I was planning to buy the iPhone as soon as it comes out in 3G.
Now, I am not going to any more.
I do buy software but not like this.
I phoned Steve Jobs with your post and he's currently slumped on his desk, weeping and planning to slash his sales forecast from 10,000,000 to 9,999,999 this year.
And I totally agree with you. How dare Jobs bring money into this.
Since Apple does not account for sales of the touch-screen media player through subscription accounting like it does the iPhone, touch users will have to pay an initial fee just to update their devices to iPhone Software v2.0 in order to access the App Store.
I wish Apple would stop blaming "accounting rules" and call a spade a spade:
"Since Apple doesn't get the same kickbacks from AT&T that it does on the iPhone, and since Apple wants to make the iPod Touch similarly profitable, iPod Touch users will have to pay an initial fee just to update their devices to iPhone Software v2.0 in order to access the App Store."
C,mon people. Use a little more critical judgment when reading something! Nowhere in this article does it say that Apple does not allow people to distribute their apps for free!!! All they are saying is that Apple is "encouraging" developers to charge for apps. In other words, its kinda like those "Would you like to receive our newsletter" checboxes you have to uncheck when you signup for most websites. Except its a human you have to say no to, rather than a checkbox to uncheck.
All apple is doing is effectively changing the default option. This will probably mean that some apps that would have been free will now be paid for, however, MOST Apps that would have been free, will continue being free...
MacOS X is BASED on open source with open source components, it is not all open source and you do have to PAY for it. In fact there were alot of open source people who weren't happy with Apple making money off of open source software.
That's patently not true. If they didn't want people to make money from their software they'd put it in the licence. As it stands the only thing it enforces is that the source code be freely available.
C,mon people. Use a little more critical judgment when reading something! Nowhere in this article does it say that Apple does not allow people to distribute their apps for free!!! All they are saying is that Apple is "encouraging" developers to charge for apps. In other words, its kinda like those "Would you like to receive our newsletter" checboxes you have to uncheck when you signup for most websites. Except its a human you have to say no to, rather than a checkbox to uncheck.
All apple is doing is effectively changing the default option. This will probably mean that some apps that would have been free will now be paid for, however, MOST Apps that would have been free, will continue being free...
If everyone actually paid attention, we wouldn't have our daily spleen venting, now would we?
"lite" - that's so WINDOWS-crappy. Ever bought a Dell or HP - stuffed to the brim with such junk.
Let's not go down that road!
While I agree it's a danger, there are many possible apps that could benefit from this, for example ... Pleco Chinese dictionary software, a Palm/WinMo app that I'm now patiently waiting for an Touch OSX version, has to license a variety of dictionaries.
A free version that could use an open source dictionary would make for a great demonstration of what the software can do, with paid versions providing better dictionary databases.
While I agree it's a danger, there are many possible apps that could benefit from this, for example ... Pleco Chinese dictionary software, a Palm/WinMo app that I'm now patiently waiting for an Touch OSX version, has to license a variety of dictionaries.
A free version that could use an open source dictionary would make for a great demonstration of what the software can do, with paid versions providing better dictionary databases.
--
I want the instant Chinese translation by supercomputer option...
MacOS X is BASED on open source with open source components, it is not all open source and you do have to PAY for it. In fact there were alot of open source people who weren't happy with Apple making money off of open source software.
I'm not sure where you got this idea. For the most part people in the free software movement have been very happy with Apple contributions, some of them very significant.
WebKit is a good example of Apple taking an open source project and forking it in a positive way. Sure some of the original KHTML developers may not have been happy with that but I think the tune here is turning around once they have realized just how significantly Apple has developed WebKit.
Then you have GCC and LLVM which apple has been interested in and supported for a long time. Objective C probably wouldn't even be part of GCC if it weren't for Apples continued interest.
There is more of course but on the balance Apple has been rather good to the open source community. Sure they have to watch out for themselves and they do have proprietary software but that is in part what being a business is all about.
It is sort of like my favorite Thai restaurant. The gal there serves up the best chicken Sata going, based on a recipe proprietary to her business. That doesn't mean that other restaurants don't serve Chicken Sata just that they don't have the secret recipe to make it fantastic. Like wise Apple just seasons the BSD world with a really great API for writing apps. Nothing wrong with that.
I WISH I COULD FIND DEVELOPERS LIKE YOU TO WORK FOR FREE, ARE YOU LIVING @ HOME @ 30 SOMETHING ON YOUR PARENTS DIME?
SOFTWARE/APPS COME WITH A PRICE, EITHER ON YOUR END OR ON THE CONSUMER. DON'T SELL YOURSELF SHORT JUST TO PROVE A POINT.
YOUR HURTING THE DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE.
UNLESS THE APPS YOU DEVELOP ARE GARBAGE TO BEGIN WITH!
First, turn of the caps, it makes you look like a complete jackass. Secondly, do you have any concept of the open source community and what has been contributed from programmers for free for decades. You are on an Apple fan website, so I assume you use Mac OSX, the core and foundation of which is all open source, CREATED FOR FREE BY PASSIONATE DEVELOPERS! I'm sure you like to browse the web, right??? Well 60% of the web runs on Linux (free) and Apache web server (free).
Most of those use some form of programming language, right. PHP (free), Ruby (free), Python (free), Perl (free), etc.
I'm sure they have a database for website/web app, right. MySql(free), PostgreSql (free), SqlLite(free), etc
Debugging tolls, development environments, etc. Many are free.
Web frameworks? mostly all free.
Most popular blogging software? Free
Web browsers like Safari/Webkit (free) or Firefox (free) or Opera (free)? What about browser extensions? Free.
What do your developer program with? What development environment do they use? What tools and utilities do they use? I GUARANTEE some of them are free.
Even major commercial applications use some form of free or open source software. There are countless low-level software libraries and utilities that used throughout the commercial software world like.
In academic scientific fields, free and open source software dominates the entire landscape. Chemistry, Biology, Molecular Biology, Computational Biology, Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics, Geology, Paleontology, etc etc etc. And not only in science, but ever other academic discipline sees some use out of free software.
I haven't even mentioned the *HUGE* variety of useful, polished, and FREE open source and freeware applications available for end users for OSX, Windows, and Linux.
The following is not a pasted list. I actually went through them and found just the ones I am familar with and have used before:
First, turn of the caps, it makes you look like a complete jackass. Secondly, do you have any concept of the open source community and what has been contributed from programmers for free for decades. You are on an Apple fan website, so I assume you use Mac OSX, the core and foundation of which is all open source, CREATED FOR FREE BY PASSIONATE DEVELOPERS! I'm sure you like to browse the web, right??? Well 60% of the web runs on Linux (free) and Apache web server (free).
Most of those use some form of programming language, right. PHP (free), Ruby (free), Python (free), Perl (free), etc.
I'm sure they have a database for website/web app, right. MySql(free), PostgreSql (free), SqlLite(free), etc
Debugging tolls, development environments, etc. Many are free.
Web frameworks? mostly all free.
Most popular blogging software? Free
Web browsers like Safari/Webkit (free) or Firefox (free) or Opera (free)? What about browser extensions? Free.
What do your developer program with? What development environment do they use? What tools and utilities do they use? I GUARANTEE some of them are free.
Even major commercial applications use some form of free or open source software. There are countless low-level software libraries and utilities that used throughout the commercial software world like.
In academic scientific fields, free and open source software dominates the entire landscape. Chemistry, Biology, Molecular Biology, Computational Biology, Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics, Geology, Paleontology, etc etc etc. And not only in science, but ever other academic discipline sees some use out of free software.
I haven't even mentioned the *HUGE* variety of useful, polished, and FREE open source and freeware applications available for end users for OSX, Windows, and Linux.
The following is not a pasted list. I actually went through them and found just the ones I am familar with and have used before:
Bottom line.. Free and open source software has made a huge impact on modern software and computing in general, and is an excellent movement to join.
Most of this software is "FREE" in product, but COST to provide Services are NOT FREE.
All this model has done is to shift cost solely to Consulting Services.
PHP, Ruby and more are development tools to write solutions that ARE NOT FREE.
Most of the other software falls into Business Processing and Entertainment, to IT Services Support.
As one who loves Academics none of that work is Free either. It's provided by R&D Universities to cover the cost of personnel in order to show development progress.
Most of this software is "FREE" in product, but COST to provide Services are NOT FREE.
All this model has done is to shift cost solely to Consulting Services.
PHP, Ruby and more are development tools to write solutions that ARE NOT FREE.
Most of the other software falls into Business Processing and Entertainment, to IT Services Support.
As one who loves Academics none of that work is Free either. It's provided by R&D Universities to cover the cost of personnel in order to show development progress.
NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE.
Pedantically speaking you are correct, but that is besides the point as you know perfectly well what Winterspan is getting at.
I'm simply staring at the photo of Steve staring at the App Store. Like him, I too feel giddy when I see how simple, intuitive and awesome it looks to be, which I am sure it is given that it's based on the iTunes Store iPhone model, which is awesome squared.
For reference, I pulled out my decrepit Treo 680 and went to its online store. It's like watching old people fuck.
Apple just friggin' gets it, and not just gimmicky hardware, where others seem to have their buck stop at. They make sure every last detail is awesome. Squared.
Oh how I enjoy the breath of free air (be it fresh or polluted), how I enjoy waking up to the free sound of birds sining outside my window every morning, and how I enjoy free chatting to some wise old man at the park at weekends.
Everything in life IS free, it only becomes "not free" when man puts a price tag on it.
I'm simply staring at the photo of Steve staring at the App Store. Like him, I too feel giddy when I see how simple, intuitive and awesome it looks to be, which I am sure it is given that it's based on the iTunes Store iPhone model, which is awesome squared.
For reference, I pulled out my decrepit Treo 680 and went to its online store. It's like watching old people fuck.
Apple just friggin' gets it, and not just gimmicky hardware, where others seem to have their buck stop at. They make sure every last detail is awesome. Squared.
One quick sidebar to your point is that this stuff is neither easy nor obvious nor simple to replicate. Otherwise, the iPod would have become a commodity long ago.
Maybe it's just Friday and too much time on my hands, but I took a swag at answering the question "why R&D is so hard for everyone else to master" in a post called:
Those liaisons... aren't mandating that developers stick a price tag on their creations immediately. They are, however, suggesting that serious consideration be put into doing so "at some point."
It's amazing how worked up people are getting over this. Apple people are encouraging some of the developers to consider charging for their apps. What's so bad about this? Honestly. They're not threatening them if they don't listen. Apple has demonstrated they understand their own emerging markets better than anyone else, and they've got some liasons who are trying to tell people a thing. Listen to them or don't listen to them. Your choice. The advice isn't evil, and there's no coercion. Some people won't charge because of altruism. Okay. Some people won't charge because their app isn't worth it, and they're honest with themselves (and I might just be one of them!). Okay. But some people won't charge simply because they don't properly understand the App Store's potential. Not all of them will change their mind, but some might. And that's okay. If you think it's worth the price they're charging, then you think it's worth the price they're charging, and you have a new app. If you don't then you don't, and you keep looking. There will be people who initially charge too much and have to drop their prices. There will be people who initially charge too little and raise theirs. Personally, I'm simply looking forward to watching it play out. Neither the freeware guys or the $$ guys are evil.
Peace, people. And please don't get so worked up about something that simply isn't all that sinister. We're on the beginning of something new. Don't start the riding bickering in the car
Most of this software is "FREE" in product, but COST to provide Services are NOT FREE.
All this model has done is to shift cost solely to Consulting Services.
PHP, Ruby and more are development tools to write solutions that ARE NOT FREE.
Most of the other software falls into Business Processing and Entertainment, to IT Services Support.
As one who loves Academics none of that work is Free either. It's provided by R&D Universities to cover the cost of personnel in order to show development progress.
NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE.
Of course they aren't free, but they can be given free to user, and they don't need to bee directly accounted either. Don't you think that if Apple could boast with the biggest software library for mobile devices, that wouldn't sell more devices?
Firefox is given out free, because they get money from Google, from diverting traffic to their direction, but users don't give up a dime.
Some programs may contain adds inside.
ITunes itself is given free, in hopes that its users will buy music through it.
Loss leader tactic can be very profitable if used correctly.
Also as said earlier, people really shouldn't be paying from tetris anymore.
Someone also pointed before that, Apple is also hosting widgets for free, movie trailers for free, and they never had slightest interest of monetizing them, why now all the sudden the bandwidth is so expensive?
Comments
I was planning to buy the iPhone as soon as it comes out in 3G.
Now, I am not going to any more.
I do buy software but not like this.
I phoned Steve Jobs with your post and he's currently slumped on his desk, weeping and planning to slash his sales forecast from 10,000,000 to 9,999,999 this year.
And I totally agree with you. How dare Jobs bring money into this.
Since Apple does not account for sales of the touch-screen media player through subscription accounting like it does the iPhone, touch users will have to pay an initial fee just to update their devices to iPhone Software v2.0 in order to access the App Store.
I wish Apple would stop blaming "accounting rules" and call a spade a spade:
"Since Apple doesn't get the same kickbacks from AT&T that it does on the iPhone, and since Apple wants to make the iPod Touch similarly profitable, iPod Touch users will have to pay an initial fee just to update their devices to iPhone Software v2.0 in order to access the App Store."
They don't call it the Jesus phone for nothing.
Indeed. He reformatted his iPhone for our sins. Now for some important philosophical questions:
- Would Jesus jailbreak his iPhone?
- What does Jesus listen to/watch on his phone?
- If Jesus has an iPhone, does the devil have a Nokia?
I'm open to an intense theological debate on these issues.
WTH is a grote?
About 3.2 US dollars.
All apple is doing is effectively changing the default option. This will probably mean that some apps that would have been free will now be paid for, however, MOST Apps that would have been free, will continue being free...
MacOS X is BASED on open source with open source components, it is not all open source and you do have to PAY for it. In fact there were alot of open source people who weren't happy with Apple making money off of open source software.
That's patently not true. If they didn't want people to make money from their software they'd put it in the licence. As it stands the only thing it enforces is that the source code be freely available.
C,mon people. Use a little more critical judgment when reading something! Nowhere in this article does it say that Apple does not allow people to distribute their apps for free!!! All they are saying is that Apple is "encouraging" developers to charge for apps. In other words, its kinda like those "Would you like to receive our newsletter" checboxes you have to uncheck when you signup for most websites. Except its a human you have to say no to, rather than a checkbox to uncheck.
All apple is doing is effectively changing the default option. This will probably mean that some apps that would have been free will now be paid for, however, MOST Apps that would have been free, will continue being free...
If everyone actually paid attention, we wouldn't have our daily spleen venting, now would we?
"lite" - that's so WINDOWS-crappy. Ever bought a Dell or HP - stuffed to the brim with such junk.
Let's not go down that road!
While I agree it's a danger, there are many possible apps that could benefit from this, for example ... Pleco Chinese dictionary software, a Palm/WinMo app that I'm now patiently waiting for an Touch OSX version, has to license a variety of dictionaries.
A free version that could use an open source dictionary would make for a great demonstration of what the software can do, with paid versions providing better dictionary databases.
--
While I agree it's a danger, there are many possible apps that could benefit from this, for example ... Pleco Chinese dictionary software, a Palm/WinMo app that I'm now patiently waiting for an Touch OSX version, has to license a variety of dictionaries.
A free version that could use an open source dictionary would make for a great demonstration of what the software can do, with paid versions providing better dictionary databases.
--
I want the instant Chinese translation by supercomputer option...
MacOS X is BASED on open source with open source components, it is not all open source and you do have to PAY for it. In fact there were alot of open source people who weren't happy with Apple making money off of open source software.
I'm not sure where you got this idea. For the most part people in the free software movement have been very happy with Apple contributions, some of them very significant.
WebKit is a good example of Apple taking an open source project and forking it in a positive way. Sure some of the original KHTML developers may not have been happy with that but I think the tune here is turning around once they have realized just how significantly Apple has developed WebKit.
Then you have GCC and LLVM which apple has been interested in and supported for a long time. Objective C probably wouldn't even be part of GCC if it weren't for Apples continued interest.
There is more of course but on the balance Apple has been rather good to the open source community. Sure they have to watch out for themselves and they do have proprietary software but that is in part what being a business is all about.
It is sort of like my favorite Thai restaurant. The gal there serves up the best chicken Sata going, based on a recipe proprietary to her business. That doesn't mean that other restaurants don't serve Chicken Sata just that they don't have the secret recipe to make it fantastic. Like wise Apple just seasons the BSD world with a really great API for writing apps. Nothing wrong with that.
Dave
I WISH I COULD FIND DEVELOPERS LIKE YOU TO WORK FOR FREE, ARE YOU LIVING @ HOME @ 30 SOMETHING ON YOUR PARENTS DIME?
SOFTWARE/APPS COME WITH A PRICE, EITHER ON YOUR END OR ON THE CONSUMER. DON'T SELL YOURSELF SHORT JUST TO PROVE A POINT.
YOUR HURTING THE DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE.
UNLESS THE APPS YOU DEVELOP ARE GARBAGE TO BEGIN WITH!
First, turn of the caps, it makes you look like a complete jackass. Secondly, do you have any concept of the open source community and what has been contributed from programmers for free for decades. You are on an Apple fan website, so I assume you use Mac OSX, the core and foundation of which is all open source, CREATED FOR FREE BY PASSIONATE DEVELOPERS! I'm sure you like to browse the web, right??? Well 60% of the web runs on Linux (free) and Apache web server (free).
Most of those use some form of programming language, right. PHP (free), Ruby (free), Python (free), Perl (free), etc.
I'm sure they have a database for website/web app, right. MySql(free), PostgreSql (free), SqlLite(free), etc
Debugging tolls, development environments, etc. Many are free.
Web frameworks? mostly all free.
Most popular blogging software? Free
Web browsers like Safari/Webkit (free) or Firefox (free) or Opera (free)? What about browser extensions? Free.
What do your developer program with? What development environment do they use? What tools and utilities do they use? I GUARANTEE some of them are free.
Even major commercial applications use some form of free or open source software. There are countless low-level software libraries and utilities that used throughout the commercial software world like.
In academic scientific fields, free and open source software dominates the entire landscape. Chemistry, Biology, Molecular Biology, Computational Biology, Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics, Geology, Paleontology, etc etc etc. And not only in science, but ever other academic discipline sees some use out of free software.
I haven't even mentioned the *HUGE* variety of useful, polished, and FREE open source and freeware applications available for end users for OSX, Windows, and Linux.
The following is not a pasted list. I actually went through them and found just the ones I am familar with and have used before:
Adium, AVG anti-virus, AviSynth, Cinelerra, VirtualDub, ClamWin anti-virus, 7Zip, AbiWord, Acid Express, Firefox, Google Earth, Adaware, Anim8or, Apache Web Server, Apache Tomcat, Aptana, Audacity, Avast, Azureus, Blender 3-D, Cinepaint, Cygwin, Cyberduck, DVDFlick, DVDShrink, Democracy Player, Eclipse, Ethereal, FileZilla, Filseclab, Flac, Frostwire, Fluidsynth, Foxit, Gaim, Gimpshop, Google Picasa, Groovy, Handbrake, Infrarecorder, Inkscape, Irfanview, Joost, Juice, Kerio Firewall, Komodo Edit, K3D, MacTheRipper, Netstumbler, Ogg Vorbis, Open SSH, OpenOffice.org, Opera, Outpost, PDF Creator, Paint.Net, Thunderbird, TrueCrypt, Pidgin, Pixia, Pixen, Putty, Quasar, RSSBandit, Scribus, Selenium, SharpDevelop, Sketch It Up, Skype, Songbird, Spybot, Spyware Blaster, Trillian, UltraVNC, VirtualBox, VirtualWin, VNC Player, WinSCP, XAMPP, PovRay..........
Bottom line.. Free and open source software has made a huge impact on modern software and computing in general, and is an excellent movement to join.
Apple promised the option of Free Apps.
its part of my contract with them.
Therefore, everything I make will be free. I refuse to make costing apps at this point.
It may be part of your pre-release contract, but it surely won't be part of your release contract.
More to the point, you write software and someone else pays to host it and traffic it's popularity at a loss makes zero sense.
First, turn of the caps, it makes you look like a complete jackass. Secondly, do you have any concept of the open source community and what has been contributed from programmers for free for decades. You are on an Apple fan website, so I assume you use Mac OSX, the core and foundation of which is all open source, CREATED FOR FREE BY PASSIONATE DEVELOPERS! I'm sure you like to browse the web, right??? Well 60% of the web runs on Linux (free) and Apache web server (free).
Most of those use some form of programming language, right. PHP (free), Ruby (free), Python (free), Perl (free), etc.
I'm sure they have a database for website/web app, right. MySql(free), PostgreSql (free), SqlLite(free), etc
Debugging tolls, development environments, etc. Many are free.
Web frameworks? mostly all free.
Most popular blogging software? Free
Web browsers like Safari/Webkit (free) or Firefox (free) or Opera (free)? What about browser extensions? Free.
What do your developer program with? What development environment do they use? What tools and utilities do they use? I GUARANTEE some of them are free.
Even major commercial applications use some form of free or open source software. There are countless low-level software libraries and utilities that used throughout the commercial software world like.
In academic scientific fields, free and open source software dominates the entire landscape. Chemistry, Biology, Molecular Biology, Computational Biology, Physics, Astronomy, Mathematics, Geology, Paleontology, etc etc etc. And not only in science, but ever other academic discipline sees some use out of free software.
I haven't even mentioned the *HUGE* variety of useful, polished, and FREE open source and freeware applications available for end users for OSX, Windows, and Linux.
The following is not a pasted list. I actually went through them and found just the ones I am familar with and have used before:
Adium, AVG anti-virus, AviSynth, Cinelerra, VirtualDub, ClamWin anti-virus, 7Zip, AbiWord, Acid Express, Firefox, Google Earth, Adaware, Anim8or, Apache Web Server, Apache Tomcat, Aptana, Audacity, Avast, Azureus, Blender 3-D, Cinepaint, Cygwin, Cyberduck, DVDFlick, DVDShrink, Democracy Player, Eclipse, Ethereal, FileZilla, Filseclab, Flac, Frostwire, Fluidsynth, Foxit, Gaim, Gimpshop, Google Picasa, Groovy, Handbrake, Infrarecorder, Inkscape, Irfanview, Joost, Juice, Kerio Firewall, Komodo Edit, K3D, MacTheRipper, Netstumbler, Ogg Vorbis, Open SSH, OpenOffice.org, Opera, Outpost, PDF Creator, Paint.Net, Thunderbird, TrueCrypt, Pidgin, Pixia, Pixen, Putty, Quasar, RSSBandit, Scribus, Selenium, SharpDevelop, Sketch It Up, Skype, Songbird, Spybot, Spyware Blaster, Trillian, UltraVNC, VirtualBox, VirtualWin, VNC Player, WinSCP, XAMPP, PovRay..........
Bottom line.. Free and open source software has made a huge impact on modern software and computing in general, and is an excellent movement to join.
Most of this software is "FREE" in product, but COST to provide Services are NOT FREE.
All this model has done is to shift cost solely to Consulting Services.
PHP, Ruby and more are development tools to write solutions that ARE NOT FREE.
Most of the other software falls into Business Processing and Entertainment, to IT Services Support.
As one who loves Academics none of that work is Free either. It's provided by R&D Universities to cover the cost of personnel in order to show development progress.
NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE.
Most of this software is "FREE" in product, but COST to provide Services are NOT FREE.
All this model has done is to shift cost solely to Consulting Services.
PHP, Ruby and more are development tools to write solutions that ARE NOT FREE.
Most of the other software falls into Business Processing and Entertainment, to IT Services Support.
As one who loves Academics none of that work is Free either. It's provided by R&D Universities to cover the cost of personnel in order to show development progress.
NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE.
Pedantically speaking you are correct, but that is besides the point as you know perfectly well what Winterspan is getting at.
For reference, I pulled out my decrepit Treo 680 and went to its online store. It's like watching old people fuck.
Apple just friggin' gets it, and not just gimmicky hardware, where others seem to have their buck stop at. They make sure every last detail is awesome. Squared.
NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE.
Oh how I enjoy the breath of free air (be it fresh or polluted), how I enjoy waking up to the free sound of birds sining outside my window every morning, and how I enjoy free chatting to some wise old man at the park at weekends.
Everything in life IS free, it only becomes "not free" when man puts a price tag on it.
I'm simply staring at the photo of Steve staring at the App Store. Like him, I too feel giddy when I see how simple, intuitive and awesome it looks to be, which I am sure it is given that it's based on the iTunes Store iPhone model, which is awesome squared.
For reference, I pulled out my decrepit Treo 680 and went to its online store. It's like watching old people fuck.
Apple just friggin' gets it, and not just gimmicky hardware, where others seem to have their buck stop at. They make sure every last detail is awesome. Squared.
One quick sidebar to your point is that this stuff is neither easy nor obvious nor simple to replicate. Otherwise, the iPod would have become a commodity long ago.
Maybe it's just Friday and too much time on my hands, but I took a swag at answering the question "why R&D is so hard for everyone else to master" in a post called:
Innovation, Inevitability and Why R&D is So Hard
http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2...tion-inev.html
Check it out if interested.
Cheers,
Mark
Those liaisons... aren't mandating that developers stick a price tag on their creations immediately. They are, however, suggesting that serious consideration be put into doing so "at some point."
It's amazing how worked up people are getting over this. Apple people are encouraging some of the developers to consider charging for their apps. What's so bad about this? Honestly. They're not threatening them if they don't listen. Apple has demonstrated they understand their own emerging markets better than anyone else, and they've got some liasons who are trying to tell people a thing. Listen to them or don't listen to them. Your choice. The advice isn't evil, and there's no coercion. Some people won't charge because of altruism. Okay. Some people won't charge because their app isn't worth it, and they're honest with themselves (and I might just be one of them!). Okay. But some people won't charge simply because they don't properly understand the App Store's potential. Not all of them will change their mind, but some might. And that's okay. If you think it's worth the price they're charging, then you think it's worth the price they're charging, and you have a new app. If you don't then you don't, and you keep looking. There will be people who initially charge too much and have to drop their prices. There will be people who initially charge too little and raise theirs. Personally, I'm simply looking forward to watching it play out. Neither the freeware guys or the $$ guys are evil.
Peace, people. And please don't get so worked up about something that simply isn't all that sinister. We're on the beginning of something new. Don't start the riding bickering in the car
Most of this software is "FREE" in product, but COST to provide Services are NOT FREE.
All this model has done is to shift cost solely to Consulting Services.
PHP, Ruby and more are development tools to write solutions that ARE NOT FREE.
Most of the other software falls into Business Processing and Entertainment, to IT Services Support.
As one who loves Academics none of that work is Free either. It's provided by R&D Universities to cover the cost of personnel in order to show development progress.
NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE.
Of course they aren't free, but they can be given free to user, and they don't need to bee directly accounted either. Don't you think that if Apple could boast with the biggest software library for mobile devices, that wouldn't sell more devices?
Firefox is given out free, because they get money from Google, from diverting traffic to their direction, but users don't give up a dime.
Some programs may contain adds inside.
ITunes itself is given free, in hopes that its users will buy music through it.
Loss leader tactic can be very profitable if used correctly.
Also as said earlier, people really shouldn't be paying from tetris anymore.
Someone also pointed before that, Apple is also hosting widgets for free, movie trailers for free, and they never had slightest interest of monetizing them, why now all the sudden the bandwidth is so expensive?