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Meta trends - what have we learned?
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Posted by Steve
Dec 27, 2013 at 01:00 PM
Food for thought about useful productivity programs that take time to learn; “18 Epic Productivity Apps….” http://www.coolcatteacher.com/best-productivity-apps/
I found the link via http://researchbuzz.me/
Looking over the list, all seem to be focused “apps” that are free or close to it. The other thing I noticed was the lack of a way to organize all that “stuff’ and find it later.
Steve
Posted by Dr Andus
Dec 27, 2013 at 02:45 PM
jimspoon wrote:
>But I will throw in one thing that interest me - look at the prices of
>mobile apps. $0.99, $1.99, $2.99, $4.99 etc. I guess simplictiy of the
>apps = low development costs, and with high volume the development of
>such apps can still be profitable.
But it raises the question of what exactly is being sold here. And it seems to me that the focus is more on selling the hardware than the software. E.g. the amount of money I spent on iOS apps in the last 3 years is dwarfed by the cost of buying my iPad 1.
However, one by one, the apps I bought are dropping support for my iPad 1 (which is many other respects still works fine), forcing me to shell out a significant amount of money for my next iPad once more.
In contrast, I also bought a top of the range PC 3 years ago (Win7, 64-bit, 8GB RAM), and I feel no need to replace it whatsoever. Since PCs have become mature and reliable products, now we are forced into a planned (?) obsolescence game with the tablet manufacturers, or rather, the OS developers (Apple, Google, and MS).
>I guess for complex desktop programs, the volume is relatively low, and
>the development can only be profitable if a much higher price is
>charged. Still, it does make me wonder if developers of complex desktop
>programs would actually maximize their profits by offering them at much
>lower prices that would stimulate greater demand.
The problem for traditional desktop software developers is that the whole nature of the game has shifted. It’s becoming a complex calculation/guess work as to which business model to go for, both in terms of platforms to develop for, and licensing regimes and pricing strategies to go for. My guess is that the successful ones will be those who will be able to develop an eco-system of sorts, with support for multiple platforms (inc. mobile), syncing, web access, and possibility for other developers to write scripts, add-ons etc.
Posted by jaslar
Dec 28, 2013 at 03:52 AM
Fascinating link. Thanks. A powerful search is certainly important. But on contemplation, I have three more observations. First, although I want things to get more organized, I’ve noticed that it’s possible to get so organized that I no longer enjoy my life. There has to be room for some spontaneity. This may be one of the reasons I am not a (full time) teacher. Second, although I’m happy to jump around a few program while I produce something, it matters to me that the products wind up in one place. For me, that ultimate filing system is Notecase Pro (back to searchability). Third, simplicity (streamlined UI, plain text files, ubiquity on multiple platforms) has risen as a value for me. I get why people like Evernote. But Simplenote seems to be edging it out lately. I just want to capture the thought, tag it, and be able to retrieve it later.
There comes a point where the complexity of a system overwhelms the work I do with it.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Dec 30, 2013 at 11:02 AM
Great discussion! But I think we’re overlooking - or perhaps misidentifying - a trend I’ve just mentioned in the iA Writer thread. Touch apps are not always dumbed-down. Sometimes they’ve found simpler ways of doing things that were formerly over-complex. I think that’s an interesting and worthwhile trend, and is being reflected in newer desktop applications, too - especially on MacOS and the web. What the touch platforms have highlighted more than anything else is the widespread dislike of “fiddly” interfaces.
Efforts to produce streamlined, non-fiddly interfaces can, of course, go too far (on this subject, it’s interesting to review reactions to iOS 7 over the past few months). But I get huge satisfaction out of using an app with a genuinely straightforward interface that’s also elegant and powerful. In the outliner world some of my favourites are on iOS (Notebooks, OneNote, Outline+, Notability). But there’s still a hurdle very few apps have overcome - touched on by Jaslar’s reference to Simplenote. It’s difficult to reconcile immediate availability with sheer power. A feature-filled app is always going to take longer to load than a streamlined single-function app. And one of the huge benefits of touch environments is their immediacy.
Which brings me to another trend we haven’t really discussed: sharing of info between apps. I’m a great cross-platform fan, of course, and am looking forward to interesting developments in this area. But it’s also interesting to watch the trend for info sharing between apps on the same platform (especially iOS). The “walled garden” approach has called forth considerable ingenuity - it’s well worth visiting the brilliant MacStories blog by Federico Viticci (http://www.macstories.net/) for some thoughtful discussions of the best solutions. I think this trend will continue and accelerate - it will be interesting to see if this encourages Apple to do something they’ve been urged to do for long time now: create a shared files area. If they don’t, existing solutions like Dropbox (and Box, with their recent Editor app) will undoubtedly continue to evolve into sophisticated app ecosystems (another interesting trend) that are also cross-platform.
My own dearest wish for 2014: a truly cross-platform note-taking app that’s fast, efficient, allows hierarchies, tagging and (highlighted) searches. Simplenote’s okay, but it’s not great (yet).
Interesting snippet of news on that score: Apple appears to have bought out Catch (http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/23/apple-reportedly-acquires-note-taking-app-catch-broadmap-talent/). That was a nice little app. But I’m more confident in developers like 6Wunderkinder for full cross-platform solutions - Apple tends to restrict its activities to its own platforms.
Posted by jaslar
Dec 31, 2013 at 05:04 AM
Yes, thank you, that’s one of the things I wanted to say. I want things to be just complex enough to accomplish my few tasks, but not so complicated that I forget what I wanted to do, and can no longer remember where that function might be. I’ve thought for a long time that Gedit (Linux Gnome text editor) with an outliner plugin (expand, collapse, drag and drop) would take care of most of my computer needs.
But Gedit is free. And as several folks have pointed out, why bother developing something free for a niche platform? I’ve been waiting a long time for that modest little plugin.
So I think it’s true that the market constraint is to develop a small set of features, compellingly presented, that can be quickly distributed across many platforms for a small amount of money. The same kind of thing is going on in the world of publishing: small, independent authors getting works to ubiquitous platforms, selling them cheap, but sacrificing a bit of review and quality control. In the process, offering immediacy for the smartphone generation. But also, perhaps, making a little more money per person because the overhead is lower. But also also, maybe refining interfaces in a useful way, excising the cruft of over-elaborate design.