BeerSmith said:
I will say that the BeerSmith app is running cross platform and is not a native android app - so it is not as quick as a native app might be. However, this was the only way I could feasibly develop as I'm a one person business (I do all the coding) and did not want to try to develop native apps for as many as four different major mobile systems.
Brad
As Facebook learned: a questionable (at best) decision. As you may know, facebook tried to unify their mobile platforms using HTML5. The experience was clunky, buggy, and slow---negative reviews were rampant. Ultimately, they completely rewrote the apps for each platform to be 100% native. Why, when Facebook users are essentially a captive audience?
Why would anyone in a niche market, with just a handful (by any objective standard) of users who have other options, think that they can afford to provide a substandard experience simply because they don't have the resources to do the job properly?
Without the finances to hire the staff with the appropriate skills, and give each platform the attention it deserves you are seriously running the risk of alienating
everyone. I will not PAY for a sub-standard experience, simply because you don't have the resources to do the job right. Your business plan is not MY problem. I refuse to PAY
YOU to treat me (the collective "me" meaning the customer) as a second class necessity...ie, just a revenue stream.
You clearly don't have the resources to support all apps on all platforms. But, you just keep spreading yourself thinner and thinner---with the expectation that we will all just stay around and put up with the various bugs and lack of attention. As near as I can tell the desktop program (which is the software that drives this ship) hasn't been updated in just over a year (build 65 came out 16 April 2012). I'm sorry, Brad, but that is an abysmal development cycle for your FLAGSHIP product. These satellite revenue streams mean nothing without the use base OF THE DESKTOP APP.
Your cloud server may actually make you more money that desktop app sales (because of the subscription nature), but its meaningless to me, when I migrate to another app. Making money in the mobile space is crazy hard. VERY few do. The ones who do have massive market appeal, with millions of downloads from the store. Beersmith is NEVER going to have that kind of draw. So, its not going to be a revenue stream on its own. Its just another "feature" to draw users to the desktop app, and the cloud server. As with the could server, the mobile app is useless by itself---it relies on the usage of the desktop app.
Beersmith Desktop gets considerable negative "press" on other forums. Heck it gets some negative press on THIS forum---which is generally viewed as heavily biased, and occasionally accused of being simply blind to the issues that BS has. BS2 is mostly the lesser of the evils, though.
I've said this before, and you didn't respond then. Others have had similar comments---which you similarly do not acknowledge. I'll say it again, and I expect the same reaction (silence). Beersmith is in the precarious position of being just barely better than all the other apps. Its not great, it is simply tolerably buggy. All someone has to do is come out with an actually GOOD (not even great...just good) app, with a similar feature set...and BS2 is toast. It's that simple.
I've spent years and years using the app (v1.4 and v2). I started with v1.4 circa 2004 (more or less). I post on this forum more than almost anyone else---explaining BS2 quirks, bugs, and workarounds (in addition to basic brewing questions). I created the definitive list of BS2 BeerXML tags by reviewing your source code. I've reported numerous bugs with the desktop app. Many of them well over a year old (some more than 2). Quite frankly, with all that personal investment in Beersmith...my patience for the issues, and the clear lack of attention (and quite frankly open dialog on this situation) is wearing quite thin. If I found a competing app that had the one or two features that keep me using BS2 but without the bugs or, at least, a more attentive developer, I'd switch.
You would be much better served by opening a dialog with the community regarding the next BS2 update. Put up a straw man list of fixes and enhancements and let the community participate in the release planning.