So many Apps

I was reading the other day that the App Store for the iPhone reached the 100,000 mark and it got me thinking. Out of those 100,00,0 how many are actually useful? How many get only a very small handful of downloads? After all if you look through the catalog to any great length there are thousands and thousands of apps which are barely distinguishable from one another.

Yes there are some up and coming software companies which have done very well with the iPhone but how many exactly? Getting your application noticed in the sea of 100,000 can not be an easy task unless you have a secondary way to promote it.

After all I think many people, if not most people, find applications by accident, word of mouth or the Apple commercials themselves. Searching the store is not an easy task and while the Genius method added in 3.1 was a step in the right direction, more needs to be done.

How do you all find your hidden treasure applications?

Deauthorizing Computers with iTunes

Have you reached your limit of five computers authorized for iTunes? Do you no longer have access to the other machines to remove their authorization? While it should be a simple task of removing the computers from a list this is not the case.

The following will work ONLY if you have reached your limit. The option is not available otherwise.

• Login to your iTunes account
• You will see a new button called "Deauthorize All" in the account information screen.

Note that this can only be done once a year via this method. If for any other reason you need to do it later you will need to contact Apple directly.

Exclusivity Issues

While I am not a fan of any Governmental agency telling a company telling a company how to operate something has to be done re cell phone exclusivity. It is not, no matter how you look at it, good for consumers in the least.

Why?

Well, for example, if every carrier had the iPhone then it would be a matter of who provided the best coverage, plan and service. Carriers would be forced to clean up their act. Right now if you want to use an iPhone in Canada and the United states you have only one choice. Sure, if you are the unlocking and jail breaking type then there are ways around that, but, I am talking about the majority here.

Now, unless you have money to burn, all of these fancy phones everywhere will not allow you to dump from one to the other. In order to pay what we're all accustomed to contracts will be in order. But when our contracts are due, or close enough that we can pay a small premium to upgrade we can do so at will.

I am not sure if everyone agrees with this, surely the carriers will not, but cell phone exclusivity has to go and soon.

The Fine Line

A little more than a year and a half ago I made the switch from Microsoft to Apple and have been happy with that choice ever since. I did not change because of some grand philosophy that Microsoft was evil and that Apple would show me the way. At the end of the day I simply preferred the user experience and was willing to pay the premium for it. Do not get me started however on the incompetent Microsoft "Laptop Hunter" ads though....

Does this make me a fanboy? As much as I detest that term, I very well may be. However, as much as I am a fan of Apple they have made some really bone headed decisions over the years. Most recent of which was the choice to reject the "Google Voice" application. The iPhone is, or possibly was, poised to take a nearly insurmountable lead in the smart phone market. And then Apple may have stumbled.

Many great products have been over taken not necessarily based upon the skill of the pursuer but by their own foolishness. For example did "Microsoft Office" eventually overtake "Word Perfect" because it was a superior product? Or did it do so because "Word Perfect" took it's eye off the ball and then Novell put it out its misery? One could argue that Corel has not done a much better job either, but worlds better than Novell's efforts.

Now, I have an iPhone and do not believe that it is going anywhere, anytime soon. Yet, with a few adjustments I think Apple could silence Android, the scrappy up and comer for some time. Everyone is in love with Android at the moment to a degree that makes me a bit queasy. Tech journalism on the Internet is a fickle beast and prone to turn on a product at a moments notice. I have to wonder if all of the righteous indignation over the "Google Voice" rejection was true or simply done for the headlines.

Apple is King of the mountain at the moment, but they have to realize how much people enjoy to see the King fall after his ascension.

Anyway, as I was saying I think Apple could do a few small things to keep a sure footing:

• Make the App Store approval process completely transparent. Give those companies who do not have the capital to risk a hefty investment in a project which might be arbitrarily turned down.
• Open up the store. Wide open. I mean come on it is almost that way to begin with but there is such a perception of a walled garden that it taints it. It is important that Apple scan the applications for those that are malicious in nature but aside from that and a few other small points EVERYTHING else should be accepted.

None of this new and has not been said a hundred times already. This blog, this post is a means of venting. Well I think a lot of blogs are a means of venting actually. I really enjoy using the iPhone and am disappointment when it is set back due to inane foolishness.

Now if you do not mind I need to get back to playing "Field Runners".