Serious Must Die! even developers are mass abandoning Gay Phone Inc iOS!

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/8...pp-development

iOS 8/9 causing music developers to abandon new iOS app development?
Coloobar
Coloobar
April 2015 edited April 2015 in General

I just received sad news that the sequel to one of my favorite iOS games, Avernum 2, was pulled by the developer from the app store just a just few days after its release. They are ceaseing all development on iOS apps. It seems iOS 8.3 broke the game engine for all of his games, and there's at least 5 of them. You can read about it here:

http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/i...-for-the-ipad/

Now I wonder will all of the problems with music apps and iOS 8, if it's causing app developers to shy away from making new apps in the iOS environment? I mean, who knows what's going to get broken when iOS 9 comes out.

[Deleted User]
[Deleted User]
April 2015 edited April 2015

It's the same with web development - every time the server software, or server side scripting, or browser, or CMS, or mySQL, or Wordpress etc. etc. etc. gets an update a whole bunch of stuff gets broke and we have to learn how to fix it and new techniques to keep our services up to date.

But that's the nature of the job, you just have to get on with it - I spend at least a third of my time, unpaid, learning new stuff. Adapt or die, because some other bugger will turn up to fill the gap.
AndyX
AndyX
April 2015

Sad news indeed. I'm also a big fan of Jeff Vogel and Spiderweb games, and was very happy when they began porting their games to the iPad.

Speaking as a user, not a developer, who’s probably spent thousands of dollars over the years in iPad and iPhone apps, I have to say that the points Jeff makes are very valid and sad - not only regarding the impact of 8.3, but also the business model that Apple seems to favor in their app store.

I have totally ceased buying games for my iPad and iPhone, and recently became a very loyal Nintendo 3DS fanboy. I have no problems paying anywhere from USD 6 to USD 50 a game or app, if it’s the quality I’m looking for.

By the way, there are some very few but interesting music apps on that platform as well - for instance the Korg M01D music workstation. It’s a shame however that Nintendo manages to make their hardware even more walled than Apple.

As for the iPad, I still think it’s untouched for mobile music production and performance, but personally I’m only willing to invest in premium apps made by developers who have a history of actively maintaining their product and listening to their customer base.
Goozoon
Goozoon
April 2015

bullshit.. new stuff is born everyday. If they won't update their few-year long used engine it not our fail. In these days all is changing you can use the same technology 5 years without updates
AndyX
AndyX
April 2015

@Goozoon your point is valid; but reading Jeff's post and the ensuing discussion, I think his problem is more related to the App Store business model not providing enough return for a niche developer. If he was making enough money, I doubt he would care about periodically updating his stuff.
anickt
anickt
April 2015

Look at how many apps are just fine. There will always be a few that don't make it for one reason or another. All of my favorite music apps work great in iOS 8.3 and those that don't can be easily replaced. I don't know of any single music app that can't be replaced by another app.
Samu
Samu
April 2015

It's not like iOS8.3 hit the developers by 'surprise' if they cared to keep up with what's happening with the development of the platform they are developing on this would not be a problem.

We've all been thru this when some app just reach 'end of life' it has happened on both Windows and Mac platforms in the past and will most likely happen again. I personally remember the transition from PPC to Intel, and deprecation of the 'Classic environment' in later versions of OS X...

As for the Apps on iOS platform it just shows which developers are truly committed...

At some point we learn to see and accept that apps are not an 'investment' they are commodity with an expiration date just like music is now days a 'consumable product' and not an investment like it used the be when vinyl was popular...
DaveMagoo
DaveMagoo
April 2015

@Samu said:

At some point we learn to see and accept that apps are not an 'investment' they are commodity with an expiration date just like music is now days a 'consumable product' and not an investment like it used the be when vinyl was popular...

http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-...in-2015__8906/
anickt
anickt
April 2015

Sales of vinyl now are a drop in the bucket compared to when vinyl was the primary medium to distribute music. How many individual artists in the 60's and 70's sold in excess of 1.29 million vinyl LP's? Quite a few I'm sure. Just sayin'...

"014 witnessed vinyl LP sales reaching a 20-year high in the UK at 1.29 million"
Holiday
Holiday
April 2015

In one sense I like updates to OS if they make my computer (and tablets and smartphones are essentially computers too) run faster and better, more intuitive, open up more functionality. On the other hand it means software developers often have to go through the trouble of making sure their application functions in the updated environment, which I'm sure is a pain in the arse. As well, sometimes you find with an update that your computer becomes slower and less capable or worse buggy. I think Apple is pushing updates and new versions of OSs exponentially in hopes that it will force people to upgrade their hardware, thus more profits for Apple.
DaveMagoo
DaveMagoo
April 2015

@anickt said:
Sales of vinyl now are a drop in the bucket compared to when vinyl was the primary medium to distribute music. How many individual artists in the 60's and 70's sold in excess of 1.29 million vinyl LP's? Quite a few I'm sure. Just sayin'...

"014 witnessed vinyl LP sales reaching a 20-year high in the UK at 1.29 million"

Ha...I forgot the demographic here lol
u0421793
u0421793
April 2015

I think I’ll go back to hardware. At least it usually keeps some sort of resale value decades later.
Diode108
Diode108
April 2015 edited April 2015

It is harder and easier than the old days. When we were writing for Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, and the like, we knew that we were dealing with pretty much set hardware (1 or 1.79 MHz 6502 respectively, RAM, video memory in a fixed location, etc.), and that it was going to be the same for years.

On the other hand, we could spend hours or days optimizing 20 lines of assembly language.
supadom
supadom
April 2015 edited April 2015

@anickt said:
I don't know of any single music app that can't be replaced by another app.

Samplr and Impaktor just came to mind


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