Will a real product website please stand up.
22 Jan 2013When did the app-store become an excuse for tiny one page product websites with a huge icon or logo but no screenshots and barely even a full paragraph of text? Does anyone other than me feel this is huge step backwards - that the app-store is NOT the best place to show off your product?
If it is, why have a website at all and not merely a redirect to the app-store?
One recent example is Napkin.
Even if I follow the link to the app store I don't learn anything new (though the screen shots are of course obligatory):
Description: Napkin is the ultimate tool for concise visual communication. Painlessly create visual notes and diagrams and share the results quickly. ...More
That's all the description I see without having to click "...More". I realize that's just how Apple truncates descriptions, but this gets back to my larger point that the App Store is not the best place to show off your product. If I do click more I finally see some bulleted lists and individual line items of what makes the product so great. Why isn't this information on the product website?
Yes, I'm picking on Napkin here but I see this bare-bones, link me to the app-store website trend becoming more popular... Perhaps this is actually OK for a $1.99 color picker tool, but for a $40 premium software product? I have higher expectations. Am I alone?
If product websites are going to become dumb-downed fill in the blank templates then we need a much better templates for such use.