Re:How to price your iPhone app out of existence
by cpr on Tuesday November 18, 2008 @03:33PM
(#368677)
Thanks for that feedback!
The physical buttons argument is a good one.
I don't think the battery life issue is a real one--when you're not actively calculating a new graph, the app is doing very little. I suppose we should actually benchmark using it for 3-4 hours at a time. Can't argue about legal calculators.
Though saying "friendly [physical] UI" seems like an oxymoron to me--physical graphing calculators have some of the worst graphics I've ever seen.
- Physical buttons: when you're chewing through problems you absolutely MUST have physical buttons with tactile feedback. Like the calculator app on the iPhone (the default one) the buttons are way too small to even begin operating quickly.
- Battery life. My exams are often 3-4 hours long, and an iPhone would not be allowed as a legal calculator. Even if it were, the iPhone would have trouble holding a charge through the entire exam.
I just don't see much of a market for it. At a lower price point maybe - I see this app as being useful for possibly one-off equations, but nobody who needs this sort of software will use this app as their primary graphing calculator.
Now, what I would gladly pay for is a graphing calculator software that comes with a USB keypad. I have my graphing calculator with me always, but sometimes it's slow and the screen sucks. It would be wonderful to have the friendly physical user interface of the calculator and the power of the PC.