It’s been just over three weeks since I released the first Showtime public beta. Since then the app’s undergone two major re-writes. The first involved a significant backend reshuffle, but ultimately meant that Showtime was able to track hundreds of additional programmes with greater accuracy, while the second, which hit devices earlier this week, centred exclusively on the front-end.
But development aside, I’ve noticed that Showtime has been involved in a number of recent debates over the future of the iPhone as a platform, and, perhaps more poignantly, questions over the relevancy and effectiveness of web-based applications as opposed to native solutions. Perhaps the major catalyst for Showtime’s involvement in said discussions was a tweet by the inimitable @gruber of Daring Fireball fame, which read:
Common answers so far for best iPhone web app: Gmail, Google Reader, Hahlo, Glyphboard, Showtime (http://showtime-app.com/) So: not much.
The tweet itself led to a flood of traffic (both directly and through subsequent retweets), as well as a direct response from Justin Williams, who stated:
The Web only Showtime allows you to see when your favorite TV shows air next. Both of these are great applications, but they miss the mark for a few reasons.
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I believe that with the current crop of Web technologies available in MobileSafari, apps like Hahlo, PocketTweets and Showtime could thrive as an alternative to their native counterparts if Apple allowed developers to adjust the scrolling/drag coefficient of Mobile WebKit.
I’m not going to get into the web app vs. native discussion in any great detail here. It’s been covered far more extensively elsewhere. But I would like to take a moment to say that I agree with Williams on almost every level. Apple has created something special with Mobile WebKit, so let’s hope they support web app development in the future with a more extensive API.
The final point I’d like to make revolves around the fact that web app development has allowed me to avoid the App Store in its entirety. As a result, Showtime updates can be deployed in seconds, allowing me to accurately gauge user reactions. An experience which, rather paradoxically, native app developers (who pay for the privilege) sadly seem to miss out on:
Just when I start to get comfortable with the App Store again, shit like this happens. I understand Apple is completely inundated with updates and applications, but that’s not my problem. If you’re going to set up a system with this many requirements, you’d damned well better be able to handle it efficiently. 30 days to approve a simple update is not efficient.
And what does waiting mean? As I’ve said before, it means tons of email a day and tons of bad reviews. It means answering the same question (“My GA widgets all report zero… what gives??”) 20 times a day. It means watching negative reviews pour in. Here are some excerpts from lovely recent reviews:
via Garrett Murray (who develops the incredible Ego app.
Of course, the best part of Showtime development is meeting total strangers who use the application on a regular basis and find it useful:
Another app that shows webapps can be just as good as native ones: http://showtime-app.com
‘Showtime’ sets the standard for web apps on iPhone, absolutely incredible!
all #mobile #webapps should work like #showtime
I agree. The Mobile Safari market is just beginning. Showtime is a great looking app.
Great job. Personally I believe this is the way to go. The purists may shout (they always do) but the bottom line is that you an iterate rapidly without intervention. That alone is worth the price of admission. I’d be interested to see how this web app works on non iPhones. As a side note we’ve been advocating the Mobile web app for some considerable time – the issue though is collecting enough context from the device in real time. To solve this problem we invented an app that sends real time meta data (whatever you want) via the HTTP protocol directly to your web service. Now there is no longer a need to query the device to see the location – your web app now knows it without having to ask for it.
Let me know if you want to learn more – we have a free version for Blackberry and Windows Mobile and we’re finishing off Android.
Cheers,
Peter
CEO 5o9 Inc.
The problem for Web apps is that they’re not universal yet. We just had a lost decade of IE6 and most smartphones still can’t run the Web effectively. If your Web app is only going to run on iPhone, then why not make it a native app and charge money for it?
What is needed is for non-Apple vendors to get their act together. They need to have the equivalent of Safari on their platform and then optionally a native app platform. When you can build one HTML5 app and it just works everywhere then Web apps gain an equal footing with native apps, like a yin yang, each doing the thing they are best at.
Im building together conciergeapp.com using the same framework and its a joy to use. Launching soon. There are cube effect transitions on there, but my older generation iPhone wont run them without visible delays. Completely agree with your sentiments on the need for native controls within WebKit. The OpenGL Core for a start…
[...] Original source : http://nial.me/2009/12/showtime-2/…; [...]
Hi,
I saw your web app today, I tried it on my iphone and I need to say nice work, I rarely saw a jqtouch custom app in a large audience like showtime would provide.
One thing however I saw was how the TV show list loading was slow, even on wifi. I was wondering if there was a specific reason why you avoided loading the list directly on the first page? instead of doing ajax later?
Thank you!
Great app, I am convinced that web apps will win over native iPhone apps. This app makes a compelling argument.
I just made my site iPhone capable by using JQTouch and it was pretty easy. I have a question for you. How do you guarantee a user get’s his list without a login. I figure that you are dropping a cookie on to the iPhone or can you get iPhone information through JQTouch?
Khalid, glad to hear you’re enjoying Showtime. The application itself creates an SQLite database the first time it’s run. From there, all of the Watchlist information is stored locally on your iPhone or iPod touch. JSON calls are then made to my webserver to poll for new show releases.
Hope this helps.