There are big differences in numbers that should be dismissed too. Chief among them is the “ecosystem,” and a word about that before we hit the numbers. It should be officially noted that “ecosystem” is a poor replacement for “apps.” That’s right; it’s a pretentious little jargony bit of twaddle and people should be lightly and playfully smacked when they use it. Perhaps slightly harder each time they use it. Is it supposed to denote how green you are for powering your digital consumption with nickel and cadmium? "Ecosystem" my ass.
This sense of indignance aside, how many apps does your phone have? At the time of writing this, iPhone and Android are equal at “over 700 000” offered to each. Windows phones have about 30 000 apps available - but MS just this week set up what seems to be an android emulator that should expand its app selection by roughly android’s entire market (roughly 23 times larger). BlackBerry, which has re-launched itself into the consumer market less than a month ago, claims to have 70 000 apps.
So many people get caught in this trap! Is it not clear that the two platforms rapidly closing in on a million apps are the only real choices? Well, how many apps are on your phone right now? Think of the heaviest user you know and consider how many are on their phone. 500? 1000? 30 000? No. No in all cases. So the absolute number of apps, or “size of ecosystem,” though highly discussed, is in fact just a crap measure of how great your phone is.
How many web browsers are available for android and iPhone - and how many do you actually need? Choice and variety is nice. One person needs a big, full featured browser while another person only has use for a fast, light and relatively featureless browser. Ah and it’s a good thing these people had so much choice; so they could find just exactly what they need! But then again, no it isn’t. You don’t need That much choice. No, you don’t. If you took the 25 top browsers, you could comfortably cover every websurfer’s needs with one of them.
It’s not just browsers, though. There are far too many file managers, radio programs, flashlight programs, wallpaper downloaders, and on and on. People who maintain they can only thrive in huge “ecosystems” are usually deluded or dumbasses. "Ecosystems" thrive on themselves; cannibalizing their own. It's an "ecosystem's" method of reproduction! As anybody can tell you, copies of copies generally lead to degredation of quality.
It could be that very specialized, purpose built apps can only be found among such huge repositories, but it isn't Necessarily that way. In other words, that assertion is non-sequitur. Some platforms cut deals with developers so the developer only works with their platform. It rarely takes long before a developer on the other side makes their version available though.
The end of this business is simple: when you have 30 000 apps available, you Must have pretty much all basic functionality covered. Hopefully folks will tell me where I've gone wrong with that. "Nope! Windows and BB don't have blablabla apps! And android doesn't have suchandsuch apps!" If there's good response along these lines, the topic will be re-examined.
If you actually Need specialist apps and functionality, it doesn't make your phone better so much as it makes your phone better for you. Since the rest of us aren't you, nobody cares. In the meantime, the average Janes and Joes of the world are covered.
No comments:
Post a Comment