Camera+ iOS Photography App – Updated And Loses Customers!
Possibly the ‘most popular mobile photography app in the world’ Camera+ has possibly just undone all the good. Customers appear to be uninstalling Camera+ from their devices at a rate of knots. Why, you may well ask. Has the new update broken something? Filled iOS devices with bugs? Well, it appears not, but reports are flying in that the editorial that accompanied the update has set some customers aflame (not just in the Halloween sense).
Taptaptap the developers of Camera+ according to the reports via their Twitter feed have played this one too controversially and naturally it hasn’t gone down well.
‘Ridiculous update notes from @taptaptap Camera+ today. Deleted. Said Christine Chan via Twitter. Ben Ho via the same medium had this to say ‘@taptaptap I totally lost all my respect for you after reading your release notes’. Matt Farmer went on to say ‘@taptaptap and now I know what app I’m deleting off my phone’ and so it goes on – what did they say? Seems their success has gone a little to their head. Makes me recall a conversation I had with an Editor of a camera magazine I worked on when promoted to Technical Editor, I was incredibly excited and proud, he said to me and I’ve held these words close for many years ‘keep those feet on the ground Joanne, once they start to rise, you’ve lost it’. Wise words.
We’ve attached a copy of the release notes below, let us know your thoughts…
Update Notes Below
‘So the jury’s in… based on all the feedback from our last update, you nice guys & gals made it loud and clear that you really appreciate that we continuously update Camera+ AND that we don’t try to nickel-and-dime you in the process. There’ve been the cries of, “devs gotta eat!” by a small handful, but we’re more of the mindset that some devs can stand to shed a few pounds (we’re no stranger to the allure of the Baconator ourselves, so we can empathize).
We’re very hard at work on Camera+ 5, which will have some really awesome things in it and will be a totally free update for you… but today we have a very nice, minor update that fixes some problems that some of you are having, especially if you have an iPhone 4S.
We also fixed a few sharing issues including one where the “Open In…” feature wouldn’t always work properly. And we added a bunch of options for what you can do with the links you get after you share photos.
In this update we took a little time put more spit-shine on some of the details that we missed during the big rush to get the iOS7ified version of Camera+ out in time for the iOS 7 launch. Our excuse for missing these things the first time around is that our eyes had been recovering from being blinded by all the bright, candy colors in iOS 7′.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
15 Comments
Robert Lancaster
I, for one, don’t see what all the fuss is about.
Robert-Paul Jansen
A few people say they deleted the app, probably people who already use other apps? C+ has sold millions of apps and only a few don’t het this. It’s humor people.. Humor with a message, but still.
I don’t mind paying for an upgrade when it’s all new, but I do like the way c+ keeps their updates free.
StaceyM
What am I missing here? That they are proud of a great app and that they don’t make you pay for every filter pack? This is bad? I don’t get it.
Mike
Me either. I see nothing offensive in these statements. I installed Camera+ several years ago and then moved on to another I like better. Maybe I’ll reinvestigate C+ now so I’m going against the grain I guess. 😉
Misho Baranovic
I don’t think it’s very funny Robert-Paul. I took the release notes personally as did a lot of app writers and developers. Development is very difficult, I saw up close how much time and effort went into the new ProCamera 7 over the past six months.
Camera+ should consider themselves fortunate that they are in a situation where they don’t have to worry about finances. Telling other developers how to run their business is disrespectful. Really uncool.
They should instead focus on making the app as good as it can be. They certainly have the money for it.
Darren Richards
Hey Misho,
I know we spoke before about Procamera charging for 7.0 and I was one of the people who was totally happy to pay for the new version – you’ve got the only really good preset browser I’ve used for starters 😉
So I understand your point as a developer, but I am surprised that end-users are so upset by the comments. Its a pleasant surprise that people are so sympathetic of the developer’s perspective.
Oliver
It’s not obvious at first, but when you look at the situation closely it’s clear that they’ve tried to smear other apps in their app update.
Why would the makers of an app that has charged users for features through in-app-purchases throughout their existence take a swipe at other developers for charging for new versions?
What a cheap, cold and calculated attempt to look good -absolutely lacking in clarity.
Darren Richards
“There’ve been the cries of, “devs gotta eat!” by a small handful, but we’re more of the mindset that some devs can stand to shed a few pounds”
Maybe it was that ? Personally as a dev who could shed a few, it cracked me up 🙂
David
hmmm. I don’t think this is true. Just a couple of people don’t make a news, probably the figures from taptaptap are different.
Personally, I like their release notes, I always read them with pleasure and I like their style.
However, there are so many camera replacement apps that today Camera+ is not so necessary as it was at the beginning. In any case, one of the reason I keep the app is because of their continuous updates and original release notes. 😉
StickyQuote
I think it has something to do with the way they bashed the other Devs who make you pay again for updates. You know it’s like you are buying it twice, so I guess it’s like they’re bragging and saying are not charging you like the other Devs is what I got from it.
Skip
I’m a massive fan and advocate of ProCamera and ‘happily’ shelled out to buy the new version. However, if Camera+ want to take a swipe at that business model I don’t see any harm in it. The ProCamera thing didn’t sit easy with me at the time. I agree with what a few have said that some seem to be being a little over sensitive about this – mainly developers maybe? Comparing those 2 apps though Camera+ seem to have contacts in high places because they’re still allowed access to volume shutter functionality (unless it’s removed in the latest update) whilst ProCamera aren’t (despite trying to get it). I’d be quite interested to understand the decision making processes behind that.
Ryan
I must be missing something because I don’t see anything even remotely controversial in the note. It’s lighthearted, has a nice, conversational tone and a consumer-friendly bent. Some people have far too much time on their hands.
Clint Cline (clix2020)
A little snarky perhaps, but really much ado about nothing…!
Geri
I didn’t take offense to the comments at all but maybe that’s because I didn’t understand the “devs gotta eat” phrase was a dig at the developers who charge – hey I’m old and I missed it! (give me some grace). I guess in a world where there is so much serious stuff going on, this would hardly cause me to get a twist in my knickers!
Tracy Mitchell Griggs
It’s a teeny bit self-aggrandizing but really more of a marketing spin than anything. Much ado about nuthin’….