the app store
so, i dutifully upgraded my OS so I could have a look at the new Apple App Store.
and restarted.
and was a little underwhelmed.
I can see the sense in having the same model for iOS and desktop OS devices - it’s been so successful for the iOS why wouldn’t they do it? and the centralisation of purchases and updates is a good feature too. i guess the real benefit will be in seeing developers begin to port (i’m assuming they’ll still have to port) their more successful iApps to dApps. (i just made that up - they’re not really calling them dApps are they?)
i’m hopefully for the medical field particularly. currently there is a grand total of 9 apps in the medical category on the App Store. and they’re primarily patient oriented apps currently - except for Kompendium, a German pharmacopoeia that costs $9.99 in the iTunes Store (for your iPad or iPhone) and $69.99 for your desktop.
and this is where perhaps the app store will come unstuck. people have got used to paying much smaller amounts for software. and, if the functionality is the same, why would they want to pay more for a desktop version. although in some cases, at least in the medical category right now (perhaps developers cashing in on an empty playing field) the OSX version can be cheaper.
here are the other medical category applications and their prices for iOS equivalents if they had them:
Diabetes Pilot: iOS $14.99, OSX $47.99
Ovulation Calendar: iOS $5.99, OSX $5.99
Relax: iOS $2.49, OSX $1.19 (not exactly the same app, in the iOS you can buy more sounds)
Acupoints: iOS $4.99, OSX $7.99
Pill reminder: OSX $1.19
Perfect Diet Tracker: OSX $23.99
iBloodTracker: OSX $17.99
A Japanese medical reference: OSX $31.99
what I hope is that some of the reference texts we’ve seen on the iOS devices, like the Oxford handbook series, will become available in OSX version.
and i guess, for all concerned, we will start to see a merge between the two areas - both in terms of design and coding frameworks.
