Correspondent from New York
Apple Control Bashing or Windows Apps Failure?
There are two sides of failure: the bright side and dark side. Some people learn from their mistakes and improve, some people are stuck in the rut and cannot see why they fail.
Apple Human Interface Guidelines, Usability and Quality
Take an average Mac OSX app. and Windows app:
- The Mac developer would design the App. based on usability, purpose-driven philosophy, thoughts towards aesthetic and well-designed features. Every App on the OSX App store is vetted by Apple for usability, whether they conform towards their design philosophy and whether there are bugs (or show stopping bugs) leading to bad customer experiences. The Apple store is also stick for bad developers: get too many complaints and your Apps. will get removed along with lawsuits to recover money on behalf of customers.
- The Windows developer would select Delphi, then slap a TForm, slap a TButton (and so on), do half-jobs or screw-jobs to design the user-interface, add screwy logic without any thought or reason, write half a manual or bad manuals, ship with hundreds of bugs and issues. If the Windows developer has QA tester, the QA tester will get heart attack when bugs are not fixed despite many attempts to fix those bugs. The TForms looks like they were designed by amateurs or novices: there are no common guidelines or standards in the Windows Platform to follow. The Windows guy would then spam all the ShareWare sites (approx 400 sites) and sign-up to ShareIT, Digital River or Plimus. The Windows developer would price the App at US$49, US$99, US$149, US$199 ... or US$999 onwards. The customers download the Windows App., find bad things and then don't buy it. Those who buy the App. and complain - these complaints are ignored or many months (or years or even decades) taken to fix those bugs. If the customer bitches about the bugs, they are vilified as trolls and their characters assassinated on the newsgroups or forums. One year passes and the customers get notified to pay-up for annual upgrades and bug fixes.
The months pass and the following happens:
- The Mac developer would continue to get happy customers and revenue, they start to expand customer-service, focus on getting bugs fixed for angry customers, deliver features based on minimal user-interface, no messy or cluttered screens. The net effect is the first million in sales and revenue.
- The Windows developer gets screwed by the component developers who do half jobs or bad jobs, redesign the App a couple dozen times to fix design issues. When the money runs out, if the Windows developer is brave and takes a loan - good luck on the repayment scheme (note the fine-print from the bank to recover the money). If the Windows developer calls it quits - the customers gets screwed buying abandon-ware.
It works because the Workflow is designed well
Macs are famous for their ability to work. Not for any reason alone. You start the Mac, you get simplified Login screen that users can understand. Having networking problems? Select "Assist me..." and the OSX Network diagnostics appears. At each step, the workflow is mapped out and all possible incidents or slip-ups are handled.
Windows Apps take liberties on Workflow: the developers design it one convoluted way and does not work for another way of using the App. The Windows developer design it like they don't know what they doing or want more money for screw-work. They then complain about user-interface controls, design constraints, having to comply with all the rules in order to get listed on the App Store.
The School with no teachers: reality
Sure, Mac developers complain about these rules, but they know that these rules are there for their own safety and complying to those rules means well-designed Apps and something customers will buy.
When the Windows guy does development with XCode, these developers complain it is not like Delphi or something is done in convoluted manner.
Customers want value and quality for money. If they have good experiences, they are more likely to buy again from the same vendor and associated vendors. If customers have bad experiences, they are less likely to buy again. If customers get burned too many times, they may even switch platforms and dump those Windows apps in favor for Mac Apps.
Freedom?
Freedom without responsibility is false liberty: those who think they are free are enslaved by multitude of errors and cannot see their own mistakes. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance: That is what these rules and guidelines are for.
It's a brave new world
This article is in response to the article Dark Side of Apple. Many years ago, our forefathers moved from Europe to America (New World) to escape religious prosecution. That is why the sons and daughters of the Amish, Mennonites are around today.
Today, vilified Delphi developers, insulted Delphi developers moved to Visual C++ or NET-based development to avoid prosecution and continual harassment from Delphi trolls. Disenchanted users (of Delphi applications) refuse to buy Delphi-based apps or moved to OSX.
Your correspondent knows several large corporations who have an unwritten policy where the technical dept. inspect binaries and do not buy if the App. is written in Delphi or C++ Builder because of bad prior experiences.
Do not be surprised there is currently a revolutionary programming language war to provide end-users with happy user-experiences(1).
(1) paraphrasing from United States Declaration of Independence
Apple Control Bashing or Windows Apps Failure?
There are two sides of failure: the bright side and dark side. Some people learn from their mistakes and improve, some people are stuck in the rut and cannot see why they fail.
Apple Human Interface Guidelines, Usability and Quality
Take an average Mac OSX app. and Windows app:
- The Mac developer would design the App. based on usability, purpose-driven philosophy, thoughts towards aesthetic and well-designed features. Every App on the OSX App store is vetted by Apple for usability, whether they conform towards their design philosophy and whether there are bugs (or show stopping bugs) leading to bad customer experiences. The Apple store is also stick for bad developers: get too many complaints and your Apps. will get removed along with lawsuits to recover money on behalf of customers.
- The Windows developer would select Delphi, then slap a TForm, slap a TButton (and so on), do half-jobs or screw-jobs to design the user-interface, add screwy logic without any thought or reason, write half a manual or bad manuals, ship with hundreds of bugs and issues. If the Windows developer has QA tester, the QA tester will get heart attack when bugs are not fixed despite many attempts to fix those bugs. The TForms looks like they were designed by amateurs or novices: there are no common guidelines or standards in the Windows Platform to follow. The Windows guy would then spam all the ShareWare sites (approx 400 sites) and sign-up to ShareIT, Digital River or Plimus. The Windows developer would price the App at US$49, US$99, US$149, US$199 ... or US$999 onwards. The customers download the Windows App., find bad things and then don't buy it. Those who buy the App. and complain - these complaints are ignored or many months (or years or even decades) taken to fix those bugs. If the customer bitches about the bugs, they are vilified as trolls and their characters assassinated on the newsgroups or forums. One year passes and the customers get notified to pay-up for annual upgrades and bug fixes.
The months pass and the following happens:
- The Mac developer would continue to get happy customers and revenue, they start to expand customer-service, focus on getting bugs fixed for angry customers, deliver features based on minimal user-interface, no messy or cluttered screens. The net effect is the first million in sales and revenue.
- The Windows developer gets screwed by the component developers who do half jobs or bad jobs, redesign the App a couple dozen times to fix design issues. When the money runs out, if the Windows developer is brave and takes a loan - good luck on the repayment scheme (note the fine-print from the bank to recover the money). If the Windows developer calls it quits - the customers gets screwed buying abandon-ware.
It works because the Workflow is designed well
Macs are famous for their ability to work. Not for any reason alone. You start the Mac, you get simplified Login screen that users can understand. Having networking problems? Select "Assist me..." and the OSX Network diagnostics appears. At each step, the workflow is mapped out and all possible incidents or slip-ups are handled.
Windows Apps take liberties on Workflow: the developers design it one convoluted way and does not work for another way of using the App. The Windows developer design it like they don't know what they doing or want more money for screw-work. They then complain about user-interface controls, design constraints, having to comply with all the rules in order to get listed on the App Store.
The School with no teachers: reality
Sure, Mac developers complain about these rules, but they know that these rules are there for their own safety and complying to those rules means well-designed Apps and something customers will buy.
When the Windows guy does development with XCode, these developers complain it is not like Delphi or something is done in convoluted manner.
Customers want value and quality for money. If they have good experiences, they are more likely to buy again from the same vendor and associated vendors. If customers have bad experiences, they are less likely to buy again. If customers get burned too many times, they may even switch platforms and dump those Windows apps in favor for Mac Apps.
Freedom?
Freedom without responsibility is false liberty: those who think they are free are enslaved by multitude of errors and cannot see their own mistakes. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance: That is what these rules and guidelines are for.
It's a brave new world
This article is in response to the article Dark Side of Apple. Many years ago, our forefathers moved from Europe to America (New World) to escape religious prosecution. That is why the sons and daughters of the Amish, Mennonites are around today.
Today, vilified Delphi developers, insulted Delphi developers moved to Visual C++ or NET-based development to avoid prosecution and continual harassment from Delphi trolls. Disenchanted users (of Delphi applications) refuse to buy Delphi-based apps or moved to OSX.
Your correspondent knows several large corporations who have an unwritten policy where the technical dept. inspect binaries and do not buy if the App. is written in Delphi or C++ Builder because of bad prior experiences.
Do not be surprised there is currently a revolutionary programming language war to provide end-users with happy user-experiences(1).
(1) paraphrasing from United States Declaration of Independence
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