“The problem we have is that there appears to be a growing perception in the market that a failure to offer regular ’updates’ (regular meaning every 1-2 months) suggests that the company has abandoned the product.”

There is very good post over at The Ilium Software Blog on their approach to software updates and upgrades. It offers lots of good insight on their rigorous Quality Assurance (QA) work on their software, and concerns about no suffering from ‘feature bloat’ (which I would totally agree with), and other good thoughts.

I think the quote above raises an interesting point. I don’t think it is right to feel that all mobile apps *need* to be frequently updated, or that publishers who update less frequently are not doing as well for users as those who do. I have a feeling that the need (or lack of need) for frequent updates may vary a lot based on the type of application.

For instance, I’m not a developer at all – but I would very much imagine that Today screen replacements or major Today add-ons (like PocketBreeze, SPB Pocket Plus etc) must need more frequent .x and bug fix updates – because they have to play nicely with so many other apps and hooks into the OS.

What I do know from experience, is that Ilium’s approach certainly works well for their products. One of my biggest reasons for liking eWallet and NewsBreak so much is that they are *rock solid* stable apps. Across a number of different devices and OS flavors, they just work. They do not hang or crash, or bring the OS itself to a screeching halt. That emphasis on QA has definitely paid off in my user experience.

Would be very interested to hear what others think on this subject. How often do you feel you need to see an update or new version of your favorite apps?  Anyone you think is absolutely getting this right … or wrong?

Check out the Ilium blog post at:

Upgrades Anyone?

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