August 9, 2008

Disposable Apps

August 9, 2008, 12:34 PM | 0 Comments

I bought the iPhone on day one here in Canada and have been mostly happy with it since that point. In using the iPhone, there have been no shortage of “wow moments” as I continue to get familiar with the interface and all the new features that Apple has packed into the 2.0 version of the iPhone OS. One of my favourite new features is the App store, which has opened up an entire world of new possibilities on the iPhone.

One of the most attractive features of the app store is that most of the apps are reasonably priced at under $10 (some very good apps even come in at below $5). Sure, I’d prefer free software just as much as the next guy, but such a low price point for most apps makes it easy to download as many for-profit apps as the free ones. One other plus is that it makes the possible regret very minimal if you happen to purchase a dud. This has had me thinking lately about whether or not Apple has ushered in a new era of what I call “Disposable Applications.”

Take for example, MLB.com’s At Bat program, which is a great little app that lets you get access to up-to-the-minute scores and in-game video highlights for all Major League Baseball games from now until the end of the 2008 season. While no official word has been said about whether or not this app will become useless once the final out is made in the 2008 World Series, all assumptions are that MLB.com will release a new version of the application for next season that will require a new purchase from users. At $4.99 for this year’s version of At Bat though, that hardly seems like much of a burden as long as next year’s version isn’t too pricey.

Very much like a disposable camera, what MLB.com has created is an application that more or less becomes useless after all the film has been used up. They’ve also created a bit of a subscription model (which MLB is already very successful at) without any formal subscription contract. It’s a very smart play by MLB Advanced Media and I wouldn’t be surprised to see other developers follow their lead, especially in the sports broadcasting industry. (Yes, I’m winking at you NFL!)

But what about those “dud” applications? Well, without any sort of trial or application preview like we can get with movies and music, iTunes user reviews become all the more important. If an application doesn’t have any reviews though and you absolutely must have it, the low price makes most application purchases fairly painless and worry free. Also, if another application gets released or you discover a different app that does the same thing your current app does—only better—buying another $10 app to replace a previous $10 app is not nearly as painful as it would be in the desktop world, say, for when you’d rather have VMWare Fusion but can’t justify ditching your $80 copy of Parallels.

So, at the price of a couple of Starbucks beverages, are these applications easily disposable? What say ye?

Posted in: Apple, Technology