Apple.com has posted up the winners of the WWDC 2009 Apple Design Awards (APA), and specifically for our interests, the iPhone winners. Like last year, a lot of our favorites got the nod. Here they are, with iTunes links where available:
Okay, I admit it, I am a die hard baseball fan. One of the first apps I bought last year was MLB At Bat, and when I heard it was coming out again, after a brief period of annoyance, I decided to purchase it again.
On a side note, I expect to see many more subscription based or “partial” purchase based apps with the new pricing methods in the app store. I don’t think it bodes well.
But anyway, I decided to get the app when I saw that this year it included the MLB Audio – radio broadcasts of the games. As a bonus, you get to choose the stream to listen to!
Well, Baseball season is fast approaching and you all know what the means: Major League Baseball is taking full advantage and is releasing two new MLB At Bat apps.
The first is available right now in the iTunes store, MLB At Bat Lite. Good thing is, that app is completely free. It’s essentially the same app as last years paid app minus in-game video highlights.
The paid version of MLB At Bat 2009 will be available on April 3rd in the App Store with a price as yet-to-be determined. What this version offers in comparison to the lite version is actual in-game live audio and in-game video highlights (not to be confused with actual live video feeds). With the live in-game audio you will have some options. You have the choice to listen to the home or away teams’ own broadcasters, which is a really nice feature.
The big question here is the price for this app. MLB.com mobile has the same in-game audio feature currently and that alone costs $4.99 a month. So what does that mean, if anything, for this iPhone app? Are we looking at a subscription fee on top of the price of the app? If so, why not simply update the app we purchased last year for $5.00. Seems to us like MLB is double dipping here…
So all of you Baseball fans out there, what is your take on this?
MLB At Bat just announced a price cut that puts the price at a very affordable $2.99 (from $5) to get an impressive app with a slick interface and great features. Good deal, right? How thoughtful of you MLB to cut the price just in time for playoffs so us fans can get a taste of the action. WRONG.
Why is it a bad deal? Because you have to buy MLB At Bat again next year! The current version of MLB At Bat will expire after the end of the season which is in approximately the end of this month. Maybe even sooner. So if it’s worth it to you to spend money on an app that will be useless in a few weeks time, by golly do it! But for the rest of us, Sportacular should work fine.
Does anyone else think charging users every year is a little ridiculous? Maybe I’m still in shock over the 6th inning of the NLCS and a little peeved about this whole baseball thing but I just don’t find it good practice on MLB’s part-they need to highlight this aspect a little better. But maybe after Game 2, I’ll celebrate in utter jubilation by buying an app that will soon be worthless?
The MLB is again bungling this whole technology thing–remember they switched DRM for their videos back in 07 and users lost ALL previously purchased videos. DRM sucks but having things wrongfully taken away from you blows even more.
