I jumped right in with both feet and purchased the $15 version about a week before the Tour de France was to start.
Right up front I admitted to myself that there was a definite risk here, but Versus TV's coverage of the TDF has always been superlative, so for some completely bizarre reason I thought that level of quality might translate over into an iPhone app.
Ha! Fool me once...
(Realize that I have bought other expensive sports apps: at $32 Soft Pauer's Formula One "F1 2010 Timing App Championship Version" is twice as expensive as the TDF app, but it's an absolute gem, and has been well worth every penny. Of course, Soft Pauer is a software developer, unlike the "developer" of Versus' TDF app).
Anyway...
I've just downloaded, sync'ed and rebooted my iPhone 3G S, iOS 4.0 with version 1.6.1 of the pay version (there's a free version also, ver 1.6.1, that's nothing but but a platform for incessant nags that try to coerce you to upgrade to the pay version).
So, with the Tour de France 30% over, and with it ending in less than 3 weeks, the "Official Tour de France iPhone Application", at version 1.6.1, still has every single one of the bugs and flaws that it had in it a week ago.
Meanwhile, yesterday at the Apple App Store, Versus TV's "Official Tour de France iPhone Application" was rated as the 6th highest-grossing pay iPhone app!
On the "Official Tour de France iPhone Application" Facebook page what was a pretty steady downpour of critical comments on either the Wall or in the Discussions forums has now stopped almost entirely.
People have just given up.
Like all good American consumerist sheeple, we've learned to buy what's presented to us, not to expect much in terms of value, and certainly not to expect anything even vaguely approaching customer support.
As it is, the "developer" of the "Official Tour de France iPhone Application" Participant Sports is not a software developer at all but rather a marketing company:
We provide a full services program that has resulted in enormous success for our clients in developing their property for sponsors, engaging and closing multi-year sponsorship agreements (over $50M in contract value since 2008), and then using online and mobile technology to engage the participants of the sports and activate the sponsorship relationship.
And the "support" from either Versus TV or Participant Sports has ranged from non-existent to utterly laughable.
Get this:
Official Tour de France iPhone Application Tip #1: If you aren't hearing audio on your video stream, your phone is probably in vibrate. You need to turn vibrate off.
Oh. I see. We've had our phones on vibrate all this time but have just been too stupid to notice! That explains everything!
But the larger issue beyond all this is just how something as dreadful as this app (despite 3 new versions, at least that I'm aware of)
1) ever got approved in the first place,
2) remains on sale despite all its obvious problems, and
3) how it got|gets such high ratings (currently 3 stars - 113 ratings for the "current version" - whatever that is)
Apple's iStore app review process is legendary: it takes weeks, and allegedly Apple scrutinizes all sorts of picky issues before it anoints an application as being worthy of the Apple App Store crown.
So how the hell did this particular POS *ever* get approved?
Probably because it was being pushed by a fourth- or fifth-tier cable sports network, Versus TV, who went on about having to make a deadline because the Tour starts, runs, and then is over and done with forever.
But it's exactly this short shelf-life that makes this all such a travesty: the app's purchasers are being unknowingly dragooned into beta-testing an app that should have never been put up for sale in the first place, all the while the useful lifespan of what they've put out $15 for is dropping by the day.
I've sent in detailed "Report a Problem" narratives from the App Store via my iPhone on an-almost-daily basis, listing specific, repeatable bugs and deficiencies in the "Official Tour de France iPhone Application" and I have yet to receive any response -- that is to say no response whatsoever -- from whomever it is that gets these "Problem" reports. I'm betting that Apple just shit-cans them.
This farce also highlights the completely bogus nature of Apple's App Store ratings process: conservatively, 50% of the ratings are by App Store Fanbois who get off on putting on an app and immediately rushing back to the App Store to post a rave review.
Ratings like "Great app!" "Best app ever!" "I love this app!" sum up the depth and detail of many of the "ratings".
If you're an App Store Fanboi, fifteen seconds of fame times [some really large number] is pretty gratifying.
Probably better than sex, to an Apple App Store Fanboi.
But it doesn't tell anyone anything really useful about how good (or bad) a particular app really is.
Particularly one that costs $15.
Particularly one that costs $15 and that should have never made it out of beta.
Particularly one that costs $15, that should have never made it out of beta, and that will be obsolete on July 26.
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