October 21st, 2009

I don’t buy a lot of iPhone applications. My reasons are that I don’t have a lot of extra money for such things and that many times I end up getting rid of an application a few weeks after installing it.

In other words; why buy applications that I will not end up using long term?

However, I use Twitter profusely. I admit it. I mean, 13,000+ tweets posted since November 2006? That’s an addict right there folks. Aside from the iPod, Mail, and Messaging applications my most used apps are Twitter-related. Which is why I didn’t have any second thoughts about buying a Twitter application. So I bought Tweetie 2 for iPhone. Why?

It fit my criteria for buying applications for my iPhone, which are:

• The application must have a life expectancy of longer than a few weeks.
• The cost of the app must be based on the value of the app to me.
• The reviews for the application must be fairly to exceedingly positive.

The first rule is simply a self-imposed control mechanism. If I didn’t have that rule I’d buy every application I could and end up with tons of applications that I’d never use which I paid for. The second rule means that I don’t spend too much money on applications that are not important to me. Not that recreation isn’t important to me but I know that I don’t play many games on my iPhone so the second rule could also be; Know thyself. Or, Do not buy awesome games for $20 if you are never going to play them but you can buy $1 games to play once and a while. Since, I’m not in the business of reviewing iPhone applications the third rule is set so that I don’t dive into an application that hasn’t been proven to be valuable. I allow the world around me to figure out an application’s value for me. This saves me time, money, and the chance of my expectations being trampled on.

Tweetie 2 for iPhone will more than likely be on my iPhone for the foreseeable future, is priced just right, and has exceedingly good reviews. That is why I bought it and I’m really, really glad I did.