Wednesday, November 24, 2010

iPhone apps

I've been an iPhone user since the first generation unit was released - in fact I'm still using the same one. I love it, despite the fact that it's made by Apple and forces you to use iTunes to do anything. It's probably the handiest gadget I've ever owned; a phone, camera, map, notepad and web browser all in one package.

One of the selling points of the phone is its extensibility through dedicated utilities and games; it's such a huge market that there are even TV commercials for iPhone apps. The wine world is no different; there are dedicated winery apps; Ridge has one which has details of current releases, photos, events and a link to the store. Then there's Cor.kz which offers an alternate interface to Cellar Tracker's inventory management and tasting note database.

I recently got an email announcing a new free app covering the wineries of the Santa Cruz Mountains, so thought I should try it and see how it compares to the competition. I already have a review copy of Winery Quest Pro.

I thought that I'd reviewed the Winery Quest app in the past, but it doesn't appear to be on the site. Not sure what happened there. There are two versions; a 'basic' version costing $4 and a 'pro' version costing $8. It's effectively an interface into the Wine Questers web site, showing the same winery data in an easier to read format. This means that if you're in a cellphone blackspot - such as large parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains - then it can't get any data. The interface opens up with a scrollable list of over 20 regions, from Mendocino to Temecula. The Santa Clara Valley wineries are classified as "Gilroy - Morgan Hill", so wineries outside that area such as J Lohr, Coterie Cellars or Casa de Fruta aren't counted. Overall the interface is a little confusing, but after a while you start to get used to it.

Winery Quest's key selling point is the accuracy of its maps - the developer visits each winery with a GPS rather than relying on Google's address mapping software; if the winery hasn't been visited then it's not on the list. Unfortunately the choice of icons results in a map that looks rather cluttered. The data is further limited to tasting rooms that are regularly open to the public, which means that many smaller wineries that are appointment only or only open at certain times aren't listed.

There are a number of 'just because we can' features, such as a 'spin the bottle' game that randomly selects a winery for you to visit. Overall it's a tool for someone who wants to plan a trip to a wine region for the first time and visit a few tasting rooms; it's not intended to be a guide for the serious geek looking to discover new hidden gems. The price may seem a little high for what you get, but it's less than a typical tasting room fee.

The new app, which bears the unwieldy title of Santa Cruz Mountains Winery Directory (though given the title of this blog I have very little room to talk), seems to target a similar audience. The main screen follows a more traditional grid layout of icons with functions at the bottom. Since it's a free app they've saved costs by using stock clip-art, so the differing icon styles look a little odd. Unlike Winery Quest the data seems to be stored locally, which means that it works offline. There's also elements of 'because we can' to it; for example in the list of wineries each entry has a picture next to it that's too small to be useful, is of varying size, and takes a while to load on my old phone.

The app uses the phone's location facility and groups the wineries by proximity. That would be fine if you were looking for the nearest winery to wherever you are, but if you're planning a trip it would be more useful to specify the start point, or to find wineries that are close to each other. It also doesn't help that the data isn't entirely accurate; last time I checked Ridge was still on Monte Bello Road, not at Stevens Creek and De Anza. The Google map is a little easier to read than the Winery Quest version, although the same colour pin is used for wineries and other locations which can be a little confusing.

Speaking of the maps, there's a rather unfortunate bug here; once you enter the map screen the button to go back doesn't work; the only solution is to quit and restart.

The free app has a different set of wineries to Winery Quest. For the most part they overlap, but not entirely; for example Windy Oaks is included but not Zayante. The set also includes around half of the Santa Clara Valley wineries. Once again, if there's a selection criteria it's unclear; with Fernwood and Martin Ranch included but J Lohr, Creekview and Jason/Stephens missing.

Overall for a free application it's hard to be too critical; it's worth the 2Mb or so of space that it consumes and presumably will continue to be updated since it must intend to somehow derive revenue from advertising.

Looking on the app store I see that there's also another app called Wineries Locator. It costs $5 but the reviews look terrible.

Maybe I should learn how to write iPhone apps.

4 comments:

Jim Preston said...

David,

Thank you for the nice review of Winery Quest Pro. A few thoughts though:

1) Our app is not a simple interface for the Website. Users can cache the data to use it in areas with poor cell service. Caching works great. We make improvements in the data and add wineries almost daily so our live data is by far better than data that is stored in the app and updated with the usual infrequent app upgrades.

2) J Lohr and other major South Bay wineries are in our SF urban wineries region. We hope they are easier to find that way for those who aren't as familiar with the area. We're re-evaluating this classification though.

Corterie and a few other don't meet our criteria but love their wines. We include only wineries open to the public on a regular basis. The cost of adding wineries they way we do is very high.

3) It would be nice to mention our unique winery filter which helps wine travelers to select wineries that interest them and the extensive winery profiles that we put so much time and money into.

On average each winery profile costs us $500. We quickly approaching 1,000 wineries. No other site or app comes close to our level of detail for 20 major California wine regions. The reason - it costs a lot.

App sales break even with their marketing costs - we will never recover our development costs and NONE of the data costs.

4) Our "Shake the Bottle" feature is actually quite popular in tasting rooms. People love playing with it. It is a random search toy.

5) Our maps are the only ones with labels for the markers. While it clutters the map it also makes them usable like a real map.

6) We have the only wine travel app with almost real-time trip support from in the app and forums. This isn't used much and we're not sure why.

7) Navigating the wineries is far easier with our trip log. This creates a map of only the wineries that you want to visit. Much less clutter. We offer the full region map, individual winery location map, filtered map for the traveler's interests, and the trip log map.

8) Winery Quest Pro remembers the map or other screens when you close it. (Saves "state".) Great for quickly getting back to where you were in the app.

The new Santa Cruz Mountains app uses mailing addresses for locations, which is why Ridge and a few others are not where they really are and it includes wineries from outside the region. The app developers simply upload a mailing list. Dirt cheap to do this but why travel with inaccurate locations?

They don't have selection criteria. They just use whatever info is on a list.

A quick way of discovering if travel apps go the cheap route with mailing addresses is to see if they offer driving directions. That can't be done yet when the locations are set accurately by GPS as we have in Winery Quest. (Hopefully Google will change that.)

This app also uses winery descriptions from the winery Websites - most likely a violation of copyright and we avoid that.

This California wine travel app comparison may help distinguish the various apps.
http://winequesters.com/iphone/wine_travel_app_chart.php

Again, thank you for reviewing our app. We're just a regular couple, not retired, who have invested over $500,000 in time and money to create and maintain California's most comprehensive and accurate wine travel app. I have to work on our data almost every day full time including holidays. It is a full-time job that so far pays zip. We've had a blast visiting over 900 winery tasting rooms though :-)

- Jim Preston
Santa Clara, CA
Winery Quest Pro
http://winequesters.com/iphone/WineryQuest_iPhone_app.php

Jim Preston said...

David,

Thank you for the nice review of Winery Quest Pro. A few thoughts though:

1) Our app has data caching for use in areas with poor cell service or devices without 3G. Our data is updated almost daily so we don't build it into the app like the other wine travel apps.

2) J Lohr and other major South Bay wineries are in our SF urban wineries region. We may change them to Santa Clara Valley though.

3) Our unique winery filter helps wine travelers to select wineries that interest them by searching our extensive winery profiles.

On average each winery profile costs us $500. We're quickly approaching 1,000 wineries. No other site or app comes close to our level of detail for 20 major California wine regions. The reason - it costs a lot.

4) Our "Shake the Bottle" feature is a popular toy in tasting rooms.

5) Our maps are the only ones with labels for the markers. While it clutters the map it also makes them usable like a real map.

6) We have the only wine travel app with almost real-time trip support.

7) The Winery Quest Pro trip log creates a map of the wineries you want to visit. Much less clutter. We offer the full region map, individual winery location map, filtered map for the traveler's interests, and the trip log map.

8) Winery Quest Pro remembers the map or other screens when you close it. (Saves "state".) Great for quickly getting back to where you were in the app.

9) The new Santa Cruz Mountains app uses mailing addresses for locations which is why Ridge and a few others are not where they really are and it includes wineries from outside the region. The app developers simply upload a mailing list. Dirt cheap to do this but why travel with inaccurate locations?

They don't have selection criteria. They just use whatever info is on a free public list.

This app also uses winery descriptions from the winery Websites - most likely a violation of copyright and we avoid that.


Our California wine travel app comparison may help distinguish the various apps.
http://winequesters.com/iphone/wine_travel_app_chart.php

Again, thank you for reviewing our app. I work on our data almost every day full time including holidays. It is a full-time job that so far pays zip. We've had a blast visiting over 900 winery tasting rooms though :-)

- Jim Preston
Santa Clara, CA
Winery Quest Pro
http://winequesters.com/iphone/WineryQuest_iPhone_app.php

Jim Preston said...

David,

Thank you for the nice review of Winery Quest Pro. A few thoughts though:

1) Our app has data caching for use in areas with poor cell service or devices without 3G. Our data is updated almost daily so we don't build it into the app like the other wine travel apps.

2) Check our SF Bay Area Urban region for J Lohr, Pinder, and others.

3) Our unique winery filter is for customizing trips for wine traveler's interests.

4) Our "Shake the Bottle" feature is a popular toy in tasting rooms.

5) Our maps are the only ones with labels for the markers - like a real map.

6) We have the only wine travel app with almost real-time trip support.

7) The Winery Quest Pro trip log creates a map of the wineries you want to visit. Much less clutter. We offer the full region map, individual winery location map, filtered map for the traveler's interests, and the trip log map.

8) The new Santa Cruz Mountains app uses mailing addresses for locations. They don't have selection criteria. The app developers simply upload a mailing list - dirt cheap.

This app also uses winery descriptions from the winery Websites - most likely a violation of copyright and we avoid that.

Our California wine travel app comparison may help distinguish the various apps.
http://winequesters.com/iphone/wine_travel_app_chart.php

Again, thank you for reviewing our app. I work on our data almost every day full time including holidays. It is a full-time job that so far pays zip. We've had a blast visiting over 900 winery tasting rooms though :-)

- Jim Preston
Santa Clara, CA
Winery Quest Pro
http://winequesters.com/iphone/WineryQuest_iPhone_app.php

cheryl said...

The reason Fernwood and Martin ranch are included on the new app is because they are members of the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association. Jason Stephens and J Lohr are not. :-)