Monday, January 13, 2014

The Future of App's

What will be the future of app's?

My issue is that an app on one device is not the same on another device.  In this world today we might have a Windows OS laptop, an Android/iOS based phone, and who knows what tablet. The app business is powerful however I think the winners will be those whose app can be used the same across all devices. Not all of us are Fan-boy's and we will never be.

A good example of my dilemma would be Evernote, one of my favorite app's. On the Computer (Windows OS) it is wonderful. On the iPad not so bad, works well. On the Android it is a little less powerful. Actually on the Android device it is 'just' a note taking app whereas on the laptop or iPad I can use if with bullets and checklists. On the laptop I can add color and so many more things. It is a good competitor to OneNote.

Because of this inconsistency in Evernote I am revisiting OneNote.

Another problem: I (and my wife) have owned Kindle's over the last few years. I also use the Kindle app on my laptop and on my tablets. I like e-reading. I can get magazines on the tablets however not on the Kindle app (?). This weekend we downloaded the Nook app on both of our devices and got the magazines that we read onto our new tablets, and they look good.

Why won't the Kindle app allow magazines? Is Amazon saying that I have to buy a Kindle to read magazines? Hey Amazon, we will be buying our magazines over at Barnes & Noble.

Worse I will be telling people about it.

I know that magazines are also available at Google Play however that works best on an Android device - not available on Windows 8.1. Same could be said of the Newsstand app on the iPad. I do believe that the Nook app is available everywhere. Just sayin'...

I like Google Maps but not a good idea as a Windows app.

There are other apps that are not consistent across devices. I understand the different OS's have different requirements however that has to be resolved someway. s

There are apps that work well across devices, Dropbox for one.

I think somewhere the idea that we can be forced into one camp or another is going to fail a number of people. It is true that I am in the Windows camp at the moment. It 'was' the business machine of choice but that could be changing. Yes I purchased an HP|Windows 8.1 tablet however it is not the device I had planned to buy and may not be the device I will be using in 2 years. My next move could be a combination device.

The app business is big however there has to be some ability to work across all systems. I see the same thing happening to the Microsoft Office "app".

Let me add that there are somethings that Android does very well, better than Microsoft. There are some things that are really nice on the iPad as well. I said we were looking for homes for our Kindles I did not mention the Nexus 7 or the iPad(3rd gen) that we have. I am still using those and finding ways to make them work. 

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