I’m very frustrated with the state of apps. It seems instead of getting more powerful applications that focus on solving a big problem we are getting smaller and smaller apps that focus on a subset of the problem.

Let’s start with photo taking. I don’t want one app for photos and another for video and another to share pictures and another to shoot panoramic. I want one app. Apple alone provides three photo apps: camera, Photos and iPhoto. There is a logical line between iPhoto and the other two as the former is focused on editing pictures and the other two are focused on taking, seeing and sharing photos. But why both camera and Photos? Why not give me a button in the camera app to see my pictures, share and delete them? And the same in the Photos app? I want one app on my home screen.

Apple is making this horrible mistake again with Music and Podcast apps. Apparently in the next OS version Apple removes Podcasts from the Music app and forces you to download a new one from the App Store. I listen to both music and podcasts. Why do I have to have two apps? My first problem is that my car does bluetooth streaming seamlessly with the Music app. Now I will have to specifically go launch the Podcasts app to listen to them. The second problem is that if you download an mp3 file that happens to be a podcast but not labeled as a podcast it will not be organized at all with the other podcasts.

This splitting into micro apps is causing me to create folders on my home screen, making it harder for me to find apps and causing me to drill down too many levels to do the things I do all the time. This tread across the App Store is driving me nuts.

Here is the logical approach. I say to myself, I want to listen to something and to listen to something I launch the Music app. Then I look for what I want. Easy!

In this new universe I have to decide what I want to listen to, figure out where that may be stored and then run that app. If I don’t know where it went then I am hunting around looking for it.

Apple, this is worse than files and folders. And I know how much you dislike files and folders.