iPhone Home PageThe upcoming release of iPhone OS 3.0 and all the talk of potential new hardware seemingly dominates Apple news these days. Everyone seems pretty stoked about the improved operating system, especially the long awaited push notification system and the potential inclusion of background tasks. New hardware, better battery life and an improved operating system is all fine and dandy but overlooks an important outstanding issue Apple has not acknowledged. One thing missing from the conversations is improved app management, a nightmare in dire need of elegant solution.

The iPhone App Store is huge business. If you have an iPhone then chances are you partake, downloading a fairly decent amount of apps. Have you ever tried to manage those apps, moving them around the various pages, reordering the icons? The easiest was to explain it is to say it is nothing short of a dreadful experience, especially if you have five pages of apps.

Dragging apps from page to page, one app at a time is just painful. If you have five or more pages of apps then it could take minutes to move and arrange apps in a way that you’re comfortable with. What strikes me odd about this methodology is that it feels decidedly un-Apple.

Solutions?

I am sure the smart folks working in the code lockers behind the closed campus doors in Cupertino have thought out a myriad of ways to fix this problem. Unfortunately, since no talk of improved app management showing up in the iPhone OS 3.0 developer betas has surfaced I get the impression we will have to continue to wait.

So what could be done to improve app management support on the iPhone?

  • Stacks migrated to the iPhone would be a really cool and seemingly simple idea to implement. Each stack would essentially hold a set of apps dropped on the stack, similar to folders within a hard drive’s structure. Tap the stack to display all apps in the stack. This would easily be a conduit for improved app management, allowing users to segregate apps in to specialized stacks. Create stacks for games, productivity, etc.
  • iTunes management for apps would be a great way to solve many of the tedious issues surrounding app management. Just like how iTunes allows for playlist creation, it too should offer similar functionality for app management. Using iTunes to drag-and-drop for reordering apps would be far easier than using fingers on the small iPhone touchscreen. Marry iTunes app management with the previous stacks idea and you have a wonderful combination providing simplified yet powerful app management.

Surely there are plenty of other exciting ways to solve this issue. Regardless of which path is selected, it is apparent Apple needs to pay close attention to this growing problem. As iPhone’s continue to mature the number of apps people download are going to increase exponentially. Solving this problem is of the utmost importance otherwise Apple is going to find itself in a tough situation later on down the line.