Developer greed?

[1812dave]

Looking at the new Utilities list, it seems that nearly every one one of them, barring a few exceptions are paid apps. That's not what I remember at the time the Gear 2 was launched. Also, I haven't had any updates to any of my apps. I feel kinda betrayed by Samsung and the developers regarding the state of apps for tizen watches. It annoys me no end that we can't place more than 4 icons per screen. Do any of you feel the same way? chime in, or click "like" if you do.

 

[Sammuel1973]

Looking at the new Utilities list, it seems that nearly every one one of them, barring a few exceptions are paid apps. That's not what I remember at the time the Gear 2 was launched. Also, I haven't had any updates to any of my apps. I feel kinda betrayed by Samsung and the developers regarding the state of apps for tizen watches. It annoys me no end that we can't place more than 4 icons per screen. Do any of you feel the same way? chime in, or click "like" if you do.

Perhaps this watch face may meet your need of more than 4 icons per screen? I used to have the Gear 2, now I have the Gear S. This is by far the best functional watch face, imo.

 

[1812dave]

Greed? I mean there is little functionality for the same price as some very useful apps for the Android platform, as opposed to the apps for Tizen, which mostly are redundant, useless apps. I don't mind pay for apps like Nova Prime for my phone, but the crap that passes for Tizen apps is what I object to. Just take a look at the redundancy in the Gear Store. It's shameful

 

[1812dave]

I took a look at that but want the main clock screen to remain stock. thanks for posting it though.

 

[rEVOLVE]

I use Multi-Watch for the 3x3 launcher - that's a simple swipe up/left/right and a tap to quickly launch any of 9+4+4 apps.

As for complaining about $1/$2 per app? Hell I'll pay $10 for apps that I want as you're not going to attract developers saying you don't want to compensate them for working on the Tizen platform. Do you notice that the lack of updates means developers are abandoning their apps? It's not worth it to them to make Tizen watch apps unfortunately and I don't blame them. If it wasn't for the Gear App challenge that Samsung sponsored it would be worse, so at least we have some apps to choose from. It's a shame because the Gears still have the best combo of hardware out there (speaker, mic, ir blaster, camera) but the app market for Tizen Gear still has significant gaps. I got a Note 4 and there are a few apps that aren't even available that I used on my Note 3.

 

[1812dave]

Crappy apps for a buck or two is still a rip off.

 

[NoFaQ]

Did you check out the recently released "Launcher Watch"? It looks like it is a launcher and watch.

 

[Sammuel1973]

Crappy apps for a buck or two is still a rip off.

Ha, you have been such a debbie downer lately. I agree though, much improvements needed in the app department.

 

[1812dave]

So many of the apps are watch faces that it's almost comical. And nearly all of them are $2.

Never heard the term "debbie downer" but if you mean I am complaining about apps, you are right on!

 

[1812dave]

I saw that one also, but I want my usual, stock, large watch face. Ideally, I'd have that, and then a swipe to the side would bring up screens with 3 x 3 grids of apps.

 

[budgitApp]

The problem with making a launcher watch face is that, when we get the list of apps on the watch, a bunch of them are placeholders that can't really be launched... Weather services, microphone, sms services and such. When I tried making the launcher, I was unable to filter the bad ones out completely, and then when Samsung reviewed the app they didn't accept it because of that... Unless I buy every single popular app and make a custom list of apps that can actually be launched, then compare that list in the app against the user's apps, it's not really possible to make that launcher...
And yes, there are some really crappy apps... One developer posts watchfaces where they just change the background picture without even making it look nice... And the actual nice watchfaces just get buried in the mix...

 

[1812dave]

I hear you! The problem for me is that the watch is hard to navigate,unlike my phone which has all my favorite apps on the main home screen. I don't like swiping across many screens on the watch to find one of the apps I want to launch.

 

[budgitApp]

It is very hard to navigate... you are 100% right... I switched to the Gear S eventually, but even the Gear S is not that much easier...

 

[bryanchow]

I just launched a new voice chat app that allows you to send and receive voice messages directly from your Samsung Gear to anyone. It's free



Search for 'voz' in Gear Apps.

 

[bryanchow]

Oh I'd also like to add that 'greed' is rather strong a word. Ultimately unless it's just a simple hobby project, developers need to be compensated for the time and effort taken to develop an app, especially for a platform like Tizen which is rather niche.

It's unfortunate that we are all so used to free apps that we'd happily pay $3 for a coffee but most people (myself included) balk when having to fork out 99c for an app.

 

[1812dave]

Oh I'd also like to add that 'greed' is rather strong a word. Ultimately unless it's just a simple hobby project, developers need to be compensated for the time and effort taken to develop an app, especially for a platform like Tizen which is rather niche.

It's unfortunate that we are all so used to free apps that we'd happily pay $3 for a coffee but most people (myself included) balk when having to fork out 99c for an app.

Most of the apps in the utility section are stupid watch face apps and are nearly all $1.99. there is so much garbage in the Samsung app store its ridiculous. Very few have reviews, and when I spot one with lots of stars, it is usually from ONE person and doesn't really indicate that it is a popular, useful app, unlike when we find a well liked app in the Play Store. I like the basic functions of my gear 2, but had expected that within a few months of release, there would be some compelling apps to go with it. It's been over a year and Tizen watches seem to be the black sheep of the Samsung product family.

 

[NoFaQ]

Most of the apps in the utility section are stupid watch face apps and are nearly all $1.99. there is so much garbage in the Samsung app store its ridiculous. Very few have reviews, and when I spot one with lots of stars, it is usually from ONE person and doesn't really indicate that it is a popular, useful app, unlike when we find a well liked app in the Play Store. I like the basic functions of my gear 2, but had expected that within a few months of release, there would be some compelling apps to go with it. It's been over a year and Tizen watches seem to be the black sheep of the Samsung product family.

I hate the fact that there is a Watch Face section, but almost all of them also show up under Utilities.