The universal problem: iPhone to iPad app and game conversions
The iPad is now in the wild in the US, and devs are frantically updating iPhone apps to take advantage of the new hardware. However, many are taking advantage of eager consumers, excited about their new device and keen to use some products on it that they already recognise as great.
There are essentially three paths a developer can take, other than doing nothing, relying on the iPad’s ability to run most iPhone apps via scaling—but this isn’t an option for good developers, because the resulting graphics and UI don’t work well. All other paths have compromises, but only two are acceptable. Unfortunately, many take the third way.
The first option is to create a universal app. This means the app works on both iPhone and iPad, and it optimises itself accordingly. The compromise here is that people only owning iPhones will end up with a larger app for no added benefit. However, I think this is a good route to take—it’s very fair on consumers, and for anyone considering buying an iPad it’s great from a value perspective. Some devs have taken to raising the price of universal apps by $1, to cover the extra work involved, and I think that’s also fine.
Example: PCalc, which now boasts a glorious iPad-specific interface, and costs precisely nothing extra. (App Store links: PCalc, PCalc Lite.)
The second option is to create an upgraded iPad app. In this case, the app is iPad-specific and doesn’t work on the iPhone, and yet it’s based heavily on existing content. The important thing here is to add plenty of extra value. Games are a popular kind of product to update in this manner, and many iPad reworkings of iPhone games offer not only a better experience in terms of controls and graphics, but also new features and levels. Again, I consider this a fine way to rework iPhone content for iPad.
Example: Flight Control HD, which builds on the original game and offers co-op/battle and split-screen two-player modes, and a bunch of new levels. (App Store link: Flight Control HD.)
The third option—the bad option—is to update the graphics, charge loads of money, and do nothing else. This is a surprisingly common option right now. Games especially appear to be arriving in ‘HD’ forms that merely offer higher-resolution graphics over the iPhone originals.
James Thomson, who resolutely avoided this route with his calculator app PCalc, finds this ‘third way’ problematic. “I think the right to charge again for an iPad update to an existing iPhone game depends entirely on how much work has been done—just setting the iPad flag and doing a recompile certainly doesn’t justify it,” he says. “Just imagine a Mac game developer wanting to charge you extra to change the resolution from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 728. If there’s significant work done to the graphics, or new features added, then I think it’s more palatable. There’s a line somewhere, and the market will decide exactly where it is.”
I agree and fully understand that extra work is required to optimise any game for iPad, but it’s also clear that certain devs are simply taking advantage of the iPad’s launch frenzy and not considering their existing customers. I suspect such devs don’t realise that there’s going to be a backlash against their products. Classic iPhone games such as Soosiz and Angry Birds are already getting poor reviews in their HD incarnations because they don’t provide great value—something iPhone gaming had become synonymous with.
I’m hoping over the coming months that more devs go down one of the two higher-value routes and that consumers act with their wallets and largely ignore apps remade with little or no regard for added value. However, time will tell if that’s the case, and if people flock to apps that merely up the resolution but otherwise charge for the same content, that’ll set a nasty precedent, tempting to anyone wanting to make a fast buck off the back of existing popular titles.
I find the universal app is the best way to do it. Good article.
But one thing to consider is that if you wanted the same app on your MacBook and your iMac, you would have to buy two copies – so why should the iPad & iPhone be able to use the same app? As it is now, I use my only purchased once apps on three iPhones because of how the iTunes account works so I’m used to being able to use them on multiple devices. Because of this, universal just seems best – unless the app has more/different features (in that case they should name it different rather than slapping an HD/XL on it)
Actually, whether you’d need multiple copies for multiple machines depends on the licensing terms the seller offers. Typically, many provide terms that enable installation on multiple devices, as long as the app in question isn’t used on said devices at the same time.
Also, this is a very different market, and it’s a better value proposition to enable people to use existing apps on their new device, or to offer them a reason to ‘upgrade’. As Thomson said, people would be narked by being charged more than the original purchase price to run a game in a larger window. However, people aren’t angry if the upgrade provides a bunch more content, hence my thinking that the second option is also more than acceptable for devs wanting to rework content for iPad.