderSun @ Jan 16th 2009 12:58PM
@losifreak107:
I'm not a developer (nor do I play one on TV). However, if I were, I would have been insulted by Paul@Engadget's generalized slamming of all iPhone apps. Here are just a few of the great apps I use regularly:
- Google Earth
- Gas Cubby
- eWallet
- PhoneFlix
- Shazam
- Pandora
- iheartradio
- Now Playing
- TiltMeter Pro
- Total Body
- Epocrates Rx
- Urbanspoon
and yes, some games:
- Wurdle
- Rolando
- Fieldrunners
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Google Earth, eWallet and Epocrates were out before the iPhone and are available on other phones.
Gas cubby - I found 6 other apps like this for other phones.
PhoneFlix - cool
Shazam - cool
Pandora - very cool, but also available for other phones and even at home.
iHeartradio - cool, but again, not an iPhone exclusive. Streaming radio on phones has been around for a while.
Tiltmeter pro - very cool. This is actually very useful and cool. Currently only on iPhone, but could be coming to the Storm and Pre.
Total body - ok, nothing that special.
Urban spoon - ok, but again other phones can get this info.
Games - there are tons of games for all phones. I do have to admit that the iPhone has some really cool games.
The problem is that the iPhone really doesn't have much for productivity or business applications. That's why Blackberry and Palm are so useful - they have great applications for fun AND work. Many of the iPhones apps aren't anything new either. Total downloads don't mean much if the apps aren't that great to begin with. The comments are true, many of the apps for the iPhone are nothing special, so get over yourself.
Part of the problem is Apple's tight hold on the app store and developers. Plus, the prices that are charged are low, so I don't know how many large developers want to create something that they won't make enough money on.
I don't think the issue is whether or not there is quality out there. It's more about findability. How many bad movies or books are out there? Plenty! But, in addition to Hollywood's advertising and deals shaping our viewing habits, we also have easy and effective ways to share them with one another.
My feeling is that the App Store should be a better web experience, and take advantage of what people have learned. Look at Amazon for e-commerce interface advice, look at Facebook to get inspired about how to make it social.
Apple won't do these things, but once somebody else does (maybe even me?), hopefully that will make it easier and more fun to play the app game.
I must shamefully admit that I contributed heavily to the 500 Million downloads.
I have so many damn apps in my iTunes that when I sync my iPhone I have to pick and choose which apps I want on my phone.
I have well over 150 apps to sort through and I'd say I only use a hand full of them on a regular basis.
Many were free, but just as many were purchased I'm sure.
I think the real reason that the app store is so successful regardless of how many of the DLs were free is the accessibility.
The app store is accessible ANYWHERE. In my car, on the couch, at work. When ever I get an itch, I can just browse the app store in a heartbeat. If I had a bit more self control, I wouldn't have made as many purchases, but I'm a bit spontaneous when it comes to small purchases, which the app store is just chock full of.
SNES emulator? iphone?? booyah!!
Everyone knows you can't get any real work done on an iPhone.
They are just mere toys, and there is nothing smart about them.
Although I haven't used a blackberry, I know there are so many apps out there for WinMo (Much more than the 15,000 in the appstore), and so many *USEFUL* apps at that, for people who you know...have actual work to be done rather than dicking around, that I would find the iPhone experience as a rather useless waste of adoloescent time if I were to ever switch over (hell would have to freeze over first).
Besides, WinMo has hundreds if not thousands of games available for it as well, but it also has tons of actually useful productivity apps as well, something sorely sorely missing from the iPhone catalog.
You've totally bought into the marketing of smart phones. What kind of *actual* work do you think is getting done on phones? No one's typing their company's financial reports on them, no one that has a smart phone AND a job is without a computer. At the most, the average "smart phone" user is now checking their email constantly, unwittingly giving away more of their free time to their company.
The next time you're on a plane next to some clown wielding his "smart phone" on the runway - take a look at what he's doing, and it'll be checking sports scores, or some other form of "dicking around."
You keep acting like business dipshits who can't f'ing use a *real* computer, can somehow get value out of Windows by using a 5-way keypad and 320x320 screen. Next.
you're a rabid anti-Apple dipshit.
I had a blackberry, I now have an iPhone.
Reading and responding to e-mail? Check. Both work just fine. Typing a long e-mail on either device is not fun as I have XXL hands.
Calendar? Check. Both work equally well with our corporate exchange server, I've not missed an appointment.
Logging into corporate web apps? iPhone is far better than the BB could have ever thought of being, However I haven't looked at the Storm
Document editing? Nope, at least as far as I know. Only a masochist would attempt serious editing this on any phone, Black berry or palm included, but viewing doc, xls, etc works great on the iPhone.
Contacts and phone functions? Work better on the iPhone that on my old bb, though I have to say the voice quality on both is barely average.
"Everyone knows you can't get any real work done on an iPhone" No, everyone doesn't know that. Only myopic, anti Apple zealots know that. I get plenty of real work done on my iPhone.
Totally bought into what hype, and can't use a computer.
I hold both an computer engineering degree and a masters.
I can both build, program, and design computers, and actually do.
As for getting real work done, I am referring to the numerous productivity apps.
Ever had to edit a word, pdf, ppt, excel document on the go?
No?
I have.
Ever had to remote connect to your work PC on the go?
No?
I have.
Ever had to copy and paste an email and make edits to it before you send it out to your fellow colleagues?
No?
I have. (Good luck doing that to a 500+ word email with an iPhone)
Ever had to use a TI-89 calculator but didn't have one on you?
No?
I have, via a TI Emulator on my PPC.
Ever had to analyze a circuit to determine the power, resistance, conductance, inductance, etc. requirements at various nodes for any number of circuit types while on the go and didnt feel like lugging around a huge laptop or even netbook just to make quick checks?
No?
I have, via my PPC.
I have also started a PharmD degree recently, and you would be surprised at the plethora of Medical, Pharmaceutical, and general Drug related databases available for the PPCs via WinMo.
While you guys had to wait over a year for Epocrates, I was using it and others well before that.
I am also an avid astronomy fan, and like to whip out my PPC on the go and load up PocketStars.
There is no such app available for the iPhone and certainly nothing anywhere near as extensive.
Furthermore, whereas you guys have to worry about jailbreaking with regards to being unable to upgrade to the latest updates and the countless instabilities introduced by jailbreaking just to get something like tethering enabled, I get to enjoy it by default.
Furthermore, im using a Touch Pro which has a higher res screen than the iPhone, 640x480 FYI, so it's you guys who have to put up with crappy resolutions, not I.
Then on top of that, I have a physical keyboard, the best one in the business, which facilitates typing, something you guys once again wouldn't know anything about...therefore your ignorance on this subject matter is entirely understable.
@ Hamidxa
You assume incorrectly that I have an iPhone. I don't - but we have done usability studies on it, and it's strong points are huge, and accessible to the consumer, whereas WinMos advantages are negligible, and mainly inaccessible to the consumer.
Congrats on having to do all that terrible shit on a tiny, hobbled handset. I do all that stuff on the road, from Silicon Valley, Tokyo, Singapore, Maylasia, Seoul & Nanjing with a...laptop! I was doing it 10 years before you did on your phone, and I get it done faster. Why? UI. Go figure.
I'm a design engineer working with a couple of huge telcos - working on the stuff we're talking about! IN the industry - right now. Imagine that!
therealmusashi,
A Touch HD with a 3.8" WVGA 480x800 screen is a device that is more than capable of getting semi-serious work done on the road..many of the aforementioned tasks I mentioned, and several others that are IMPOSSIBLE (at this point anyhow) on an iPhone.
That is the debate at hand, and FYI, you assume incorrectly anyhow, since Ive been carrying laptops with me for years on end as well. So getting work done on the road is not something I am unfamiliar with, but being able to get much of it done in the palm of my hand is something that to this day eludes the iPhone, whereas on WinMo it is a possibility at least.
Futhermore, I would argue, as would millions of others, that TF3D is every bit as intuitive, and a pleasure to work with as anything out of Apple for the iPhone (which incidentally was stolen from Picsel)...
The coolest thing about the iPhone is all the apps. I just download an app the other day called jailbreak, and now I can install even more apps. With the ability to unlock and tether the phone, I don't know why apple doesn't include this jailbreak app out of the box.
Meh, I own an iphone and 95% of the appstore is crap. And I have over 300 apps on my jailbroke phone. I use maybe 20 regularly. But I've never paid a penny for any of them, so I'm not complaining.
Meanwhile, WinMo did this probably a year or two ago. It's not official, but with the thousands of applications for Windows Mobile out there, and the various WinMo phones, they'd have reach there at some point.
Yet it's not worth a post...
Lol.
Think...this article only needs 499,999,900 more comments by witty people such as this to be as relevant as the App Store.
Meaning it's as impacting as an iFart in the wind!
Hamidxa... what a nimrod! Throwing his accomplishments around like someone is going to be impressed...on this site!!
@shugg: I own a 3G iPhone. Here - let me prove you wrong:
It's easy to get a huge number of downloads in a short time if most of your stock are freebees. I suspect if half of the songs on iTunes were free - you'd have have seen them break 500M pretty quickly too. While we're at it - how are these counted? Is an update considered a download? I've had some apps get updated once or twice a week. How about when you download the same app twice as I recently had to do when moving my iPhone authentication from my laptop to my desktop caused it to panic and delete ALL MY FRIGGING APPS?
Colour me unimpressed.