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Posts Tagged ‘Graphing Calculator’

Wolfram Alpha launches iPhone “knowledge engine” with a big price tag

Early reviews of Wolfram Alpha’s iPhone application, which appeared in the App Store over the weekend, have been pretty positive, but the $49.99 price is decidedly not a hit with bloggers.

The app is basically an iPhone- and iPod-Touch friendly interface for Wolfram Alpha, the online service that answers factual questions. There are some built-in favorite queries that give some idea of the range of possible answers, from “integrate x sin x log x” to “Big Mac + fries + coke.” The app includes many more examples, plus a way to save your own favorite queries and view your history.

All in all, it’s a solid package. But I wouldn’t even think about paying $50 for it.

Does my opinion matter, though? The company describes the app’s target audience as “the most serious users” (a group that I’m not part of), and it’s pitching the app as a substitute graphing calculator (a device I don’t use). Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber praises the move as a counterweight to the more common App Store development model, which discourages “deep, significant applications” that are worth a significant amount of money.

While I’m sympathetic to Gruber’s point, and I certainly don’t mind paying for substantive apps, TechCrunch’s MG Siegler and others have made a compelling case that $50 is just too high. Yes, it’s cheaper than a graphing calculator, but a graphing calculator doesn’t need an Internet connection. And, yes, it’s definitely an improvement on accessing the free Wolfram Alpha site on your phone, but it doesn’t feel like $50-worth of an improvement.

I’m guessing we’ll see the price drop eventually, but I think the current pricing is a worthwhile experiment. The price might also be undercut by an outside developer, making use of the Wolfram Alpha technology that the company just made public via an application programming interface.

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Wolfram Alpha’s iPhone App Launches: Lots of Power, But Too Expensive

Quite a bit ahead of schedule, Wolfram Alpha’s iPhone app appeared in the iTunes App Store today. The app, which costs $49.99, gives users full access to Wolfram Alpha’s capabilities and greatly improves on the speed and ergonomics of Wolfram Alpha’s mobile site. The company is targeting this app at students and professionals and marketing it as a replacement for stand-alone graphing calculators, which is clearly reflected in the price.

Sponsor

Dual Keyboards

One of the most interesting feature of the app, besides the ability to quickly access all of the power that Wolfram Alpha now offers, is the fact that the company has found a way to make inputing queries very easy. Instead of a single keyboard at the bottom of the screen, the app actually displays two keyboards – one for numbers and symbols, and a regular QWERTY keyboard at the bottom of the screen. Given the nature of a typical query for Alpha, this makes perfect sense and we hope that others will follow Alpha’s lead here.

A Web-Connected Graphing Calculator, But With Some Limitations

It’s important to note that the app only works when a user is connected to the Internet. This could be a deal-breaker for some, but then, the app store already offers plenty of basic graphing calculators for those times when you don’t have Internet access. Thanks to its vast database of chemical compounds, nutritional data, geographical information, financial data, and its ability to solve pretty much any math problem that a high school or college student will ever encounter, the app can do a lot more than any current graphing calculator can offer.

For some students, though, the problem could be that some teachers won’t allow them to bring a full-blown Internet-capable device like the iPhone or an iPod touch into an exam. In addition, it’s also important to note that the Wolfram Alpha doesn’t offer the ability to write programs inside the app, though maybe somebody else will build an app that can do this based on Alpha’s newly released API.

It’s also important to remember that Alpha isn’t as easy to use as Google. Alpha, and, by extension, the app, can be rather strict about how you structure a query, for example. If you don’t capitalize a chemical formula, the app won’t know what to do with these symbols. While Google has virtually no learning curve, Alpha works best if you invest some time into exploring the intricacies of how to structure queries. To help you along the way, the app features a demo video, lots of example queries, and an FAQ section.

Native App Offers a Bit More Than the Web Service, But Is That Enough to Justify the High Price?

In its press materials, the Wolfram Alpha team stresses that the app offers a number of features that the web app can’t currently offer. The app can now make assumptions based on your location, for example. Wolfram also has added quite a few features that make using the app easier than using the web service. You can easily bookmark queries and the app keeps a running list of recent searches available as well. In addition, you can easily email queries or share them on Twitter.

Is $50 Too Much?

At $49.99, there can be no doubt that Wolfram Research is pricing the app at the higher end of the spectrum. A spokesperson for Wolfram Alpha told us that the company wants to target the app at “serious users, and is priced as such.” The team is clearly aware that this price could be controversial, especially given that the mobile web site offers a similar interface, though without the ergonomic benefits of the native app. In addition, Wolfram tells us that the team wants to use this price to make a statement about the “non-trivial nature” of Wolfram Alpha’s capabilities.

While the company plans to offer regular discounts and sales, we can’t help but wonder if the price isn’t a bit too high. At $9.99 or even $19.99, the app would be more of an impulse buy, while now, even though it obviously offers more features than a user would ever expect from a high-priced hardware graphing calculator which would generally retail for more than $100.

Verdict

Wolfram Alpha launched to so much hype that a backlash was inevitable when it finally launched. As Schoeller Porter, the product manager for the iPhone app, notes, the company is also launching this app “as an opportunity to highlight how far the system has come since launch.” Indeed, the Wolfram Alpha team continues to add new data sources and new ways to query them, making the service more useful with every new dataset it adds.

The high price will probably keep quite a few potential users from downloading the app, however. While we understand the company’s rational behind this high price, users generally consider a $10 app to be a ‘premium’ product. $49.99 is a hefty price for this app, especially considering that the majority of features is available through the web service. If you are a student or engineer who really needs these features, though, the app is worth a look, but we recommend you try the web service and see how it works for the kinds of queries you would enter before you spend $50, especially given that the company will surely offer discounts or bring the base price down at some point.

Discuss

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Wolfram Alpha Miscalculates What Its iPhone App Should Cost

Apple wasted little time approving Wolfram Alpha’s new iPhone app, which we hinted at last week. Just a few days after they submitted it to the store, Apple sailed it right through the approval process with such speed that it even surprised the Wolfram Alpha team, which had hoped to get some feedback from testers before the approval. I was one of those people, so rather than send them feedback, I’ll write it here.

There are two key points about Wolfram Alpha’s iPhone app: 1) It is pretty cool, and very nicely done. 2) They’re insane for trying to sell it for $50.

I’m going to mainly focus on second point here, because if you’ve used Wolfram Alpha, you don’t really need much explanation about this app, which is a slick interface for the service. And while I get Wolfram Alpha’s logic behind selling the app for $50, I think it’s faulty logic. Here’s what they’re telling us:

A note on price — it is listed at $49.99, which is basically less than 1/2 the price of a graphing calculator with inferior functionality in comparison, which is how the company came to that number. Or, as we’ve been saying, the price of 12 lattes from Starbucks…

Both of those points are true, but the App Store has created a different economic reality than say, walking into an Office Max and buying a graphing calculator. It’s no secret that most apps that sell well tend to be cheaper — as in, free or $0.99. Apple has recently tried to de-emphasize this by adding a “Top Grossing” section to the App Store. That’s fine, but with the exception of the $90 Navigon GPS turn-by-turn app, all of the top grossing apps are under $10. And most are under $3.

The reality is that you can probably count the number of iPhone apps over $10 that sell really well on your hands. Of those, the number over $20, you can probably count on one hand. And of those, if you remove the GPS turn-by-turn apps and maybe a few apps meant for doctors, you’re probably down to a couple fingers.

And I’m sorry, but Wolfram Alpha does not yet have the clout of Navigon, nor is it in the hot turn-by-turn GPS space that would warrant such a high price. “We do plan to offer regular discounts and sales,” the team tells us. But if they really want this app to sell, they’re going to have to knock off like 90% of its price. Actually, to be honest, even at $10, I’m not sure how many people would buy this app.

And that’s too bad for the team. As I said, the app is a solid one, but this is the reality of the App Store. Games that sell on systems like the Nintendo DS for $30, are $3 on the iPhone. Hell, there are even some games that sell on the bigger consoles for $60 that are less than $10 on the iPhone. They’re not quite as good graphics-wise, but I would argue that they’re every bit as fun. And don’t think for a second that studios like EA wouldn’t sell them for $30 if they could, but they realize that they can’t.

Wolfram Alpha may have to figure that reality out the hard way. It’s fine that it can replace your $100 graphing calculator, but it’s also limited because it requires WiFi or a 3G connection to do so. And the iPhone already comes with a calculator, which can turn into a more advanced one, and both of those are free. And there are dozens of graphing calculator apps in the App Store that sell for a whopping $0.99.

Okay, you might say, but Wolfram Alpha does offer a lot of interesting data far beyond graphing calculators. That’s also true, like giving you a detailed read out of how many calories are in a Big Mac, fries, and a Coke. But if you’re using this on your iPhone or iPod touch, you already have access to Google, and more to the point, the mobile web version of Wolfram Alpha, which is free.

Clearly, the service had some insight into how controversial the price will be. They go on to note:

The core WolframAlpha site will always be free. This is one of several “premium” experiences that the company will offer in addition. The app is targeted at the most serious users, and is priced as such. Likewise, we feel that the app’s egonomics and speed make it well worth the investment.

I can only assume they mean “ergonomics” there, but we’ll forgive them for that Freudian slip.

The app absolutely does offer a nice experience, one that yes, is better than the free website. But $50 better? No. $10 better? Maybe. $5 better? We’re getting closer. Again, right or wrong, this is just the reality of the App Store economy.

As we’ve noted previously, the iPhone app is the first example of Wolfram Alpha’s new APIs that they hope will extend their most valuable asset: Their data. But if you’re trying to get more people to use access your data, charging $50 is not a great play. A better one may be to get people hooked on your data, then charge down the road when they realize how valuable it is — if they ever do, which is still far from certain with Wolfram Alpha.

It’s also interesting to note that despite talk of a deal with Bing, the defautl web search in the Wolfram Alpha app is Google. Both Bing and Yahoo are options, but you have to change it in the settings.

You can find the Wolfram Alpha app here in the App Store.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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Wolfram Alpha’s iPhone App Launches: Lots of Power, But at a High Price

Quite a bit ahead of schedule, Wolfram Alpha’s iPhone app appeared in the iTunes App Store today. The app, which costs $49.99, gives users full access to Wolfram Alpha’s capabilities and greatly improves on the speed and ergonomics of Wolfram Alpha’s mobile site. The company is targeting this app at students and professionals, which is clearly reflected in the price.

Sponsor

Dual Keyboards

One of the most interesting feature of the app, besides the ability to quickly access all of the power that Wolfram Alpha now offers, is the fact that the company has found a way to make inputing queries very easy. Instead of a single keyboard at the bottom of the screen, the app actually displays two keyboards – one for numbers and symbols, and a regular QWERTY keyboard at the bottom of the screen. Given the nature of a typical query for Alpha, this makes perfect sense and we hope that others will follow Alpha’s lead here.

A Web-Connected Graphing Calculator on Steroids

It’s important to note that the app only works when a user is connected to the Internet. This could be a deal-breaker for some, but then, the app store already offers plenty of basic graphing calculators for those times when you don’t have Internet access. Thanks to its vast database of chemical compounds, nutritional data, geographical information, financial data, and its ability to solve pretty much any math problem that a high school or college student will ever encounter, the app can do a lot more than any current graphing calculator can offer.

For some students, though, the problem could be that some teachers won’t allow them to bring a full-blown Internet-capable device like the iPhone or an iPod touch into an exam. In addition, it is also important to note that the Wolfram Alpha doesn’t offer the ability to write programs inside the app, though maybe somebody else will build an app that can do this based on Alpha’s newly released API.

It’s also important to remember that Alpha isn’t as easy to use as Google. Alpha, and, by extension, the app, can be rather strict about how you structure a query, for example. If you don’t capitalize a chemical formula, the app won’t know what to do with these symbols. While Google has virtually no learning curve, Alpha works best if you invest some time into exploring the intricacies of how to structure queries. To help you along the way, the app features a demo video, lots of example queries, and an FAQ section.

Native App Offers a Bit More Than the Web Service, But Is That Enough to Justify the High Price?

In its press materials, the Wolfram Alpha team stresses that the app offers a number of features that the web app can’t currently offer. The app can now make assumptions based on your location, for example. Wolfram also has added quite a few features that make using the app easier than using the web service. You can easily bookmark queries and the app keeps a running list of recent searches available as well. In addition, you can easily email queries or share them on Twitter.

Is $50 Too Much?

At $49.99, there can be no doubt that Wolfram Research is pricing the app at the higher end of the spectrum. A spokesperson for Wolfram Alpha told us that the company wants to target the app at “serious users, and is priced as such.” The team is clearly aware that this price could be controversial, especially given that the mobile web site offers a similar interface, though without the ergonomic benefits of the native app. In addition, Wolfram tells us that the team wants to use this price to make a statement about the “non-trivial nature” of Wolfram Alpha’s capabilities.

While the company plans to offer regular discounts and sales, we can’t help but wonder if the price isn’t a bit too high. At $9.99 or even $19.99, the app would be more of an impulse buy, while now, even though it obviously offers more features than a user would ever expect from a high-priced hardware graphing calculator which would generally retail for more than $100.

Verdict

Wolfram Alpha launched to so much hype that a backlash was inevitable when it finally launched. As Schoeller Porter, the product manager for the iPhone app, notes, the company is also launching this app “as an opportunity to highlight how far the system has come since launch.” Indeed, the Wolfram Alpha team continues to add new data sources and new ways to query them, making the service more useful with every new dataset it adds.

The high price will probably keep quite a few potential users from downloading the app, however. While we understand the company’s rational behind this high price, users generally consider a $10 app to be a ‘premium’ product. $49.99 is a hefty price for this app, especially considering that the majority of features is available through the web service. If you are a student or engineer who really needs these features, though, the app is worth a look, but we recommend you try the web service and see how it works for the kinds of queries you would enter before you spend $50, especially given that the company will surely offer discounts or bring the base price down at some point.

Discuss

Read the whole story…

Dell’s China-bound smartphone possibly called ‘mini 3i,’ but questions abound

Alright, you know how Dell’s seemingly been going through hell and high water for years now to try to bring a smartphone or two to market? China’s been a special focus of this clandestine effort, and we’ve got some new information here — possibly. Chinese site NetEase is reporting on an email supposedly received by developers on China Mobile’s Mobile Market mailing list, discussing a handful of S60, WinMo, and Android-based Open Mobile System (OMS) devices that the carrier would really love devs to concentrate on as Mobile Market goes live and tries to gain some footing. Most of the content is mundane, but there’s a section for an OMS device called the Dell “mini 3i,” a name that would certainly fall right in line with Dell’s branding — but there are a couple issues here. First, the phone is said to operate on China Mobile’s legacy GSM network, not the homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G tech that the carrier is working diligently to deploy right now; it seems illogical at best for Dell to get into the game with a phone that’s immediately walloped by Lenovo with its 3G-capable O1 as the first volley of OMS phones comes to market over the coming weeks. Secondly there’s absolutely zero discussion about the supposed email on OMS’ official forums, which seems odd if the email’s real. To its credit, the claimed 640 x 360 — that’s a perfect 16:9, if you can’t be bothered to get out your graphing calculator — sounds about right to match the rumored shot we’ve seen floating around lately, but we’re still staying guarded on this one until we hear something official from the folks in Austin or Hong Kong.

[Via Cloned In China]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Dell’s China-bound smartphone possibly called ‘mini 3i,’ but questions abound originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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