Desire for iTunes Playlist Tip

Apple likes to talk about how their software "just works". Use any product long enough and you'll know that's not true. Apple is no exception. For years I've been frustrated about not being able to delete a song from my playlist as well as from my iTunes library. I thought to myself, "how can Apple not include a delete feature like that?" Well, it turns out there is a keystroke to perform that exact task. I like to think of myself as a Mac power user, but you can't know every tip and trick and this is one I never learned. To remove a song from your iTunes library when in a playlist, select the song, hold option and hit delete. Relief!

iPhone and Touch App Store Addiction

Are you one of the growing numbers of those obsessed with installing applications on your Touch or iPhone? Free and $.99 apps have created app addicts who are nothing short of compulsive about trying new applications. The insatiable appetite for applications demonstrates the ease of finding and installing applications mixed with the human curiosity and fun of trying something new. Blackberry users can only be in envy of the App Store compared to Blackberry's App World! The experience isn't the same....

The $.99 iPhone App Deliberation

If you're like most iPhone and Touch users, the next best thing to a free application is one for $.99. Consumers flock to low priced apps. I have pages of them! The value oriented applications subsequently rank high on sites that track app sales due to their high volume. While shoppers are drawn to the lower priced applications many have found the quality is equal to the price they paid. Now that's not always true and there are some excellent applications for $.99. However, vendors who feel they produce an excellent quality product feel a tremendous amount of pressure to price towards the lower end just to compete with the sheer volume of $.99 applications. For a developer, an apps revenue stream can be greatly diminished by the low end pricing pressure. In a world with thousands of applications, how does one complete with $.99? Apple is discussing if it makes sense to reorganize their categorization in an attempt to address this. It does make sense for "top" applications to have additional dimensions other than just volume of sales. Ratings should certainly be part of the equation. More expensive applications need a way to stay competitive on "top 10" and "top 100" lists. Perhaps "top" lists by price point is the way to go. Any ideas?

Marketing Machine Moderation for Snow Leopard

Apple continues down the development path with Snow Leopard by issuing another "seed" to developers this week. The public release of OS X Snow Leopard isn't due until September, but what we do know so far is that it will be a very modest release in terms of end user features. This must create quite the quandary for Apple's Marketing team. Apple OS releases are typically given center stage and attract Apple users at all levels. This release doesn't generate that level of excitement as with other releases. Would Apple want to place the same marketing effort in Snow Leopard as they've done in the past with other OS releases? Does Apple run the risk of too much hype and setting expectations too high? Perhaps the $29 upgrade fee speaks for itself. It will be interesting to see how Snow Leopard is marketed as we approach the Fall.