Sean's Blog

For the longest time, Mac fans argued that it didn’t matter that Windows had more applications written for it than the Mac did, because the Mac applications were simply better. And yet, lots of these Mac fans have become iPhone fans, who argue that the iPhone is that much superior to any other mobile platform because of the excess of applications. And finally, an article suggests something tangential to this point.

The reality of the situation—in my mind—is that the iPhone was simply a better device than anything else at its introduction for most people. It was the first phone that could act as a phone, a web browser, an e-mail tool, and a media player, and do all of them reasonably well (though excelling at only web browsing). I’ve looked at the App Store for my iTouch, and really haven’t found anything overly compelling. Hell, even the games I’ve seen are less entertaining than old NES games, which can be run on any mobile device with an emulator.

Sure, the apps—which, on the iPhone, seem to be mostly games—will matter to some percentage of people. But I think for most people, the basic functionality of these devices will matter the most, along with which network they’re on. When it comes to the apps, well, let’s just hope quality trumps quantity, no matter the platform.