

Ask HN: Beautiful and Innovative Windows Apps? - maguay

Lately it seems, more than ever, that there is almost nothing new on Windows PCs. Almost all new apps are mobile or Mac. There really seems to be a genuine lack of interest in creting beautiful and innovative new programs for PCs.<p>That's not to say there aren't any, it's just that they're rarer. So, have you seen any new Windows programs that are beautifully designed, innovative, and simple to use? Something you'd be excited to use?<p>One I can add is OmmWriter. It's a beautiful writing app that finally found it's way to the PC over from Macs, and I really enjoy it on my PC. Any others you know of, please share!
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Sylg
Hey,

Good question indeed. I've been looking for some stunning and innovative
Windows software for quite some time too.

Most of them are either from the Mac platform like OmmWriter or where created
from the beginning to be X-platform like Tweetdeck, Evernote or Wunderlist.
However, some still exist such as Windroplr, Xobni, Hamster Zip,etc.

the main thing is that on the Windows platform there is no strict graphic
guideline like on Mac. So most of the less graphical skilled developers end up
maybe coding a great software but with no UIX whatsoever thus creating a
"crappy" application.

Also, the business models of software distribution on the windows platform are
not prone to create quality software. You ever go Freeware with Toolbar &
crapware to monetize your application which piss off your consumers or go with
a trial version.

In the trial model, to differentiate their software and force the users to buy
it, the developers piles up on useless features, that end up making the
application more complicate to use. The perfect example are all the "Pc
optimiser" and "Media converter" out there on the Windows platform... They
basically all do the same thing with a crappy UI :(

Finally, to mass distribute them, they don't use fancy homepage like on mac (
see Panic.com for a good example ) they go to the download.com and
softonic.com which are filled with advertising and fake download buttons. This
also lower the overall perceived quality of windows Software.

/Shameless Plug

All this is something we noticed here at Allmyapps. We're a French Startup
that build a Windows App Store that help users discover beautiful and useful
app and also manage their apps in one click like on their mobile phone. We do
this through our website at <http://allmyapps.com> and our Desktop client.

So Windows and Web app developers, hit us up if you want to distribute your
app on our platform, It's free to add your app on our store and shouldn't
takes more then 5 minutes to submit it. Http://developers.allmyapps.com

As always feedback is much appreciated :)

Cheers!

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minalecs
IMO whats beautifully designed is a very subjective concept. Because most
designers and generally people that associate with tech use Apple and follow
Apple design guidelines, just about everything Apple does is considered
beautiful. Because everything Apple does is considered beautiful, both
designers and fans that utilize Apple guidelines consider this beautiful as
well.

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maguay
True, and you can almost reverse this statement and use Microsoft instead of
Apple, and most would agree with it as well :)

That said, there still is so much more dev activity on Macs and mobile than
Windows, now, it's incredible. Very frustrating as a Windows user...

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maguay
Thirteen23 is still making some beautifully designed programs, but oddly
enough, most of them can't be downloaded from their site. If they really
wanted to, they could definately take the PC world by storm with innovative
apps. Not sure why they aren't...

<http://thirteen23.com/index.html>

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kanebennett
TapType: <http://taptype.me/>

~~~
maguay
That does look nice if you have a Windows tablet. Thanks for sharing!

