Entelligence: Got game?
By Michael Gartenberg 
posted November 15th 2009 7:01PM
posted November 15th 2009 7:01PM
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.
There was a lot of buzz last week when Apple announced that there now more than 100,000 applications in iPhone App Store, and more than two billion apps downloaded. Those are impressive numbers. A former Palm executive recently told me that in the heyday of Palm OS, two thirds of users never installed a third party app and the average "power user" installed around ten. That averages out to about two apps per device -- a pretty low number compared to most iPhone users, even novice users.
But that's only part of the story. A few months ago, I discussed the viability of multiple mobile OS platforms and how it's not likely that they all will survive long term, and one big reason Apple's platform looks better and better is entertainment apps. Looking at my own device, once you get past the three core apps I use all the time (Mail, Tweetie, and Byline, a Google Reader app), the bulk of my hundred plus apps are all entertainment related -- and most of them aren't available on any other platform.
When you look at the out-of-the-box experience of most smartphones today, they're all pretty good when it comes to basics. Email, web browsing, personal information management, and voice are all acceptable. What's missing are the applications and experience that make up mobile entertainment. Media and content consumption are one core pillar. Games are another.
Media is important to mobility, and according to our research, the iPhone leads the competition by wide margin when it comes to consumers who purchase phones looking to listen to music and watch video. This makes sense, as the most popular media player on the market is the iPod and the iPhone is the only phone with the iPod experience built in. That means users can sync all their content seamlessly, and sync is important. I personally have no desire to troll through thousands of songs trying to re-create my playlists using drag and drop. Other platforms pale by comparison, with Android lagging behind most notably -- Google's OS has no native media sync support at all. Platform providers who aren't thinking of media and content sync are going to miss the
100,000 apps is impressive but it's not the number that matters -- it's the ability for consumers to use their devices for play as well as for work. |
Games are the second pillar of entertainment and Apple's been successful in making the iPhone / iPod Touch a real gaming platform. The iPhone now boasts the best collection of games for any mobile platform, and game developer after developer tells me that they're not even looking at most other platforms -- or they're porting one or two titles to dip their toe in the water. Part of it is platform capability -- the Blackberry simply can't deliver the same type of gaming experience as the iPhone -- but in other cases it's about market penetration or platform fragmentation. Several developers tell me they're avoiding Android because the platform is too fragmented to make the investment: there are different versions of the OS being sold, on hardware with different screen sizes and resolutions. Games are going to critical to any platform's success and the ability to sign up first rate developers and get exclusive content is going to be key to long-term survival.
100,000 apps is impressive but it's not the number that matters -- it's the depth and quality of those applications and the ability for consumers to use their devices for play as well as for work. If platform providers don't start focusing on high quality entertainment experiences soon, we may see some platforms fading even sooner than I might have thought.
Michael Gartenberg is vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret, LLC. His weblog can be found at gartenblog.net, and he can be emailed at gartenberg AT gmail DOT com. Views expressed here are his own.
The iPhone is as successful as it is because of the App Store. It's the one thing that other phones can't emulate out of the box. You can create a phone with better features, but you can't instantly create something like the App Store. I mean, you can create an App Store, but you can't populate it with the quantity/quality of apps right away. You need developers to do that, and that can take some time.
Apple has created a barrier to entry with the App Store.
So how do you figure the original iPhone did so well when there was no app store? The iPhone is so successful because of the tie into the iPod. Not because it has a lot of apps. The iPhone has a lot of apps BECAUSE it was already so successful. The success of the device guaranteed money making potential for developers.
The real genius of the iPhone was tying it to the iPod which was already huge. Sell it as an iPod + Phone and all you need in one device. Leverage your already huge iPod market and bring in a lot of customers who had no idea what a smartphone was at the time. That's why the iPhone is so big and your average joe thinks all smartphones are imitations of iPhones. You can't replicate that kind of pre-existing market and hype without your own iPod. That is why I don't think we will ever see any new device move iPhone like numbers.
friends, what you are describing is called "product differentiation"
Apple has gone on record saying their greatest product differentiator is their software, Apple software.
OS X running on the iPhone along with core apps: Safari mobile, iPod, Mail, Address Book and the tight integration of OS X that binds them together.
Maybe consumers no longer want any variety in design and hardware form factors. Maybe what they really want is a hardware platform that is stable and less changing to attract more developers to provide greater software options.
Despite the high amount of crappiness in the App Store, it is a success. I don't think that Android can beat it due to the high amount of iPhones/iPod Touches and Apple's total control over the ecosystem, but Google can definitely make some improvements to the App Market.
For one thing, we need way more screenshots in the Market. Second, WTF am I seeing app prices in pounds and euros when I live in the U.S.? The Market can't automatically convert that to English on the main page rather than waiting until I get to the screen to buy? Coming from an iPhone that was a little offsetting. For a little while I thought that I couldn't buy those apps. And third, Google really needs to step up and make an iTunes-esque music playback/syncing program/App Market browser program. DoubleTwist and things like it are ok, but they all feel a little janky and I think Google has the resources to make a good syncing program, and since they make Android they could make sure it is compatible with all phones. I think that would really be the catalyst to improving the Android experience when it comes to making a good competitor to Apple's app environment.
I agree with most of what the author is saying in this piece. Apps are king. So much of the fun of an iPhone for me has to do with all the weird little time wasting apps I can use on it. And yeah, Android needs to get its shit together. This whole thing of some phones having 1.5 while others have 2.0 is ridiculous and Google needs to stop it. If they want to provide a good environment for app developers to work then they need to make sure that the experience is as constant from phone to phone as possible.
But can we please, please, please stop referring to the iPhone as a mobile gaming device? I don't know when this changed, but I seem to remember a day when it took a little more for something to be considered a gaming device than having castle defense games, solitaire, and Pocket Tanks. They're fun, but they're hardly enough for an iPhone to be put into the same category as something like a PSP or a DS, systems which have games more complex than the flash games I play when I'm bored at work.
This is very cool. Proof once more of how the iPhone is trouncing every other smart phone out there.
I agree with this article. It touches on what many don't consider/acknowledge. Out the box any dullard can get the most out of his iPhone. iTunes and the App store makes this possible. Until other maufacturers are able to replicate this the iPhone will be hard to beat in user experience. I wish there was non-Apple App stores though.
It is not quite clear to me what the author is trying to say here. Does he predicts that the iPhone is going to have a 90% market share in phones? I don't even think that this is the intention of Apple. They can live with 10% as long as it is upmarket share - just like the Mac's share in the laptop space.
On the other hand, I think that what Google is striving for is very large market share, by basically giving away the OS. Basically, there is no reason for a current generation phone not to be able to run Android - including those which are not marketed as smartphones (eg LG Dare, env, Samsung Rogue, Glide comes to mind). It is quite likely that these phones will, in the next iteration, all run Android - as many companies might not be interested in getting into the rat race of mobile OS development. The advantage Google has is that it does not manufacture phones...
I think Microsoft is late to the game this time.
So the market would look like 10% iPhone at the top (and Apple better keep the hardware specs up), Blackberry staying for the business market, with the rest flooded by 80% Android, with some sprinkling of others.
BTW: I envy the job of anybody who has more than 100 entertainment related applications on its iPhone.
(plugs in his G1 and syncs his music in Windows Media Player while wondering what Michael Gartenberg meant by "Google's OS has no native media sync support at all" and why that's supposed to be so important)
Nothing against Apple I own several Apple devices but this article sounds like it was created by the Apple marketing department and reposted by Entelligence. It really offers up nothing new or relevant that your average Engadget reader doesn't already knows ( whether he agrees with it is another story ) .
The author Michael Gartenberg has long history in the "we hype your product for pay" or "we write reports to confirm your results industry"
Even though I just read six paragraphs, I feel like I read nothing....
Can a Android phone plug into a Bose sound dock or is it limited?
I think a better question is: Why are you using something made by Bose in the first place?
Snap!
+1, Jasmine. Bose blows.
Michael gets it right in the respect that the general users do want entertainment and media. However, users also want wide variety of customisation, which the iPhone app store can't provide. They get around it by providing sheer number of apps.
Customisation has been the number 1 item on phones, not just smartphones, that users want, which is why even at dirt cheap prices, Apple hasn't penetrated more than it already has. 3 years is sufficiently long in this industry to topple even Nokia. However, Nokia phones provide a more well rounded approach. They have apps, games, media, business apps and customisation. I still believe that this is the missing ingredient.
For example, my N97 and my E71 individually have roughly 300 themes and what have you for customisation. The stock phone comes with complete media package and apps that are rather good and pretty much fulfills my media needs. If someone really wanted to, they could have access to thousands of games as well. Some good and some not so good. Swimming through google to find them is just as hard as swimming through 10's of thousands of junk applications.
As for the Palm comment. I do not believe that they have correct numbers. They didn't have an app store to be able to track usage until near the end of their success. Apps for palm in its heydey were distribute through many sites and many were simply hosted and marketed individually. Such a low usage would not have explained the sheer explosion of developer activity at the time; similar to the buzz around iPhone now.
And on the "easy to install front". No, it's archaic to install and synch via your desktop/laptop. We are now in the age where phones are not tethered to a machine. They exist separate from the machines. Most phone users never sync with their pc; backups are onto their sims or to the included microSD.
The easiest install process are in some of the other manufacturers like Palm and Nokia where you connect to the store via app and simply install right from the application itself. It's extremely simple. Or I can just google for an app and I can download and install it right from my phone's browser. In fact, even synch and updates are now OTA and you can sync via cloud or wirelessly to your laptop.
I think what is really mislooked at here is that, above all else, iPhone has benefitted tremendously from constant media coverage for 3 years now. Particularly the American media can't shut up about it and that has impacted the success of the phone more than the inflated and overblown 100k apps has. More than Apple has, the media has built the iPhone's success. Not accussing Engadget but in general, there has been a complete lack of fair, unbiased, un-researched journalism and reporting happening in the mobile phone tech sector. The whole of American media has turned into Fox News channel; completely unfair and completely unbalanced. And this affects consumer decisions and beliefs. People listen to the media.
Most of the customers don't care. The phone is so successful that developers figure that's where they can get paid for their work. Its enough motivation to deal with the Apple control.
So if all these other companies have better phones, better apps, more customization, walk your dog, anddddd tell you the meaning of life, then why dont they sell?
its because they don't have the one thing that apple is really good at. Making insecure puppet people feel smart.
I think most people here are overlooking the incredible potential of Jail Broken Iphones and what that has done to get geeks (of the mild variety like myself) on board.
Cydia, Icy, and Rock completely changed the way I looked at the Iphone by making available three features that I was not willing to compromise on in my move from Android (yes, I am a defector), These were root access (the ability to download and upload files directly onto my IPhone), backgrounder (the ability to run more than app at the same time), and Google Voice. Combine this with the IPhone's slick and smarmy interface and amazing functionality and you have an unbeatable combo.
However, I do think that android is going to win out over the Iphone eventually because, simply put, Open platforming access is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Yes, you can all cry "symbian" but lets face it, Nokia was ill equipped to run the show. The tremendous resources that Google has and the precedent it has established with its G-Apps is poised to make it the market leader before long.
I couldn't agree more. Jailbreaking my iphone allowed me to change everything about my iphone i didn't like (which is what you should be allowed to do since you own the device) All the GV mobile could be improved it is better then nothing. Spring Jumps allows me to jump straight to any one of my home screens. Backgrounder, openSSh, and a few other key apps that i can't see not having now that i have them. The ability to customize is very under rated.
One thing that would be awesome is the option for a different phone. If there where 1 more option for hardware I would consider that as my next phone.
That said my next phone will more than likely be an android phone. As far as getting devs. google is doing a good job of this with it's best app contests. the addition of flash support should also help, more freedom to access anything in the phone in your app doesn't hurt. Access to anything google in your app (google maps)........... I think android is getting better and better. 1.1 to 2.0 is huge improvement. That is just going to continue.
Android will kick your butt!
How could you call the first iPhone a joke? what phone at the time could even come close to competing...you are a real jackass if you think that.
Android's are nothing special... just a wanna-be iPhone that can do some things that the iphone can't. I mean common now, the iPhone can't do EVERYTHING, and the advertisements are just a joke and hit the wrong crowd of people. They will never come close to Apple, sorry to burst your bubble.
"Okay kids, today we are going to write essays exclusively on the App Store, and Engadget has agreed to donate one blog entry to the best essay in the class."
I can only hope this is the reasoning behind this
YO! Overzealous Android fanboys, don't give us the bad rep that overzealous Apple fanboys have!! Please!! I have Android and I love it and I will not get a phone without Android now but even I have to give the iPhone credit where credit is due.
It IS a great device, even if it took them 3 software/hardware versions to get it to where it should've been in the first place if it weren't for the iPhone, we'd be stuck with "smart"phones that can email and browse the internet well. The iPhone revolutionized the industry and pushed it to new heights extremely fast.
I have always loved touch screen devices because they are easier to read and faster to navigate but before the iPhone I was limited to very very few choices, now I have countless choices. Competition, gotta love it, now SMARTphones truly are smart, BECAUSE OF THE iPhone. They don't just email/surf the web these days, they play games, they edit photos, they make people laugh, they sync, they have stupid apps which are oddly addicting, etc...
Now, finally, very major OS has its very own personality, some lag behind trying to play catch up (WinMo, Palm), some are relatively new yet becoming very powerful very fast (Android), and the iPhone, well, it is the king of the hill right now because of its media, I hate as I personally am not a big fan of the iPhone, but it is and will be for awhile till some1 else claims that throne (every empire passes eventually, sry).
Thank you Apple, we all owe you one, from the annoying fanboys to the obnoxious haters, and if anyone can speak against the credit owed to the iPhone, well, you let me know.
From,
An Android fanboy who is sick of waiting for Eclair!!! Dumb manufacturers!!! =)
damn, i love android, and i have nothing against it at all. It is one of my favorite platforms, but i agree, it would take forever to develop a game for it because of the different hardware. Would a game designed for a phone with an Snapdragon run on an ARM or something. I don't think that it would, and programming seperate versions of the app for different phones would be torture, so i think that the best way to go is the iphone right now. I personally don't like the iphone, but i like the apstore. I have a g1, but would love for there to be some great games for it right now. That is why i am jealous of all the iphone users, not because of the apple factor or anything like that. mobile gaming and media are the two big things that every other smartphone os lacks besides the iphone.
the only reason the i phone is the juggernaut of the smart phone industry is apps no other phone can match the entertainment and for the most part practical software applications offered by third party devs the iphone platform i think is too far ahead to be caught by android or winmo. IMO there are better smart phones than the iphone out there on a basic level but when you add in third party apps its the single defining factor that sets apple apart
these iphone/apple fanbois are getting more ridiculous with every article our engadget overlords give them.
the funny thing is that on a friends iphone i hardly find any worthwhile apps. and most of the so-called games suck too. sorry folks, the iphone would be a very capable plattform, but somehow it comes out that its only a toy, and not even a good one.
get the downrank-party started...
Sync? Really? Sync is TERRIBLE. It's one of the worst things about iTunes. Drag-and-Drop >>>>>>>>>Sync.
"Want to watch a Slingbox remotely? Control your Sonos? Listen to your Rhapsody subscription wherever you are? How about turning your device into a Kindle or a Nook ebook reader? There's only one platform now that let's you do all of those things, and that's the iPhone."
Windows Mobile can do all of that, except for the Rhapsody part. With WinMo7 it's assumed they'll get the Zune store integrated.
Im pretty techie. Winmo was almost uselss to me. I really wanted the Samsung Omnia to work for me but it was too difficult. The Palm Tungsten and then 350 always worked for me. I tried Android and liked it but the aps I needed were not available. I am sure as it matures I will look at it again. Iphone does all I need it to and its EASY! Big factor here! My wife uses it every day for day to day stuff and has some games on it for the kids. I have NO games, some music and lots of business and reference apps I use EVERY DAY. I am a doctor and I can just whip out my iphone and get instant drug and disease info from epocrates and several other apps I have. raphics and pictures to show patients their anatomy and what is wrong with them. I can send it to the printer to print an info sheet out for them. I rarely if ever use the internet on it but when I do I am usually near wifi so the data plan is a useless waste fo money. I use the Navigon and TomTom app in the special made Wilson antenna amplifier and charge on my dash which is connected to my car stereo for hands free communication and music. Critiques of these apps aside they work more than well enough for me that I no longer bring me dedicated gps with me
Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007 and the App Store opened in 2008. It would seem that many people were not happy or satisfied with their mobile phones two years ago. Perhaps they didn't realize how unhappy they were until Apple introduced the iPhone. The success of the App Store is proof that consumers want a central location to acquire new applications for their gadget. Apple offers a platform that seamlessly integrates iTunes, the App Store and an SDK for the iPhone / iPod touch.
The competition are trying their best to out Apple, Apple. A two year old entrant to the mobile market is leading the way.
At the moment Android is nothing more than another alternative to Symbian, Palm, Blackberry etc..
This is ignoring the most fundamental aspect of monetizing entertainment. It is fickle.
What entertains you now isn't necessarily what will entertain you tomorrow. I personally find the iPhone lacking for most games because a touchscreen interface doesn't work well for me. It fulfills the purpose of solving some forced boredom, which is pretty much true for cell phone games in general. Thus, I'm not going to stick with an iPhone for its games because I know any other platform's games are going to be good enough.
And I didn't. Hello, Droid.
Kudos to Engadget for posting a thoughtful piece by someone not blinded by the Microsoft astroturfing machine like Enderle and Thurrott.
I don't always agree with MG, but his piece is very close to the mark. The Apple haters can't stand when reality cuts through the BS of their articles of faith and points out that the competition simply has not comprehended what they are up against when they take on Apple.
We iPhone users are hope it's soon. Push Apple to make the iPhone even better, and to fix the approval system for apps. But throw things open so that hackers and malware ruins the user experience? No way. I'd rather go back to the walled garden of my Blackberry's Internet on T-Mobile first.
@acidhax
"Who here actually uses Rhapsody, or Sonos, or eBooks on their phone? Get real. Sure people download it, but do they use it? Hell. no."
Actually I do (except the eBooks part). I use my Sonos app to control my system far more often than I use the actual remote because my phone is always at hand, and I frequently use my Rhapsody app in the car and have even used it for some spur of the moment DJing at a party.
I just can't let this go by without commenting:
"When you look at the out-of-the-box experience of most smartphones today, they're all pretty good when it comes to basics. Email, web browsing, personal information management, ..."
PIM??? Is he serious? *All* current platform suck big time. I still carry around my 4 year old Palm TX (w/ DateBk4) because I haven't found a viable PIM replacement.
How about something as simple as an alarm on a task?
WebOS appears to have ignored its roots, and has piss poor PIM functionality. The aftermarket apps haven't caught up.
The iPhone support is even worse. Agendus looks like a reasonable add-on, but it doesn't appear to have alarm support, which I believe is due to the overly restrictive OS.
Android doesn't appear to be much better at this point.
Based on his numbers, I certainly appear to be in the minority of Palm owners. I've probably installed over 50 applications on my Palm devices over the years. The majority of the applications were not entertainment related.
Ahahhahh, keep telling yourself that...as I upgrade my G1 to yet a newer more robust Adroid rom...I love the smell of freedom!