October 29, 2008 12:53
I found a website that scrapes all the iTunes stores and shows the reviews on applications from around the world, so (out of curiosity, of course) I put in AyeTides and looked at the reviews. My, what an interesting difference of opinions. Quite a few 4, 5 star reviews (thank you very much!), plus a number of 1 and 2 stars. Interestingly, the lower reviews seem to often mention surfing and how the stations aren't close to good surf spots.
The target group for AyeTides is obviously (well, at least obvious to me) sailors, not surfers. The stations are for the most part located in ports and channels that boats need to navigate and not where large waves are the norm. I don't normally see many boats trying to hang ten off the North Shore of Oahu or Malibu. The government thought as much too, as there aren't tide stations located in the surfing areas.
I'm not sure why surfers would be so interested in the tides, when waves are much more a wind-driven phenomenon than tidal. There are web sites devoted to surfing and with an iPhone that's a great combination, so long as you're connected to the web (and have a waterproof and sand-proof case for the iPhone!). It might be useful to have an application that shows the surfing forecast, but you'd still need to be on the web to get the data.
So, I guess the reason for this post is to explain why there are some negative reviews, and give my response to them. I appreciate that they bought and reviewed the app, and I'm sorry it doesn't fit their needs.
A
The target group for AyeTides is obviously (well, at least obvious to me) sailors, not surfers. The stations are for the most part located in ports and channels that boats need to navigate and not where large waves are the norm. I don't normally see many boats trying to hang ten off the North Shore of Oahu or Malibu. The government thought as much too, as there aren't tide stations located in the surfing areas.
I'm not sure why surfers would be so interested in the tides, when waves are much more a wind-driven phenomenon than tidal. There are web sites devoted to surfing and with an iPhone that's a great combination, so long as you're connected to the web (and have a waterproof and sand-proof case for the iPhone!). It might be useful to have an application that shows the surfing forecast, but you'd still need to be on the web to get the data.
So, I guess the reason for this post is to explain why there are some negative reviews, and give my response to them. I appreciate that they bought and reviewed the app, and I'm sorry it doesn't fit their needs.
A