Written by Brandon on Thursday, September 25, 2008

I wouldn’t want to spread ignorance – WinMo Appstore


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So much for love thy neighbor. Look – I’m not one to get involved in petty bickering between sites and all that crap. Normally, I just go about my day, ignore the blah, blah, blah and do what I do. But I wanted to touch on something really quick. Elitism and overall assholishness.

Look, reality is almost none of us end up getting paid for this stuff. Sure some of us get “freebies” from vendors and developers – but even that comes with a cost because we end up spending a lot of time using the item, putting our thoughts together about the item and then putting virtual pen to paper for a review. I easily spend a few hours of my personal time per week just making posts and putting things together for reviews and I can guarantee others put a lot more time into it than I do, yet still don’t get a penny for their troubles.

So – please if you see something missing in a review or a post, feel free to let us know – but do so with it mind that:

  • We are not “experts” on any one topic. We are “enthusiasts”
  • We aren’t getting paid
  • We are not perfect – despite how much YOU or your site may be

    • So, what brought about this post? Well, so far as I can tell – nothing aimed specifically at us. I mean we’ve posted about the iPhone App Store, and we’ve posted about the lack of one for WinMo. But maybe we haven’t posted enough about how there are MULTIPLE solutions for buying applications and websites for Windows Mobile software. I mean you’ve got Handango InHand, PocketGear OTA SMS, and others. So while you may not have one specific solution, with all the bling of the iTunes App Store – you do have alternatives for WinMo and some of them have been around for quite some time.

    Anyway as I mentioned, please if you see something that maybe we missed feel free to let us know in the comments and we’ll fix it. But at the same time, keep those points above in mind. We aren’t trying to spread ignorance… we’re just putting our thoughts on all things mobile out on the ‘net. I’m not going to post a link to what prompted this little mini rant because I personally respect the website and its owner, but suffice it to say I really want to:

    And I Quote:

    If you see more technology news sites or mobile phone reviewers spreading ignorance regarding Windows Mobile’s lack of an application store, feel free to send them here for a reality check

    I don’t think that line was particularly necessary … and if it was the first such venom from this individual I’d have ignored it, however statements like this have become all too common in the mobile community and they need to stop. We’re here to help people make informed decisions and have some fun doing it. If your goals are anything different – maybe this isn’t the thing for you.

    More in Windows Phone | 9 Comments


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    9 Comments

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    birdsoft
    Sep 25, 2008

    Hmmmm… Few things..

    1. I somehow could guess what site that comment came from by the tone, without every seeing it before…and confirmed it…

    2. I dont see it as that big a call out or a big deal, though it could have been written better. It does make a point and comes from a more WM centric site, where as Android and iPhone supporters(and Im not pointing at you guys at all) may tend to gloss over any existance of similar, though obviously less popular, solutions existing on other platforms… And some do it on purpose…

    3. Fortunately or unfortunately you guys if you decide to write on popular blogs are the biggest source of news and information for a lot of people and while you may not be, people do think of you as ‘experts’ or at least ‘highly informed’ otherwise they wouldn’t value your opinions so much.


    dgoldring
    Sep 25, 2008

    Not to mention the fact that the Handango In-Hand store is hardly a complete software option. It offers a very limited selection of apps. This is in contrast to the apple store which offers all of the available apps for iPhone. So, while I agree that there are plenty of options available to download and purchase software OTA, including Spb’s new Online application which has a fantastic mobile OTA store.

    But there is no one stop, all-in-one shopping option that you can access from your handset.

    doug


    birdsoft
    Sep 25, 2008

    Man, please bring on SkyMarket!! The all-in-one idea sounds good to me…!

    Course I just finally heard back from Apple, so I may be on that “other store” in the next couple weeks…


    ssschmidt
    Sep 25, 2008

    Excellent post Brandon. I would like to say that I typically use this blog, as well as Gear Diary as the source for much of my research. The reviews here go beyond the commercial hype (my first review excepted), and I believe are intended to provide a general understanding of the subject & it’s capabilities and limitations. Also suggestions for improvements.
    Bravo!


    spmwinkel
    Sep 26, 2008

    “Not to mention the fact that the Handango In-Hand store is hardly a complete software option. It offers a very limited selection of apps. This is in contrast to the apple store which offers all of the available apps for iPhone.”

    This is exactly why I’m not considering InHand as an iPhone like app-store. It’s not a way to access all available applications (knowing that there’s only one system and all software is in there), it’s simply a way of one marketplayer trying to promote it’s services.


    Brandon Steili
    Sep 26, 2008

    @birdsoft – good points all well taken. Good luck on that “other” store! Hopefully you mean both the app store and the googstore. :)


    birdsoft
    Sep 26, 2008

    Just the AppStore for now.. I only have so much time… And I dont like Java. And the G1 is Ugly… :)


    Brandon Steili
    Sep 26, 2008

    @Birdsoft – I agree completely. Java = horrible. Time = limited. G1 = Fugly.


    Menneisyys
    Sep 26, 2008

    I don’t think you need to apologize. I know it takes a LOT of work to find out all the alternatives and possible solutions – particularly when they aren’t advertised or, even more importantly, discussed almost anywhere (and very few people do discuss handango’s appstore, it seems – at least I’ve never seen any discussion or even mention it at XDA-Devs, Brighthand or MobilitySite – at least not in the threads I’ve read). It’s very easy to overlook these sites.

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