http://coderslike.us/2009/04/07/iphone-ushers-us-back-to-heavy-weight-apps/ Things I've learned and stuff I'm thinking about. Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:12:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://coderslike.us/2009/04/07/iphone-ushers-us-back-to-heavy-weight-apps/#comment-76 Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:46:37 +0000 http://coderslike.us/?p=137#comment-76 I am a huge fan of the iPhone as a mobile platform, and have found some amazing apps that really leverage the technology in creative ways. The main problem I see emerging with the “heavy” app paradigm on the iPhone is that there seems to be a proliferation of lightweight “heavy” apps. By which I mean really trivial apps that would actually be better (or at east more efficiently) done via the browser. Let’s take the Band apps as an example. If I am a fan of 20 bands and am seduced into getting all 20 band-specific apps for my iPhone, pretty soon my phone is full of trivial apps, that could have been much more efficiently collected as bookmarks to the band’s web sites collected in a single app: the browser. Of course if I am stupid enough to download 20 band apps to my iPhone, my cluttered iPhone is my own problem! But the larger problem is that 20 band apps on the iTunes store means a lower signal to noise ratio on the store. It becomes harder and more frustrating to find the good apps on the store. Perhaps the customer reviews will help sort the wheat from the chaff, but I worry that a low S/N ratio for apps will ultimately lower the chances of new (really good) apps getting noticed.

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