2012-03-03

This is why Apple wins, part II

Last night, I was enticed by an Android tablet edition of This Old House magazine, which is available free for print subscribers. I'm trying to ditch paper everywhere I can, and thought "yay!". So I set about getting This Old House for my tablet.

What I expected:
  1. go to Android market
  2. download This Old House app
  3. install This Old House app
  4. sign in with my print subscription info
  5. read
What actually happened:
  1. go to Android market
  2. fail to find the This Old House app (WTF #1)
  3. Google for "This Old House android app"
  4. look at 2-3 search results and fail to find the This Old House app (WTF #2)
  5. go to Amazon
  6. find the This Old House app listing, which is free
  7. look for a "download" link, to no avail (WTF #3)
  8. find the "enter your email address and we'll send you a link to download the Amazon App Store" box (WTF #4)
  9. enter my email address and wait
  10. fail to receive email, go back to Amazon home page (WTF #5)
  11. enter my email address again
  12. view the Amazon App Store app install instruction
  13. follow instructions (go to settings > applications > allow unknown sources) (WTF #6)
  14. receive email and click link
  15. download Amazon App Store app
  16. install Amazon App Store app
  17. find Amazon App Store app (no icon added to the home screen) (WTF #7)
  18. sign in with my Amazon account
  19. search for and fail to find the This Old House app (WTF #8)
  20. load browser, go to This Old House web site, and find Android app ad
  21. click Android app ad, read instructions and go to nextissue,  the This Old House app provider
  22. find nextissue app download link and download
  23. install nextissue app
  24. find next issue app and start it (no icon added to the home screen) (WTF #9)
  25. create nextissue account (WTF #10)
  26. go back to This Old House site and enter my print subscription information to get free access to the Android app
  27. create a This Old House account (WTF #11)
  28. go back to nextissue app on my tablet
  29. sign into nextissue app (WTF #12)
  30. look for This Old House in nextissue app, to no avail (no search function) (WTF #13)
  31. scroll through the available selections and finally find This Old House, next to last
  32. tap This Old House
  33. see This Old House listing and tap "install"
  34. tap This Old House to run it (after install)
  35. enter my print subscription information to allow free access to the magazine (WTF #14)
  36. see latest issue and tap on it to download
  37. wait for issue to download
  38. wait for issue to install (WTF #15--why show me two progress bars, one for download, one for install? why do you have to install an issue? just show me one progress bar)
  39. tap issue
  40. read
I wish I were making this up.

I was not trying to circumvent anything, hack anything, jailbreak or root anything, or steal content. I was just trying to read This Old House on my tablet, after the magazine itself prompted me to try out its tablet app in an expensive full-page ad.

This Old House magazine: do you realize how much money you're wasting on an ad and an app that my gut says maybe 5% of eligible users can actually set up and use?