Mac developers as secretive as Apple

Regardless of what OS you like it really is the applications that make up most of your experience on a computer. Some applications become iconic to the platform they are built for becoming inseparable from the experience. And when they disappear, the platform trembles. My recent move from Windows to Os X has made me realize that Apple’s insistence on aesthetic applications from developers really does make an impact for the end user.

Which is why it saddens me when my two favorite developers Atebits and Cultured Code, makers of Tweetie and Things respectively, both have disappeared from they’re online homes.

They are still there, small updates trickle out. But from the devs themselves there is not a sound to be heard. The last post on the Atebits blog was in November, Cultured Code hasn’t let out a peep since September.

They seem to have learned the same secretive style that Apple is so famous for. But for small application developers this can be a fatal tactic.

Delivering perfect polished updates to any product is every developers dream. But we all know from the large hulking creations of larger development companies that this strategy is flawed. Without releasing updates consistently to the end user you might be heading in the wrong direction without ever knowing it.

If the web in the last few years has taught us anything, it is that focus and communication is key to any feature. Twitter is more focused than Buzz, Google Apps  have a constant stream of features being tested compared to the take it or leave it strategy of MS Outlook.

So please Apple developers, don’t hide behind a wall like Apple does. Come out and talk to us, what are you  working on? How is it progressing?

When you’re releasing updates to each physical product every 18 months you might need to work in secret silence. But when you’re creating a better Twitter app, you can at least let your waiting fans know how it’s going.