What makes an app a tablet app?

[badbrad17]

As a former iPad user, I can tell you that nothing is more aggravating than buying an app just to find out there was a tablet version available. The 2x scaling and giant, aliased fonts are atrocious. I would so much rather have an Android app that isn't optimized for a tablet and shows up slightly wrong, than an app that looks like it's built out of fuzzy Legos. Going forward though, developers should really consider the wide spectrum of screen resolutions available on Android. Especially with the influx of users who will have 2560 x 1600 displays after Monday's announcements.

You would also like it if you didn't have to pay for a separate phone and tablet app like on ios. There are a few on android but not as many.

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[Shadowriver]

That might be true reason behind that trend, it's not iOS fault, you guys might not be aware.... but iOS also support hybrid apps, prime example is Facebook:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/facebook/id284882215?mt=8&at=10l3Vy

"This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad"

The reason is developers wants you to pay money for more work or more features in the app, they formed that trend, once trend it's formed the rest will follow as user getting use to it.... only way to stop it is not buy the product to show dislike of the idea, but alone you won't stop sells.

 

[badbrad17]

That might be true reason behind that trend, it's not iOS fault, you guys might not be aware.... but iOS also support hybrid apps, prime example is Facebook:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/facebook/id284882215?mt=8&at=10l3Vy

"This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad"

The reason is developers wants you to pay money for more work or more features in the app, they formed that trend, once trend it's formed the rest will follow as user getting use to it.... only way to stop it is not buy the product to show dislike of the idea, but alone you won't stop sells.

I would be okay with this if all the profit went to the developer. But me thinks this is just as much a Apple cash grab. Nothing to be surprised about. Apple buyers are masochists for paying too much for everything.

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[Ry]

I would be okay with this if all the profit went to the developer. But me thinks this is just as much a Apple cash grab. Nothing to be surprised about. Apple buyers are masochists for paying too much for everything.

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Whoa. Anyone who develops for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone and sells their apps in their respective stores does not receive all of the profits.

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[badbrad17]

Whoa. Anyone who develops for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone and sells their apps in their respective stores does not receive all of the profits.

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I know. Maybe you misunderstood what I meant. That's why I would like it if they did. At least when someone buys both the phone and tablet versions.

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[badbrad17]

Found this video discussing how proper layouts can and should be designed in Android.
Looks like a good spot for developers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHirwKGEfoE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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[badbrad17]

Be prepared to pay more for a better tablet experience. If not, we will be waiting a lot longer for tablet optimized apps.

Is it a lot more work to plan around these 3 sizes? I didn't get from the video that it was a huge amount of work. More just better planning. Not much different than building a website.

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[Ry]

I know. Maybe you misunderstood what I meant. That's why I would like it if they did. At least when someone buys both the phone and tablet versions.

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Correct me if I'm misunderstanding-

But you want the store to take less of a cut if a developer makes a phone and tablet version of the same app and a customer buys both?

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[badbrad17]

Correct me if I'm misunderstanding-

But you want the store to take less of a cut if a developer makes a phone and tablet version of the same app and a customer buys both?

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Ya. Just a thought. I like to see the developers making the maximum amount.

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[badbrad17]

If don't know about you, but for me, building an attractive, functional, and intuitive interface is a lot of work. I don't mind paying for it, and if devs know that, we'll see more tablet apps sooner than later.

I would agree but how much work is there going from phone to tablet or vice versa? I assume it could depend on the app.

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[natehoy]

To me, it means an entirety new interface, and in the case of a hybrid, plenty of forked code to support it. So does the developer charge a higher price for the hybrid to everyone because it took 59% more work to build it for both, or does he put out two versions? Charging for each?

Agreed. A tablet UI and a phone UI (or, more to the point, multiple UIs dependent on the screen size or even more ideally user preference) is more work than two simple monolithic user interfaces written separately. Making on-screen assets optional is a whole different level of complexity.

But in the Android world, with screen sizes ranging from a couple of inches to 10 inches, I think we're going to need to see a lot more of this development, and not just a "phone" / "tablet", but more granular levels of detail for some applications.

Thankfully, the majority of applications really can't benefit all that much from this. When I'm running an "exploration" type mapping application, I'm almost always going to want maximum mappage with everything else pop-in or menu driven. Most applications serve a specific purpose, and while a map-and-list view on GasBuddy would be nice, honestly, I'm not going to be using it for sustained enough periods of time to care - it's usually a "I'm about to head to work or home and I need fuel; which route should I take to go by the cheapest station? 'kthanksbye", or "I just drove by a station and I have the prices in memory, I'm at a red light, what's the FASTEST way to get those prices in the database before the light turns green?" interaction.

But there are a few apps where I can certainly see benefit to multiple user interfaces depending on screen size, and even the purpose for which I am using them at the moment (when I'm planning a trip in Google Maps, I want maximum options. When I'm DRIVING that trip, I want a simple map preview, my next two turns, my current speed, and a traffic warning indicator). And for those apps that benefit from multiple views, I'd gladly pay developers extra for apps that take full advantage of my 640x480 7" Pantech Novel, my much-higher-resolution but smaller-screen Thunderbolt, and my Nexus 7.

 

[badbrad17]

To me, it means an entirety new interface, and in the case of a hybrid, plenty of forked code to support it. So does the developer charge a higher price for the hybrid to everyone because it took 59% more work to build it for both, or does he put out two versions? Charging for each?

Thanks for this. It is certainly a dilemma to some degree. think that if an app has both phone and tablet applications I would rather pay more for one app rather than for 2 as long as I can try it first.

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[TenshiNo]

Tablet apps shouldn't look like their phone app counterparts. The layout and graphics should look different unless it's a game. I like how google did the Youtube app for tablets it's sexy, but Nexus 7 uses the phone version.

A lot of this has to do with an issue with the way Android is reporting the screen size to the application. Applications can "ask" Android what size screen they're being run on and adjust their layout as necessary. But, when the guys at mountain view added tablet "support" to the Android code, they didn't seem to take into account a 7" screen because the N7 reports its screen to be "large" (which is the same as a 4.7" phone) and the next size up is "xlarge", which is a 10" tablet. There's no in between.

So, I guess, el goog decided that, rather than risk layouts intended for a 10" tablet getting all wonky on the N7, they would make it tell the apps they were running on a "large phone" and, vis-a-vis, we end up with the "phone" layout of a lot of apps on the N7 because the tablet is (effectively) reporting itself to be a phone.

 

[badbrad17]

A lot of this has to do with an issue with the way Android is reporting the screen size to the application. Applications can "ask" Android what size screen they're being run on and adjust their layout as necessary. But, when the guys at mountain view added tablet "support" to the Android code, they didn't seem to take into account a 7" screen because the N7 reports its screen to be "large" (which is the same as a 4.7" phone) and the next size up is "xlarge", which is a 10" tablet. There's no in between.

So, I guess, el goog decided that, rather than risk layouts intended for a 10" tablet getting all wonky on the N7, they would make it tell the apps they were running on a "large phone" and, vis-a-vis, we end up with the "phone" layout of a lot of apps on the N7 because the tablet is (effectively) reporting itself to be a phone.

This surprises me that they wouldn't have thought of this. What wouldn't they think ahead to plan for all the different types of screens.

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[anon(924308)]

I've downloaded a couple apps where the scale/layout was pretty awkward on a tablet--especially in landscape mode. you can just tell when something was clearly made for smaller devices with cramped screens. but that's probably just oversight or laziness in the developer's part, for not optimizing the app for tablet use. I haven't run into any problems with resolution or anything, though.

 

[TenshiNo]

This surprises me that they wouldn't have thought of this. What wouldn't they think ahead to plan for all the different types of screens.

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Agreed. I would imagine that they will have to address this at some point in the near future.