Cover art for the Blondie single "Call Me"

Some iPhone apps are useful. Others are entertaining. Over at Ars Technica, Jeff Smykll takes a shot at a series of paid apps whose value is highly questionable: the speed dial apps from JerryBeers.com. Smykll writes:

In what could be considered the least imaginative get-rich scheme in the history of the App Store, developer Jerry Beers of JerryBeers.com has created a slew of speed dial applications that allow users to dial a phone number by touching an icon on the iPhone's Home screen. The catch is that the developer is hard coding names into the apps; so while the number can change, the name cannot, allowing Beers to sell a plethora of applications with the only difference being the name on the icon, as well as a pink or blue icon based on the sex of the name.

Caveat emptor, right? Yes...were it not for the fact that these apps clog up the store, which potentially makes it harder for more dedicated developers to rise to the surface. While I'm sympathetic to Smykll's complaint, I'm not sure that it's really in anyone's interest for Apple to clamp down on such apps. However, it does drive home the point that the App Store is going to become less like a retail outlet and more like the Web. There will be a wide variety of content--some useful, some entertaining, and some whose value is highly questionable--for all of us to choose from. And in time, we'll come to see that diversity as a strength, not a weakness.

 Train tracks shrouded in fog. Photo courtesy of vsz.

According to Wikipedia, vaporware is "a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product." Every year, the tech industry gets us journalists all wound up about its new products, so we in turn wind you up, but a lot of them don't make it to market; hence the term vaporware. Wired has been handing out its Vaporware Awards for eleven years; you can see its 2008 list here.

My thoughts? While the recently released Home virtual chat room for Playstation 3 is certainly deserving of criticism, its inclusion on the list violates the spirit of the Vaporware Awards. After all, if a released product's beta status were enough to make it eligible, shouldn't Gmail (yup, still officially in beta) get a Lifetime Achievement Award? Other entries, like the Zap-X all-electric SUV (#7), GPS-maker Garmin's Nuvifone mobile phone (#5) and Blizzard's real-time strategy game StarCraft II (#4) are all worthy of the honor. As for the #1 choice--the twelve-years-in-development videogame Duke Nukem Forever (most games are completed in 12-36 months)--all I can say is, hail to the king.