After acquisition by Apple, HopStop drops support for Windows Phone

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
HopStop, the transit navigation app Apple acquired last Friday, dropped support for Windows Phone over the weekend, leaving users of the platform miffed.

HopStop
Source: Windows Phone store


Apple doesn't usually explain why it acquires companies, but its interest in the app seems quite obviously an effort to beef up its own Maps service for iOS, and in the future, OS X, which is getting its own Maps app starting with the Mavericks release expected this fall.

Along with supporting transit information for over 300 major cities, Apple's newly acquired HopStop also includes walking, car and bicycle routing and sells transit maps as In App purchases.

According to a report by CP Africa, HopStop was founded in 2005 by entrepreneur Chinedu Echeruo, who grew up in Eastern Nigeria before traveling to the U.S., where he attended Syracuse University and Harvard Business School.



The HopStop app currently remains available for iOS and Android , both of which are linked to from the company's website. It has maintained four star ratings on all three platforms until it pulled support for Windows Phone, which immediately resulted in a series of low user ratings in protest.

"I wish I could give no stars," complained a user identified as Veronica on Saturday. "This rating is due to the fact that they decided to no longer support the app on windows devices. Way to go."

HopStop likely dropped immediate support for Windows Phone due to the support and maintenance required compared to the very small installed base.

The End is Nigh

Apple is almost certain to also drop support for Android, but at least for now it may be getting valuable feedback and usage data across that platforms' much larger installed base.

Apple similarly upset users when it acquired Emagic in 2002 and discontinued all of that company's Windows support before releasing a series of new Mac updates for Logic. Apple also dumped support for Android after it acquired app search engine Chomp in 2012.

Final Cut


Apple has also terminated unreleased but gestating plans for software on other platforms, including the Windows version of Final Cut being developed at Macromedia when Apple took over that project, or the planned versions of Siri for Android and BlackBerry when Apple acquired the firm in 2010.

A variety of other acquisitions have similarly changed the course of other ingested companies, including the discontinuation of PowerPC chips by P.A. Semi, which Apple acquired in 2008 to bolster its own chip design team.

Apple also pulled the plug on the conventional mobile ads by Quatto Wireless in order to focus the team it acquired in early 2010 to work on a new type of opt-in HTML5 marketing experiences with iAd.

The next year, it acquired C3 Technologies to add "Flyover" 3D satellite images to its own Maps app, terminating the progress Nokia had made with C3 to develop its own 3D mapping features.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 30
    mhiklmhikl Posts: 471member
    Miffed is good.
  • Reply 2 of 30
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member


    I'd bet there's very few "miffed" people. 


     


    I wonder what the tiny percentage of people who use this app actively (which I've never heard of before the acquisition, and I use a few transit apps) on Windows Phone's already tiny userbase. 


     


    I assume it will also drop support for Android. 

  • Reply 3 of 30
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member
    See what you did Apple? You made them give the software bad ratings. Now I guess you will have to support Windows Phone so you don't get any more 1 star ratings.
  • Reply 4 of 30
    mikejonesmikejones Posts: 323member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


    I'd bet there's very few "miffed" people. 


     


    I wonder what the tiny percentage of people who use this app actively (which I've never heard of before the acquisition, and I use a few transit apps) on Windows Phone's already tiny userbase. 


     


    I assume it will also drop support for Android. 



    How dare you! All 5 Windows Phone users are seriously pissed!

  • Reply 5 of 30
    gustavgustav Posts: 827member
    I have to laugh at the wintrolls who whine "Microsoft wouldn't do this." I suppose they can show me all the Nintendo games Rare released after Microsoft bought them.
  • Reply 6 of 30
    icoco3icoco3 Posts: 1,474member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MikeJones View Post


    How dare you! All 5 Windows Phone users are seriously pissed!



     






    HAHA, that was the number I thought of to post.  All M$ employees I bet.... /s

  • Reply 7 of 30
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


    I assume it will also drop support for Android. 



     


     


    Would be a huge mistake, users contibute to the data and in some countries where this apps operate Apple has tiny marketshares.

  • Reply 8 of 30
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member
    re: "I wish I could give *no* stars" ...

    One sees this so much in comments for almost everything. I too wonder why we can't give none or zero stars for things.

    One would assume that if the rating system consists of five stars that the rating is somewhere between zero and five, but almost all systems typically won't let you go lower than 1. So it's really between 1 and five or in effect, a "four star rating system." This means that there is effectively no "meh" button or no way to give something a middling rating, you have to either strongly like or strongly dislike.

    To me, "1 star" suggests that you liked it, at least a little bit. The fact that we can't give something zero stars (effectively saying "I didn't like it at all.") is so strange and PC.

    Furthermore, many systems add a text description to the star rating and the description sometimes says "I liked it a bit," or words to that effect when the rating is only one star. Clearly, people giving a one star review are trying to express their displeasure, but the system still counts it as a "like." It all seems so ridiculous.

    zero should be "don't like"
    three should be "middling"
    five should be "fantastic"

    with two and four being obvious gradations.

    /rant
  • Reply 9 of 30

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    HopStop, the transit navigation app Apple acquired last Friday, dropped support for Windows Phone over the weekend, leaving users of the platform miffed.



    "I wish I could give no stars," complained a user identified as Veronica on Saturday. "This rating is due to the fact that they decided to no longer support the app on windows devices. Way to go."



    HopStop likely dropped immediate support for Windows Phone due to the support and maintenance required compared to the very small installed base.


    The End is Nigh



     


    UPDATE: All 20 or so Windows Phone users boarded a bus for the local Apple store and stood outside waving signs reading "Wake up!" before wandering off lamenting that with this loss there wasn't enough live tiles to fill their home screen.

  • Reply 10 of 30
    Hopstop would have probably dropped support for Windows Phone even if Apple hadn't bought it. Meaning, are there that many Windows Phone users, anyway? I'm not knocking Windows Phones at all, it's just that I'd heard there really isn't much of a market for Windows Phones or BlackBerries. It just seems as though the Android/iOS duopoly isn't allowing much room for anything else. Consumers seem to be relatively satisfied with those two platforms. I know Steve Ballmer keeps saying how wonderful and powerful Windows Phone is and how it has so much synergy with other Windows products, but they all seem to be losing favor from top to bottom, so what's the real advantage of having a Windows Phone.
  • Reply 11 of 30
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    Microsoft wouldn't do this?

    Halo--by Bungie, creators of the Mac-only classic FPS Marathon--was originally shown on Mac. And it was released for Mac. But discontinued, and none of the rest of the Halo series ever came to Mac.

    MS also threatened to kill Office for Windows if Apple didn't abandon development of video playback software (QuickTime).
  • Reply 12 of 30
    tundraboytundraboy Posts: 1,884member


    Can't help but think that Windows Phone (and Nokia) is a dead man walking.

  • Reply 13 of 30
    UPDATE: All 20 or so Windows Phone users boarded a bus for the local Apple store and stood outside waving signs reading "Wake up!" before wandering off lamenting that with this loss there wasn't enough live tiles to fill their home screen.

    Well, at least there's enough of them to hold another funeral, this time for themselves.
  • Reply 14 of 30
    HopStop, the transit navigation app Apple acquired last Friday, dropped support for Windows Phone over the weekend, leaving users of the platform miffed.

    What--??? All three of them??? ;)
  • Reply 15 of 30
    dualiedualie Posts: 334member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post



    ...there really isn't much of a market for Windows Phones or BlackBerries.


     




    Blackberry has ~80 million users world-wide. Just because it has a small market share doesn't mean there isn't much of a market for the device.

  • Reply 16 of 30
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member


    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    HopStop likely dropped immediate support for Windows Phone due to the support and maintenance required compared to the very small installed base.


     


    I hope those 17 WP users won't file a class action lawsuit against HopStop.


    It might cost Apple another $200k or so.  /s


     


    HopStop must be glad they didn't do a Windows RT version of their app.


    One less failed Microsoft product to stop supporting.

  • Reply 17 of 30
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tundraboy View Post


    Can't help but think that Windows Phone (and Nokia) is a dead man walking.





    Maybe, but their sales graph is headed up while few other vendors graphs are.

  • Reply 18 of 30
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member


    Originally Posted by dualie View Post


     




    Blackberry has ~80 million users world-wide. Just because it has a small market share doesn't mean there isn't much of a market for the device.



     


    Oops.  Don't try to conflate "market share" with "installed base."  That won't fool anybody.


    Market share is a measurement of current unit sales or revenue in a specific category of product.


    Installed base is the total number of units sold, including obsolete / broken / replaced / lost / discarded units.


     


    Market share: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_share


    Installed base: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Installed_base

  • Reply 19 of 30
    smileydudesmileydude Posts: 111member


    I'm failing to see how giving between 1 to 5 stars is in effect a "four star rating system".  There are 5 choices to choose from, not 4 -- even more if you can select half star ratings.  And it's not "between 1 and five", it's inclusive of those two choices as well.  


     


    Honestly, I don't see the big deal with having to assign at least 1 star -- if you don't like the app (i.e, you want to give it 0 stars), just don't rate it.  Now you've given it 0 stars.  If an app particularly sucks, it will be pretty clear because it won't have 10,000 people giving it a rating of any kind.  Stars should only be given when you actually like the app enough to go back and rate it, IMO.  If you just delete the app, then why bother going back and rating it?


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post



    One would assume that if the rating system consists of five stars that the rating is somewhere between zero and five, but almost all systems typically won't let you go lower than 1. So it's really between 1 and five or in effect, a "four star rating system." 

  • Reply 20 of 30
    kellya74ukellya74u Posts: 171member
    Deleted
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