Pay No Attention To That Man Behind The Curtain

Today after a lot of hard work on an update to the HanDBase for iPhone application, I finally decided to pull the trigger and submit it to the App Store.  This is the long awaited ‘Extreme Makeover’ edition with a fresh and improved look and UI!  The testing process has winded down and we haven’t had any new beta bug reports in a bit.  We still haven’t updated the documentation, video, screenshots, etc, but if we submit to Apple now, we’ll have plenty of time to update while waiting weeks or months for Apple to approve the update anyway, right?  WRONG!

Amazingly, just 5 hours after submitting to the App Store, the update is live in the store.  How did this happen?  The last update was a 10 week endeavor with a phone call and many emails going back and forth, and that was a minor update.  This one is pretty major:

HanDBase for iPhone gets a ‘makeover’ in v4.5.0!

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All New look – carbon fiber theme (classic look selectable in prefs)
New App Icon, in program icons
New Choose Database screen with collapsing folders
Pop Up Bubbles for selecting Views, Popup values, Field and Database actions
Databases sorted can now use a right side quick index
Run Reports on various field types (with Graphs!)
Field Actions Popup: Resize field width, Sort Forward/Reverse, Report and Set Value To
Record Action: Set value to- set a field’s value for all the records within the current
Scroll fields in the list view by dragging the field name bar right or left
Database Actions Popup: Email Database file
view (great for clearing all checkboxes in a checklist, for example)
Switch to and from landscape from almost any screen.
New security mode to protect specific databases from being accessed via Desktop Connect
Many bug fixes and small improvements throughout!

I noticed the other day that Facebook 3.1 was out and just a day later it seemed there was already a 3.1.1 update.  I even griped to myself that Facebook is getting special treatment.

So is there a change afoot on the App Store?  I have my hopes up.   My thinking is that they are using static analyzers to check the binaries submitted and if they are not using certain APIs (Private), using certain amounts of bandwidth, or perhaps have a good reputation in previous updates, there is some sort of automatic check/approval being done.

Perhaps they simply hired more reviewers?  Perhaps the change to not show updates as updated when showing by release date in a category has reduced their update load.  Or perhaps there is some type of lull in submissions right now (doubtful).

So many possibilities, but one thing is certain- our app was approved in less than a day!  So if you’re a developer, don’t expect to have time to work on documentation, assets, etc while waiting for approval in the App Store.  You never know when you might be pleasantly surprised as we are!

Been thinking a lot about consolidation these days.  For many years as different players entered the mobile space, we have been told by analysts that the market will consolidate to a clear winner, and just one or two viable alternatives.  I heard that when Palm had several licensees like Handspring, Sony, IBM.  I heard it again when Microsoft’s Pocket PC platform began to gain some traction against Palm, and other players were trying to emerge in the PDA platform.

And you hear it these days as well, that the mobile smartphone market will consolidate to one or two main players.

But why does it seem that just the opposite is happening?  For us, supporting HanDBase on the Palm OS and Pocket PC platforms in the early days was a challenge enough.  Now over the years we’ve added Nokia’s S60, Windows Mobile Smartphones, RIM BlackBerry, and iPhone to that mix.  And now there are three other looming platforms that may take hold- Palm WebOS, Google Android and Nokia’s Maemo.

In the world of open standards, open source, etc, why is this happening?  I think the main reason is that manufacturers want to own the software and hardware.  They feel if they have control over all aspects they can deliver a well integrated product.   It worked well for current market leaders RIM, Nokia and Apple, so everyone else follows suit trying to do the same thing.

And in some cases it does appear to be working- there are some really beautiful, functional and well integrated products shipping and soon to ship.  And all seem to support developers with SDKs and developer toolsets.  With each of these platforms supporting popular web standards like the WebKit browser, many web based apps run well on all platforms as well.

So then, what are the downsides to all of this reverse-consolidation?  From our perspective, it’s third party software.  Just because manufacturers supply an SDK doesn’t mean everyone will develop every key app for it.  And even if they do, can they really afford to treat each equally even though some have a relatively small percentage of their customers on there?

Facebook and Google are two great examples of this..

Facebook is still wildly popular and probably one of the all time top downloads for mobile devices.  But while their iPhone app is cutting edge, they only recently released one for Google Android and is decidedly less full featured than it’s iPhone counterpart.  And while they were there at the big Palm Pre announcement, there has yet to be any official facebook app on the Palm Pre (see here).

Google has a bunch of apps that they’ve released as either native apps or web optimized apps depending on the platform.  Google Latitude is just one example, while Google Voice is another story altogether.

These are big companies, some with thousands of IT and programming staff, and they can’t keep up with the deluge of platforms to support.  How is a small company with a staff size you can count on one hand expected to keep up?

This is the dilemma we and many other small programming shops are facing these days.  Open source and freeware has driven down the acceptable cost you can charge for an application on a mobile device significantly, and this affects how much potential revenue one can bring in on a given platform.   So smaller developers typically choose just one or two platforms to support and focus on and leave these other platforms alone, much to the chagrin of customers using the platforms they passed on.  Or they deliver a very basic app on most  platforms and can’t spend the time/resources needed to make the app truly wonderful on each of them, much to the chagrin of every customer.  Or they deliver a web app that runs on every platform’s browser, but doesn’t feel like a real app and has awkward pauses while loading screens or limited integration with the features of the device.

Eventually it could be this, third party software, that leads to real consolidation in the market.  While big companies can create their own platforms and even support developers, it’s the developers who can’t support all of these platform choices.  And not just the small developers, but even the larger ones.  And eventually customers won’t want to buy the devices that don’t get the attention from their favorite software makers.  Something will have to give eventually!

What do you think about this? Do you think that all of these companies can truly succeed simultaneously?  If not, which ones will fail and why?  What is a developer to do?  Looking forward to your comments!

In our new HanDBase forums, we were discussing that we have received some comments from customers that say they love how functional HanDBase is compared to the competition, but wish it were as snazzy as some of the slick iPhone apps out there. I agree! Here’s what I wrote in that article:

At any rate, I am not too proud a person to take advice and input on this. I would much rather have a lot of happy customers that love the design than a bunch of people who say it’s ugly but has a great personality So if anyone has any sort of design background and has any thoughts on how to make HanDBase look a little more snazzy, please let me know. In fact, I think I’m going to start a separate thread based on this!

In that spirit, I’d love to get some input from you on possible ways to make HanDBase slicker looking. Here are the things I’ve been contemplating and I’d love for your input on these as well as some thoughts on other possible changes:

1 – New icon. Our original icon for HanDBase looked like this:

When HanDBase v3 came out we were at our prime, when Palm was at it’s peak and we were one of the top selling products for it, we paid a designer to come up with something slicker for HanDBase’s icon. Here’s what he did:

While I don’t recall having any complaints on the look of this, the overall idea of the thumbs up became a problem for some countries that were using HanDBase. It turns out that the thumbs up was offensive in some countries:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/In_what_countries_is_it_offensive_to_make_the_thumbs-up_sign

We heard from relatively few of them, as since the program doesn’t really support arabic, it’s not really of much use in those countries. But in our effort to try to make something more universally unoffensive, I commissioned Brian Houghton, our email technical support guru who happens to be an artist and art teacher by day to make something to what I felt was more descriptive of HanDBase – that is a handheld size container for all your data. The icon he came up with passed the muster in my eyes, but I think when we shrunk it down to icon size, it lost much of it’s sheen and recognizability.

I hear often of complaints about the icon but really could use some input on ideas for an icon that will work well at low resolutions (Palm OS icons are only 31×21 and this same icon needs to scale up to 128×128 and even higher, so whatever it is has to be easily modifiable to work in hi-rez and low rez both. The standard icon design for a database is an ugly cylinder which I feel is a step back to the 80’s, so hopefully something else more exciting and yet still obvious!

2- New color scheme: When I first designed HanDBase, there was no app store yet, just the promise of one coming soon. The only apps we all knew and loved were the built in apps and they all had a similar business like grey with pin stripes. This is the look and feel I tried to emulate when designing the program, but I did experiment with a scheme with more black which I liked. It definitely looked more slick to me but I didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb from the built in apps! In reality, almost every app that has come out uses different color schemes and it’s even invited by Apple, so I guess in retrospect this was a bad call on my part! I’m planning on implementing this again, but having an option to go back to the current scheme for those who prefer it the way it is.

3- Does anyone have any other ideas for ways the interface could be snazzier? I’m wide open to ideas at this point, but please don’t be offended if we don’t wind up using your idea. I don’t have a budget to spend on a designer right now- it’s tough economic times for us all, but if we can try to do the best with whatever we have, we may be able to something nice here!

Thanks in advance for all your input on this!

It seems that after years of failed attempts to take over the world, Java is finally reaching the tipping point of the future of programming.  I remember hearing the original promises of write once, run everywhere, and almost humorously finding from programmers that it rarely ever worked out that way.

Well, 10 or so years later, we’re seeing that Java and Javascript really are becoming the standard.  First RIM and the BlackBerry OS getting rid of native c development a few years back, now Google Android OS, and even the Palm Pre.  I guess the time is really upon us for good this time.

I just have to be honest- I can’t believe that this is the best we can do.  The concept of Garbage collection being run by a virtual machine over a programmer being smart about memory allocation/deallocation is just one example of what I feel is a step backwards not forwards.  Or maybe the step forwards is that programmers just don’t have to be as smart as they used to?

I remember speaking with programmers who were older than I, and used to laugh at their inflexibility to new ideas and programming paradigms.  Now I’m one of those crotchety old dudes who is complaining about it- when I was a kid we had to deallocate memory when we were done with it!

I guess sooner than later I’ll find myself identifying with the old man from the Pixar Movie Up!  Have to run now and find myself some helium tanks for all these balloons…

Spring is a time of flowers, rain, tornadoes, and spring cleaning.  For me, the last item is quite often forgotten, but overall I do try to get a little more organized around this time of year.

One thing about organization-once you have a system in place, it’s hard to break away to start a new habit.  I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve set up a new database for managing my todo items (all in HanDBase of course!), but after a few months I find myself returning to my tried and true methods.

Many users will say our use of Yahoo groups as our forums is an example of our old habits.  We have actually had a Yahoo group before they were called Yahoo groups- they were called eGroups.  And that company was bought out many years ago and merged into Yahoo’s offering.  At the time we set it up because they were all the rage, and offered things that a forum based site couldn’t.  They also didn’t tax the site you were running, which was a major concern as our site was almost always running slow at the time.

Fast forward 9 or so years, and we’re probably one of the few Yahoo groups that are still active, with over 6000 members, and a good number joining and leaving every day.  But many customers have asked us why it’s so difficult for them to join the Yahoo group, and why we don’t just get a forum on our site.

Well that time has finally come- we have set up a new forum based on PHPBB3 for providing customer support and discussion of topics:

http://www.ddhsoftware.com/forum

I hope that the many users on our Yahoo group follow us over to this as we phase out the use of a Yahoo group.  It’s served us well in the past, but time to take advantage of the advantages a forum system provides, like camping on to subjects of interest, dividing posts into sub-forums based on platform, etc.

That last part is the one that gives me a teary eye.  In almost every other area of the internet, you won’t find a group of people using different devices and platforms all engaging on a similar topic without the ‘religious’ flame wars and such over which is better.  HanDBase has been common ground for Mac and Windows users, and common ground for Palm OS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, iPhone and more.  And I can’t recall one conversation that became a ‘mine is better than yours’ type of conversation.  The fact that we’ve made it so long without one is a testament to our customer base- these are intelligent people proving that there is still hope for the human race on the interwebs!

I hope you all enjoy using the new forums, and don’t hesitate to let me know if there are any issues or suggestions.

No matter how much I try to stop time or even slow time down, I have not been successful in creating more hours in the day.  But when you’re a small business in a trying economic climate with increased competition, you find yourself stretching yourself more and more just to keep up the pace.

DDH Software is not a lot like other companies, and that’s probably my fault.  Because I was an engineering major and not a business major, my confidence lies in what I can tackle from a technical nature, and not from a business perspective.  For that reason, I’ve always played it safe relative to finances and thus we’ve never taken on any investors, or even run any debt.

And thus whenever times got tough, like when our mainstay platform (Palm OS) started to die a slow death, we have had to react conservatively.  And we’ve had to thus stay lean, personnel-wise.  This means having very few employees, and spending our time and money wisely to get the most out of it.

A few years back we did away with phone based technical support – it was just too expensive to to on a product with such low cost and volumes.  I really didn’t want to axe it- we knew how some people valued phone support as great customer service, and it was a unique feature we offered in this day and age, and were proud of.  But when you only have a few employees and most of them are on the phone all day long, we found we were very stagnant in terms of development and moving the product forward.

So we switched to relying more on email support and also using an online chat based support tool.  The online chat meant one person could help 5 people at the same time, and it definitely reduced the resource requirement we had.

But now because of today’s economic climate, we’re even leaner than ever.  Our already small staff is further reduced and now basically even having one person doing chat support cripples us as a software development company.  For this reason, we decided to try to do away with chat support for the time being.  We hope that by having the additional time for development we can better keep up with the many platforms we support, and provide more compelling solutions.  And it helps us be more financially conservative in a time where we all really need to be.

Of course, email support options are still available, and we’re still staying on top of them and getting responses out in a timely manner.  And we still have our Yahoo group which stays active with both us and lots of helpful fellow customers.  So I feel that we’re still leaving customers in good hands, support wise.  But I do want to share my apologies for having to cut out this feature of support we’ve offered- to some users I know it’s a very important feature.   Here’s hoping that we can still provide excellent customer service via email and forums, and additionally improve our effectiveness at provide compelling software and updates to you!

Follow us along on a journey, a journey of web page development.

When DDH first started in 1997, I was designing the web site using animated gifs galore and Netscape’s Composer to design the web site.  I remember when the HanDBase gallery was a single page of listings and submission involved emailing me the files directly so I could edit the ever growing listing manually.  My how things have changed!

Through the years we get asked a lot of questions about the products we sell.  And each time we get asked a question a bunch of times, we often would add it to the site, either directly to a product page, or placed with the knowledgebase.  The desire to have everything available ’self-service’ to customers is both benevolent and selfish by nature;  benevolent, because we want users to be able to enjoy using the product and not having to contact us with questions we have already been asked, and selfish because- well, the same reason applies!

In the quest for completeness, we have developed web pages that are pretty long- not a page on our site can be visited without making judicious use of the scroll bar even on a 1920×1200 monitor.  And in that sense, we’ve created a monster.

A new user who visits the site could potentially find the answers to all of their questions, but because of TMI, too much information, they see a large page with way too much text, and skip it entirely.  The end result is that they either move on completely or still wind up having to contact us to find their questions answered.  This TMI thus works backwards to its intended goal.

So now we’ve been going back and redoing a few pages at a time, using less text, providing less answers per page, and hopefully raising the chances someone will actually read the text on there.  Hopefully we don’t ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’ and lose the valuable answers, which we’re moving into their own FAQ or Knowledgebase (KB) articles.   So far, the iPhone main page, the Mac Desktop, and the Mac iPhone related pages were updated- take a look:

iPhone HanDBase Page

HanDBase Plus for iPhone Mac OS

HanDBase for Mac

and we hope to use more of the same on other pages as we update them.  That is, less text, more readability and making use of embedded video tours and such to show the way.

Please let us know how we’re doing in that regard- we want to create a site that is readable, friendly but still informative!

Most of us have heard it said that the anonymity of the internet affords people more freedom to- let’s put it nicely- be who they are.  The Web 2.0 world of user comments and reviews has proven nothing if not that  That said, I think most of us who have experienced a set of Digg comments or read a review on the iPhone App Store would argue it’s a good thing that people don’t feel free enough to be ‘who they are’ in the real world.  If they did, it would be a pretty depressing place to live.

On occasion I wonder what it would like to be writing games or entertainment related apps instead of business and productivity focused ones like I have focused on for over 12 years now.  Certainly at first glance it seems like it would be more fun.  I know my kids would love it if they could show off a creation of mine to their friends, and it seems like game developers are the rock stars of the geek world.  But all it takes is a read of the comments on any game forum, YouTube video, or App Store game review to remind myself that some of the meanest comments are posted regularly in those.

I’ve been grateful that I don’t have to experience them as much in the business world.  And the few times I have, it has always been in a very inconsequential location.

The Apple iTunes App Store however is unique in that because of the design of it, and the limitations imposed, for the first time, the user community has the un-merciless power to control my ability to make a living.  Normally, user reviews are an after-thought to both potential buyers and existing customers alike.  Not so, in the iPhone App Store- they are very prominent.  Why is that?  Probably because demo versions of software are not permitted.  Customers have to decide to purchase without trying for themselves.  Refunds are also not an option.  Because of this, the user review takes it’s place as the most valuable form of non-biased information on a product there is.  And users and developers alike are having to suffer the consequences of this.

Because reviews are in a sense anonymous, there is no mechanism of responding to a review.  In the past, when someone posted a review on a reseller’s site (eg, Handango) and they said something like this, “This program sucks because the Access Control password does not actually encrypt the data in the database.”, I had the ability to respond to the reviewer via email and explain that ‘There is a separate encryption feature you can easily enable right below the Access Control feature, which was designed for a different purpose’.  Not only that, but if I could prove to Handango that the review was in error, I could have it removed completely.  Not so, in the App Store.  A user could write that our app sucks because of the above reason and I’d have no way to respond to them or the potential customer who reads that review and uses it to make a decision to pass on our product.  Sure, technically I could ‘game the system’ and post a positive review and respond to it, but that’s just wrong and not something I find as an option if I’d want to be able to sleep at night.

In my case, a recent update was done based on user feedback- many users did not like the field name on the left and field value on the right layout.  I personally agreed with the suggestion that centering the text above the field value was better because it meant no more word wrapped field names, and a better overall UI aesthetic.  I could have left things the way they were, but wanting to develop an app that pleases everyone, I redid the entire layout of the screen to accommodate this.  Apparently not all users were in agreement on this change, and while some users were kind enough to simply email us and ask for an option/preference to control this behavior (something I’m working on this week in fact), others simply handled it by posting a 1 star review on the App Store with the subject T E R R I B L E, or something to that effect (with their description saying the app took a step backwards because of this one change).  But customers don’t often read that
far- seeing a 1 star review with a description horrible is enough for most customers to pass on it.

Perhaps the original reviewer meant for that to happen in an effort to motivate us to make the change.  Nothing motivates people to do something like the lack of a paycheck right?  But I’d like to believe that people are not malicious by default.  And I’m guessing the average person does that without any regard for the actual consequence.  They just wanted their opinion and/or frustration to be heard, and because it was anonymous, there was no need to consider how it sounds or the effects it would have.  Or perhaps they have considered the effects, but don’t have the knowledge first hand, that I have of what a bad review does to a company.

So why choose this for a first post to a blog instead of the usual ‘we have exciting plans for this blog’ first post you always see?  Is my motivation of this post a plea for people to post more good reviews?  Or perhaps only good reviews?  Or am I just hoping to find the therepeutic qualities of a public venting?  The truth is that I thought my first post would be the best possible one to remind something to all, including myself.  A reminder that words have more power than most of us ever know.  The words we choose can either build up or tear down.  So… choose wisely!