Initial iPad Apps Not Scaling Up on Functionality

A lot of people are still asking “where does the iPad fit into my life? inch I believe this question will be answered once we start to see actual iPad apps instead of simply giant iPhone apps. I’m not trying to say that iPad apps don’t already exist in fact I think there were about 1000 at launch but the problem is that the majority of these applications (the free ones anyway) are simply iPhone apps that have been scaled up, and maybe beautified a bit, for the iPad. But beyond this, they don’t have any additional functionality. I haven’t yet been compelled to purchase any apps for the iPad so far, so the story may be different for some of the premium apps out there.

When the App Store first came out on the iPhone, we saw something very similar. The first iPhone applications were very basic, generally consisting of lists and columns to navigate through content. In time developers really learned how to make compelling and efficient interfaces, and now we’ve got applications which are regarded as some of the most powerful of any mobile platform. Similarly, it’s going to take some time before developers figure out how to really take advantage of the iPad’s large, high res screen, and improved hardware. Eventually developers will hit their stride and we’ll see lots of innovative and useful iPad applications; but for the time being, most of what is available now is merely iPhone applications that have been sized up to the screen.

I’m sure that many developers were rushed to get their iPad apps out the door for launch. The incentive of being counted among the first few thousand apps (rather than among some 150,000 like on the iPhone) definitely drove developers to code quick and use interface concept that are familiar and have been proven on the iPhone. I’m hoping that in the future, some iPad apps don’t get held back by their iPhone counterparts merely because developers want to keep feature parity between the two. If we’re lucky, most developers will recognize that the iPad is a more powerful and more capable device than the iPhone, and treat us to apps that really take advantage of the hardware, instead of being held back by the old ways of the iPhone.