Allow people to download the program into an emulator so you can test it out before you drive it. Why not? If people could test out say... MobileChat before actually buying it, they would find out the easy way what a piece of garbage it is. This would also help stop people from wasting money, and spending it on things that actually work.
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App Store idea - What Apple should do with it
- Thread starter bbplayer5
- Start date
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Yes, yes, yes. Something like the 'iPhone Aspen Simulator' could be used to open a 'simulation' of the application before purchase,
using a special file which is non-executable on the real iPhone OS.
Your also right in saying, having this option would stop people from buying applications which don't operate as advertised.
I'd also like to see Apple introduce a rental system as well.
For example:
Buy Super Monkey Ball: £5.99
Rent Super Monkey Ball for 14 days: £0.99
Apple already have the ability to make bought movie files expire after a time,
So why not offer this option for applications too?
R-Fly
using a special file which is non-executable on the real iPhone OS.
Your also right in saying, having this option would stop people from buying applications which don't operate as advertised.
I'd also like to see Apple introduce a rental system as well.
For example:
Buy Super Monkey Ball: £5.99
Rent Super Monkey Ball for 14 days: £0.99
Apple already have the ability to make bought movie files expire after a time,
So why not offer this option for applications too?
R-Fly
If people could actually try apps I imagine less would be sold. Less impulse buys. Anyway if i could have tested some of my apps first they wouldn't have become sales. What is the incentive for Apple to do this?
There not on a huge scale right now. I beleive if something like this was released (outside the sdk) then it would just open up a flood of cracked apps.
Not if the emulator used or emulated a different type of CPU than does the device. XCode can build apps for multiple CPUs, and the desktop trial app wouldn't have to be built for the ARM CPU. They could use the x86 CPU as the current iPhone developer Simulator does, a PPC CPU as would a Universal build Simulator, or a completely ficticious CPU.
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Ah, very good idea.. It would be nice if you could download game demos, the ones that are like on Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, and try it out on your iPhone. Good idea!
Except when you are trying to play a game or something which requires use of the accelerometer or other features that emulators cant really provide.
Apple just needs to provide a 24 hour trial for apps...
The DRM is already there, wouldn't be that hard...
It depends on how you look at it...
I tend to see it as, I'm not going to buy something that is $10 if I don't know if im going to like it. There are plenty of applications out there that I would buy if I was given the chance to play with them, to make sure I would like it.
Apple just needs to provide a 24 hour trial for apps...
The DRM is already there, wouldn't be that hard...
It depends on how you look at it...
I tend to see it as, I'm not going to buy something that is $10 if I don't know if im going to like it. There are plenty of applications out there that I would buy if I was given the chance to play with them, to make sure I would like it.
I think that's a great idea. Of course, there are some limitations - for example you don't really get a feel for what it's like to use on the real device in terms of touch etc.
I think the next best thing would be a video preview, rather than just static screenshots. If Apple can do it for music video previews, why can't they do it for apps? I've done a YouTube video for my app which has received a lot of views - in my mind this confirms it's something users would like to see as part of the App Store.
Andrew