Sep 11, 2007

I'm Outraged - part 2

I began this as a comment on the I'm Outraged topic, bit it ended up too long for a comment and worth being a post, so here goes:

After writing the first post, I went over and checked Skyscape's website again. As Thomas said in the comments, I had the pre-conviction that it SHOULD work on symbian.
With that in mind, I looked at the links, the official press release, etc... And here are the notes I took:

1 - There is no sign of the address the user must type in order to access Skyscape's services, which are called "My Skyscape". I don't know if it's the ordinary www.skyscape.com that is converted to mobile version if u access it from the iPhone or if it's another address dedicated for the platform itself. I'm more into the 2nd since Skyscape's website should still be available for users, as a view and buy site, while the books/utilities/programs should run somewhere else, when you purchase them.

2 - There are no screenshots (or well, the ones available are a few and not clear enough). Seriously, who would buy a product based on "belief". Like thomas, we want to "see"(no relation with Thomas who commented, and correct me if my bible knowledge is wrong). I am not questioning the existence of the service for iPhone, it's just that users usually want to have the feeling of the product without putting down a whooping 40$ or so for any product.

3 - There are no trials for the iPhone, meaning you are presented the choice to buy the product for the iPhone, but not to "try it for free". Free trials are still for the desktop PC, Windows Mobile and Palm OS. Meaning you will have to put down those $ without even knowing how it will work.

4 - There is no indication as to whether it is a constant have-on database or an internet service, only available when WiFi or EDGE is on. That should be a main letdown, because everytime you need to stream an information, you'd have to connect, and even if you're looking for the same information for the 20th time, you'd have to re-access it again, making it a total PITA, plus time and data transfer consuming.

5 - And why would you have to buy the product all over again, if you already have it for another platform? Seriously? Let's say I have a Blackberry and I have 3 apps from Skyscape that I usually use on it. I decide to buy an iPhone and I expect I would use these apps on it, they told me I can. Oh no, wait, I'll have to buy them all over again. That's why I totally respect Mobipocket, they've got the most amazing solution. One reader to rule-them all. And when you buy a book, it doesn't matter what phone you'll get and what platform, you're pretty sure you back is covered by a reader version already released or to be released. That's the most user-friendly solution for switching devices and keeping your purchased data, it's almost too hard to believe publishers accepted it and adopted it. It's basically less profitable for them :s

Anyhow, these are my findings. I'm even more disappointed than before. The fact that Skyscape managed to pull an iPhone availability in less than 3 months, while it neglected the Symbian platform which has been here for years says sooooooooo much about how things have been and are running and how they will run in the mobile industry, unless someone decides to do something about it.

I know this is medical related and you probably don't care, but look around, every single professionnal or non-professionnal service, website, utility, application, ... is being ported to the iPhone, while, well, on the other hand, we, symbian fans, suffer.

2 comments:

  1. Hope i´m allowed to "discretely" post a comment on that one too, without the intention to kick you straight into another outrage :)

    Yes, i agree in every single point! I could go into deep now for some but that´s something we should maybe discuss on skype or something cos it could become ..ehm.. kinda lengthy.. ehm..

    In times when spam becomes a real problem, please visit the contact-form (use google-translation in case) and just holla.. i´ll send over my skype-adress then..

    have a nice time. sometimes it ain´t worth to come to an outrage. really. especially when it comes to "mobile phones" ;)

    believe. just believe. developers will come to the same conclusion when they see their market decreasing or maybe just over some rants.. :) well, let´s hope the best at least!

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  2. Hi.

    I dont know if you're updated on this subject, but Skyscape released a Symbian s60v3 reader for their books.. The reader is free for download, but you have to pay for the books. Theres no trial either.. Almost sounded too good, but Im not willing to pay for something I dont know how good it is..

    About the iphone web interface, theres an interesting hack that may help using it with s60 browser.

    This guy (http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog/s60/2007/12/13/s60-browser-goes-iphone) at forum nokia developed a small hack that makes the s60 browser recognized as an iphone browser. The primary use for that is to access google pages (they're optimized for the iphone as well...), but it might work with skyscape's..

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