Many people say that Apple's application ecosystem is very good and worthy of promotion. However, among the so-called "best applications" selected every year, how many of them have actually been used by ordinary users? After the 2017 App Store annual list was made public, many people felt that it was both unfamiliar and extremely distant.
Mobile App Leadership
iOS is indeed in a leading position when used on mobile phones and tablets. This leadership is not only reflected in quantity, but also in the overall level of application quality and the focus of developers. Many professional tools will give priority to the iOS platform because users here are more willing to pay and the ecosystem is more standardized.
For example, in 2017, the mobile versions of production tools such as photo editing and video editing were already quite powerful. Developers were willing to develop full-featured professional software for the iPad, which was rarely seen on other mobile platforms at the time.
The unique charm of PC games
Despite the rapid development of mobile applications, PC-side games still have an irreplaceable appeal. PC games have significant advantages in terms of screen presentation, operational depth, and content volume. Large-scale games and hard-core gamers still rely on PCs as their main base.
Apple also selects games of the year for the Mac platform every year. However, these works are often different from the AAA masterpieces on the mainstream Windows platform. They focus more on creativity, artistic style or puzzle-solving fun, thus forming their own unique categories and meeting the needs of specific player groups.
The strangeness of the annual list
Expanding the 2017 App Store's list of the best titles of the year, the six apps and games included in the list are quite unfamiliar to most people. This is not a situation that exists among users themselves, but rather reflects the disconnect between the logical thinking of platform application recommendations and the actual usage habits of the public.
The selection criteria adopted by Apple may focus more on technological innovation, design aesthetics, or the exquisite use of hardware. This has resulted in some extremely outstanding applications with a small audience being on the list, but truly widely popular popular software has not been included. The list looks more and more like a "technology trends report."
The rise of short videos and .io games
The trend summary that year mentioned "making exciting short videos" and ".io games". These two points accurately captured the trend at that time. The advancement of smartphone cameras made it possible for ordinary people to record high-quality short videos, and further made it possible to edit high-quality short videos, which in turn gave birth to new ways of content creation and new ways of social sharing.
.io games like "Ball Battle" have quickly become popular due to their fast pace, strong competition, and the convenience of not requiring registration. They generally have simple gameplay and short single game duration. They are extremely suitable for meeting the fragmented entertainment needs of mobile devices and represent a new direction in mobile game design.
Cross-platform porting of professional software
The migration of professional software from desktop to mobile is an obvious trend. Professional photo editing software like Affinity Photo has transplanted the full functionality of its Mac version to the iPad and optimized it for touch. This gives mobile devices real workstation-level potential.
This kind of transplantation is not just copying. Developers have to rethink the interaction logic and use features such as touch screen and Apple Pencil to create a different operating experience from mouse and keyboard. Successful transplantation makes mobile office and creation more feasible.
Mac App Store woes
In comparison, the presence of the Mac App Store has always been low. Its core problems are high application prices and poor store experience. Many mainstream software, such as the Adobe series, are not distributed through the Mac App Store, resulting in a limited selection of high-quality applications in the store.
You know, as far as games are concerned, the Mac platform is not the main force. Many popular games do not have Mac versions, which results in a very low frequency of user consumption in this store. Although Apple tries hard to improve, how to attract more developers and users is still a long-term challenge faced by the Mac App Store.
Looking at so many, do you think the so-called "Best of the Year" selection of an app store should lead the forefront of technology, or should it truthfully present the actual usage of the public?
