[Pearl_Diva]

The App Store is a nightmare. It's full of crappy "applications" and impossible to navigate to find anything actually useful.

The concept is great but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

I also agree strongly about not having demo apps. I hope Palm allow them.

I agree somewhat. It IS sloppy. I wouldn't say a nightmare exactly, but apps often aren't categorized correctly. Or "toyish" apps are somehow at the top of the list. So you need to search through the junk to find what you need. I found a lot of apps I can use, but the search part is utter crap.

Take some tips from Handango and the like, Apple. They often place the most useful apps first or near the top in each category.

[Pearl_Diva]

I hate the fact that the apple app store does not offer trials of programs. That's one of the many things that ticked me off when I had the iPhone. I didn't own it long enough(10 days) to know if apple had another method around it. But the first impression I got from this whole app store thing was you either buy the program, if you don't like it too bad. If I'm wrong, I hope I'm corrected.

Some developers do, but you need to search for the free "lite" versions.

[paulpenny]

I agree somewhat. It IS sloppy. I wouldn't say a nightmare exactly, but apps often aren't categorized correctly. Or "toyish" apps are somehow at the top of the list. So you need to search through the junk to find what you need. I found a lot of apps I can use, but the search part is utter crap.

Take some tips from Handango and the like, Apple. They often place the most useful apps first or near the top in each category.

Funnily enough, it is a lot easier to search on the iPhone itself than in iTunes.

My views are also coloured by the fact that the type of apps that I really want for the iPhone aren't possible because of Apple's anal obsession with control.

The phone is crying out for a week view in the calendar and for a profile switching application.

[mobileman]

I love the App store. There are some awesome apps that I find quite easy to locate. I usually see a review of an app on the web (there are a bunch of websites that concentrate on iPhone apps), then I type in the name of the app in the App store and it shows it to me. I do it right on the iPhone. I can also view pictures of the app and reviews.

There are a lot of bad apps too. Don't really see how Apple can do anything about this. Free market. Apple would be opening up a huge can of worms if they started denying apps based on quality.

[scobb]

Another important consideration for Application deployment...

They should not make the App store the only way to distribute apps. A lot of in-house applications exist on PalmOS (or WinCE). Currently you can distrute locally to the device. You want a similar mechanism for Pre. If you drop an "App package" into a proper directory when hooked up via USB - the app should show up.

Apple closed this internal app door by requiring apps to go through the App store. No corporate application is going to be released that way.

[sir_mycroft]

I love the App store. There are some awesome apps that I find quite easy to locate. I usually see a review of an app on the web (there are a bunch of websites that concentrate on iPhone apps), then I type in the name of the app in the App store and it shows it to me. I do it right on the iPhone. I can also view pictures of the app and reviews.

There are a lot of bad apps too. Don't really see how Apple can do anything about this. Free market. Apple would be opening up a huge can of worms if they started denying apps based on quality.

Apple denies apps all the time on the basis it competes with their built in software, so I don't think the free market plays into much Apple thinking.

Remember the "I am Rich" app? Cavet Emptor.

[Pearl_Diva]

Funnily enough, it is a lot easier to search on the iPhone itself than in iTunes.

My views are also coloured by the fact that the type of apps that I really want for the iPhone aren't possible because of Apple's anal obsession with control.

The phone is crying out for a week view in the calendar and for a profile switching application.

I saw they finally allowed some contact apps to correct their really lame contact control, so maybe there's still hope.

I found an MMS app too, which shouldn't be necessary because just about EVERY PHONE out now but the iPhone offers it, but iPhone is what it is.

[Pearl_Diva]

Apple denies apps all the time on the basis it competes with their built in software, so I don't think the free market plays into much Apple thinking.

Remember the "I am Rich" app? Cavet Emptor.

I agree. A true free market would allow developers to fullly expand the usefulness of Mobile OSX, just like with Palm and WM. But Apple may be learning. I was surprised to see that contact app that actually categorizes your contacts the way you want, like they should have been in the first place.

[kaptainchump]

Really? How did you qualify for that?

Old employee plan.

[mobileman]

Apple denies apps all the time on the basis it competes with their built in software, so I don't think the free market plays into much Apple thinking.

Remember the "I am Rich" app? Cavet Emptor.

Yep, but those apps easy to determine. If Apple had to review each app for quality, they would need a staff of thousands. I could care less how many bad apps may be in the App store as long as nobody is forcing me to buy them. There are so many good sources now to determine which apps are really good and might be worth a closer look.

[PSB22]

As mentioned by others, the app store is mostly junk.

1) There are hundreds of apps which all do the same thing (fart apps).

2) There are hundreds of others which divide content up into 20 apps when one will do (e.g. French city guide, German city guide, Italian city guide)

3) There are lots of apps which simply duplicate what the web browser already does (e.g. wikipedia app). Some people argue these are useful offline. I say "when are you ever offline with 3G and wireless?"

4) There is no way to navigate through all of the above, to actually find stuff worth having on the 'phone.

A few decent apps...
Crosswords ($10)
SolFree solitaire
Public Radio
Pandora
i.TV
Remote

The rest is just fluff.
12-15000 pieces of fluff, coded by lazy people with nothing better to do.

[mobileman]

As mentioned by others, the app store is mostly junk.

1) There are hundreds of apps which all do the same thing (fart apps).

2) There are hundreds of others which divide content up into 20 apps when one will do (e.g. French city guide, German city guide, Italian city guide)

3) There are lots of apps which simply duplicate what the web browser already does (e.g. wikipedia app). Some people argue these are useful offline. I say "when are you ever offline with 3G and wireless?"

4) There is no way to navigate through all of the above, to actually find stuff worth having on the 'phone.

A few decent apps...
Crosswords ($10)
SolFree solitaire
Public Radio
Pandora
i.TV
Remote

The rest is just fluff.
12-15000 pieces of fluff, coded by lazy people with nothing better to do.

Totally disagree. In the few short months that the App Store has been available, I think you can easily say there are better apps available than have ever been available for a Palm OS device. All the great apps that I have ever loaded on one of the treos that I have owned are available (either by the exact same company, or by one that has made a similar program) in the App Store. Anybody that says there are just a few decent apps clearly has never owned an iPhone or touch. On my iPhone right now I have the about six screens filled with 3rd party apps. The only thing keeping me from purchasing tons of other apps is money.

Again, if Palm could get anywhere near the Apple app store experience, I think they will be very happy.

[Gerorne]

I've only just barely looked through the app store, but I would also like to add that it probably is a better idea to measure the quality of the store by the amount of good apps there are and the variety of good apps there are, rather than bad. (And overall ability to satisfy the customers in being able to find the apps that they're looking for.)

I remember looking for apps for all my previous Palm devices, and there were tons of terrible apps there as well. There will also be tons of terrible apps for the Pre. Percentage wise, I'm betting there will be more terrible apps for the Pre than the there will be for the iphone. It's the apps that people are going to want to use that matter, not the ones that people don't.

[JohnH59]

Totally disagree. In the few short months that the App Store has been available, I think you can easily say there are better apps available than have ever been available for a Palm OS device. All the great apps that I have ever loaded on one of the treos that I have owned are available (either by the exact same company, or by one that has made a similar program) in the App Store. Anybody that says there are just a few decent apps clearly has never owned an iPhone or touch. On my iPhone right now I have the about six screens filled with 3rd party apps. The only thing keeping me from purchasing tons of other apps is money.

Again, if Palm could get anywhere near the Apple app store experience, I think they will be very happy.

Totally agree, I have apps now that let me be as productive as ever. I took a trip last week and left my laptop at home. It was not a problem. What few times I needed a "full" computer, I used the Cisco VPN client (builit in) to connect to our network. Then launched Remote Desktop (3rd party app) and took care of what I needed. The rest of the time I was able to use my iPhone. I use EAS for email, contacts and calendar and then added iMExchange to sync Outlook Notes and Tasks.

There are hundreds of useful apps. Yes, the ridiculus apps do get more attention since they show up on what's hot and such. To find the "useful" apps, the search button works great.

[cardfan]

docs to go, pdanet, and callrec were the biggies for palm. Maybe ptunes before they made it part of centro. There's also the ones that let you take remote control, chapura for contacts, etc.

And that's a short list.

It's difficult to say then that apple has better apps than a palm has ever seen. The iphone is nothing more than a multimedia phone with some fun apps..not necessarily useful apps.

[mobileman]

docs to go, pdanet, and callrec were the biggies for palm. Maybe ptunes before they made it part of centro. There's also the ones that let you take remote control, chapura for contacts, etc.

And that's a short list.

It's difficult to say then that apple has better apps than a palm has ever seen. The iphone is nothing more than a multimedia phone with some fun apps..not necessarily useful apps.

Sorry, but you are clearly not an iPhone user. I'm very comfortable in saying that iPhone apps blow Palm os apps away in quality and quantity. I use my iPhone for my work and personal email, task management, attachment viewing, ebook reading, on-line banking, note taking, Instant Messanging, games, music, photography, Keynote remote control, web browsing, database management, etc.

Any app that is available for both Palm OS and the iPhone is usually far superior on the iPhone. If the iPhone is just a multimedia phone, then what is a treo?

I am a gadget lover, so I will buy a pre. I can only hope the software matches the iPhone.

[cardfan]

Sorry, but i do own an iphone. All that you listed can be done and has been done long before an iphone even saw the light.

Some better on the treo, some better on the iphone. But to sit and say every iphone app blows out its palm equivalent is nonsense. Not to mention i listed palm apps that the iphone has never had an equivalent for and likely won't have anytime soon..if at all.

I've learned to live with the iphone's short comings because i value its screen, its web browsing experience, and its multimedia capabilities. The Pre however will address these things which will make it easy to wave bye to the iphone. Very easy.

[mobileman]

Sorry, but i do own an iphone. All that you listed can be done and has been done long before an iphone even saw the light.

Some better on the treo, some better on the iphone. But to sit and say every iphone app blows out its palm equivalent is nonsense. Not to mention i listed palm apps that the iphone has never had an equivalent for and likely won't have anytime soon..if at all.

I've learned to live with the iphone's short comings because i value its screen, its web browsing experience, and its multimedia capabilities. The Pre however will address these things which will make it easy to wave bye to the iphone. Very easy.

Actually one of the apps you mentioned (Doc-To-Go) is coming to the iPhone soon. Documents To Go for iPhone

I owned a treo 600, 650, 680, 700w, and software wise there is no comparison. Whether it be business apps, multimedia, task management, ebook reading, IM, music, etc., its really not even close. The iPhone app is far superior.

[Gerorne]

Mobileman... it would make your point much more tagible for a lot of people here if you actually gave examples. (assuming a lot of people here are like me and have only a limited experience with an iphone, and certainly much less experience with its app store.

cardfan... I'd like to know how you came up with your specific list for Palm's big apps, and why the list stops there.

It's hard to evaluate either's point with a short list that doesn't describe any criteria for how the list was made, to a vague statement of "the iphone's apps are better."

[JohnH59]

I have an iPhone and 800W. I have had numerous Palm apps. I won't say that the iPhone's apps blow away Palms, but I will say they do work just as well as Palms. As I stated in an earlier post. I use my iPhone a great deal for work. It does everything Mobileman stated and more. I'm still not a huge fan of the keyboard, but can honestly say, I can type just as fast as I can on the Treo keyboard. Because I can type just as fast is not the same as actually liking the keyboard.

There are so many business related apps for the iPhone that never get mentioned because it does have the reputation of being "just a media device". I have had mine since November and it is way more than a media device.

I also won't say it's "better" than any other device. That's strictly a personal decision. I can't tell you my Chevy truck is better than your Ford truck just like you can't tell me your Ford truck is better than my Chevy.

The bottom line is that the iPhone has come a long, long ways since its beginning. What was once mostly for young media primarily folks is now an actual smartphone. Yes, it lacks some features. But, name me one device that is not lacking any features at all?