It’s not very often that I actually get pissed off by app updates, but then iGmail comes along and updates itself to 2.3.1 just so I can hate it. iGmail is a full-screen app that is supposed to make the Gmail web app more convenient to use. It has a few buttons along the bottom so that you can easily switch from message to message, and the previous 2.1 update added push notifications and Google Apps support as in-app purchases. I was wondering (after the release of 2.1) about whether or not the 2009 PUSH support was really only for 2009, or whether it was some sort of bad description. That’s all dreadfully clear now that the 2.3.1 update is out, and I’d call this one of the rare occasions where an app actually gets worse with an update.
There is now a 2010 Push support in-app purchase, which means that users that bought the $0.99 subscription for 2009 (which was only released on Nov. 19) are going to have to pay again in the new year. This might very well be due to some sort of limitation of in-app services, but it still seems incredibly silly to offer a 1.5 month subscription for $0.99 and then offer a similarly priced subscription that covers all of 2010. It’s their right to do this, and the onus is on users to read the descriptions properly, but it’s still a crappy move in my book.
However, what really ticks me off is how misleading the new “feature” to hide the shopping cart icon is. There’s this little shopping cart icon right beside the main controls which you can tap on to make in-app purchases, and it’s pretty easy to press accidentally, so the ability to hide it is a very welcome one. In the last version (2.1), you could hide all of the app controls along with the shopping cart under one green arrow at the bottom of the screen. In a very subtle move, iGmail 2.3.1 now features the shopping cart right beside the green arrow at all times, unless you hide it in Settings -> iGmail. Well, sort of. To be allowed the privilege of hiding the snotty little shopping cart, you’ve got to make an in-app purchase. “That’s alright”, I thought, “I already purchased the PUSH for 2009″.
Apparently not. Despite the fact that I wrote a blog post about testing the new PUSH features in 2.1 a few weeks ago, the new version of the app seems to have completely forgotten about my in-app purchase. No matter how many times I tap on the redeem button and enter my iTunes password, I’m always told that I have never made any in-app purchase. So instead of actually hiding the cart, iGmail shows a pop-up every single time I launch the app that tells me it won’t hide the cart unless I make an in-app purchase.
It’s not as if the shopping cart is insufferable, but as of the last version of the app, I was still able to hide it as long as I hid all of the controls. The fact is that the cart wasn’t really a huge problem last time, but this new version makes it an issue while simultaneously claiming to have made it even easier to hide.
I’m not saying the developers are being dishonest, but there is definitely a plain lack of consideration for the user base. This app has been tugged every which way: it started off at $1.99, then turned free, and now costs $0.99. It also disappeared for about two or three weeks after I wrote my review about it, and there was never any word in the App Store description about where it went. I could probably appreciate this new, slightly more obtrusive UI if the app had stayed free, but why should a $0.99 app be so aggressive about presenting its in-app purchases? Some users just want to use the app as a full-screen Gmail browser, and I paid the initial $1.99 price for version 1.0 for that very reason.
I’m guessing that the app’s bad memory for in-app purchases will be fixed soon enough, but I won’t be a user long enough to care. This latest shopping cart move, the lack of any real support for the first few months of the app’s release (the website only came up recently), and the silliness of offering a 1.5 month subscription for “the full year of 2009″ starting on November 19 is more than enough reason for me to delete this app and never come back.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I just don't see how you can complain about 99¢ for a year of push notifications. They chose to do it for 2009 and then have users pay again presumably so they could make more money than just doing a 1 year subscription (i.e. Nov 2009-Nov 2010). This would be something to complain about if it was a GPS app charging $20 for a yearly subscription. But $1? Kind of ridiculous.
Agreed Ben, and that's why the cart is a minor complaint — but it's a whole bunch of small points that killed the experience for me.
from my POV:
-they disappear from the app store for weeks without notice, so people who read the review on site couldn't even check the app out
-they come back and offer the app for free in 2.1, offer push for 2009 for only a week and a half (sillymove, but like you said — only $1)
-latest update comes out, price goes back up to $.99 (just plain inconsistent – doesn't affect me).
-latest update claims to add something to help the end user out "here, hide the shopping cart!" – and this would be for users who have already paid for an in-app purchase and no longer need the cart on-screen, or for users who don't want any in-app purchases and don't want the cart on-screen. Interestingly enough, I belong to both groups. I tried to hide the cart, at which point I received pop-ups on every load up insisting that I buy before I hide. Then I tried to activate my 2009 PUSH subscription so that I could hide the cart, but then found out that the app had forgotten I had any in-app purchases at all.
It's also precisely because this app is so cheap that it's a shame. For my purposes, it was a neat litle way for me to access full screen – nothing more. Like you said — if it was something like your GPS example or the 2Do app (which I use on a regular basis) — sure I'd give a crap and try to wait for a fix and contact the devs. iGmail, on the other hand, was a neat little toy, but this update killed the fun for me.
I don't understand why anyone would pay for this to begin with. $1 – $2 to get a tiny bit more screen space, plus $1/yr. for push notifications that already work for Gmail, directly in the native mail app for FREE.
In case anyone is wondering about Gmail push, (I'd be shocked if anyone here wouldn't know) here's a link to 'Google Sync' aka Microsoft Exchange support for Gmail: http://www.google.com/mobile/products/sync.html#p...
What am I missing?
@Joel
good link, and I also use Google Sync with my iphone mail app. However, the Mail app still doesn't have any kind of threaded messaging display. That's one of the coolest parts of the Gmail experience for me, and it's something that the web app already offers. Unfortunately, the web app is also in Safari and doesn't seem to want to go full-screen on its own, so I've got to rely on these little browser apps like iGmail to make a dedicated, full-screen gmail web app for me.
Ahh….threading, that is a good feature. I don't really get paying for full-screen, but screen real estate is precious.
Seems like if I wanted push AND threaded, full-screen messaging, I'd do push via the Mail app, and get one of the many full-screen browsers available in the app store. One like: http://itunes.apple.com/app/full-browser/id302757...
That would have its limitations too, but at least I wouldn't be handing my money (albeit little) to developers who are in a way, re-selling Gmail (which was never sold to begin with.)
Definitely a good point. I hadn't thought of using a full-screen browser or thought of the "reselling" Gmail aspect, although the latter doesn't bug me per se.
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