tyVan-LookingOutwards03

Multi-homing in the Apple ecosystem: why and
how developers target multiple Apple app stores
By Andrei Idu, Tommy van de Zande, Slinger Jansen

Article I read for this LO^^^

For this LO, I read an ACM journal article about app development for multiple Apple
sub-ecosystems: iPhone, iPad, & Mac. Although this paper is less interaction-oriented
and more market strategy-focused, I was able to glean a few insights into thoughts discovered through user testing. These ideas hint at the effectiveness of cross-system
app development, and give me ideas for future studies. Honestly, this paper was initially chosen because Tommy, one of the authors, shares a last name with me 😉

The paper asks two relevant questions about user interaction with apps:
Is there a relation between the type of application and the number of platforms it
targets? What motivates a publisher to develop an application for multiple platforms?

The iPad study shows that productivity and business related apps are the most popular category within its sub-ecosystem. One logical conclusion from this is that businesses or enterprises use iPads over iPhones. Most apps were developed for iPhone first, then ported to iPad. “Companies believe most Apple users own more than one Apple product.” One negative interaction stated is users expect the same app on an iPhone and iPad to behave the exact same, which is often not the case.

For a future study, I propose  a user study time of multi-sub-ecosystem
apps in a single-situational use case.

Does an iPad, iPhone, and Mac program have complementary functionality ? Can they be used in different situations for the same task?