Covering iPhone Apps?
Friday, June 26, 2009 at 10:54AM 
I always try to get the balance of shows right, trying to alternate between decent third party apps (both free and commercial), iPhone and iPod touch apps and using OS X itself.
This week is one of those weeks where viewers already have all the applications installed on their machines, so no additional expense required! (presuming they're on 10.5 of course).
I love doing shows (especially members shows) where the application is free or relatively low cost.
The last couple of shows have had iPhone or iPod Touch components included and again, I’m conscious of the fact that ScreenCastsOnline is all about “Getting the most of your Mac”. My feelings are that a good percentage of the typical ScreenCastsOnline audience are likely to have these devices (if not now, then some time in the future) and as they are so much a part of the mac ecosystem, it’s perfectly valid for me to include iPod touch or iPhone apps going forward, especially if the app syncs with a Mac application.
What do you think?
Reader Comments (9)
I think it's totally applicable as more and more apps become available for syncing your iPhone/iPod Touch with desktop apps.
Anything Apple-related is fine with me (Macs, iPhones/iPod touches, software)
I'm fine with coverage of iPhone apps - just as long as they have some relevance to work/life with a Mac. I think that a focus on apps with a strong Mac integration component (such as Evernote or Things) are most appropriate.
I agree with the other commenters: yes, okay to do iPhone/Touch apps, Especially if they work with the mac in some way. I have a Touch, so I'm a bit biased, I'll admit. But I don't have a media centre and am not interested but didn't mind the fact you did a whole series on those...
I concur! I think it's a good balance and most people now have more than one Apple device and part of the fun is how well they work together.
Watching the coverage on the iphone apps helped me make the decision to get an iphone.
Don,
Fine by me to include iPhone and iPod Touch apps but have to say I am getting a lot out of the Mac montage shows that you do.
Anything Apple related is fine by me. I also enjoy the behind the scenes shows as it gives me an eye opener of the time and energy that goes into the shows.
Gonna go against the flow here and say if there's a market for iPhone screencasts it would be best to serve it separately (you then tap in to two overlapping but not identical markets).
(I wrote the marketing bits in "More Than A Name: An Introduction to Branding" so the following is "expert" opinion ;-)
Do a Venn diagram - in one circle you have Mac owners, in the other you have iPhone owners. Where the two overlap is your market for Screencasts Online that covers iPhone *and* Mac. You make subscribing a less compelling prospect for Mac owners without iPhones, and iPhone owners without Macs wouldn't subscribe at all. In other words, from a branding/marketing POV branching out into iPhone apps would damage the core brand. You need to do a "brand extension".
My suggestion would be to develop an iPhone Screencasts strand that's free - serve it up as an iPhone app and use it as a way of advertising the paid subs to Mac Screencasts. (the time involved would be an issue but I get the impression you're about ready to recruit a helper anyway!)
I think too that it's particularly important because most iPhone apps are very cheap, and very simple. And I think those that need explanation have pretty good ones built in or on the vendor's website. A subscriber who started getting screencasts for a cheap easy-to-use iPhone app might feel their subs are no longer worth it - even if the iPhone screencasts were effectively free.
Interestingly I'd been thinking about this for a few weeks as a lot of the recent SCOs haven't interested me at all - the media centre and AppleTV ones, for example - and it seems there might be a need to create a separate strand of screencasts for that type of programme. The Bento one was a return to form (though not as interesting or as in-depth as usual)
Hope that marketing insight helps :-)
Don -- Well, the media centre and AppleTV screencasts DID interest me! And I have an iPhone, so I'm interested in those as well. I do believe, Don, that you can connect with the viewer more personally by including yourself in the screencast, as in the recent Boinx Bitnapping tutorial:
http://www.boinx.com/chronicles/2009/6/25/bitnappingtv-023-fotomagico--multiple-zooms-in-one-image/
There's a big difference between simply hearing a narration and actually seeing the facial expression of the narrator. I know that your "style" has worked successfully for you and "if it isn't broken, then don't fix it" but I think you should try it and gauge reaction.