Ask HN: When/Will IOS support file upload?
This is the only hole in my mobile web strategy right now. Apple won't support file upload on the iphone or ipad. I don't want to build an IOS app just to allow users to upload files. I cannot see why they can't come up with a solution for this. My question is will they ever? Searching on the web I can't seem to find any definitive answers as to why they don't allow uploads or if they ever will. Frustrating!
1 comments
I don't think they ever will. I think they see it as taking away from a simple, "It just works" user experience. The reasons that I see it taking away from the experience they want are:
1. It would require users to think about how much room they have on the device. Yes, you theoretically have to do this anyway, but with approx. half of users never, ever connecting to iTunes, that is something they would have to begin worrying about. Apple doesn't want people to have to think.
2. It wouldn't be fast, especially for big files. Soon, people would be complaining that their multi gigabyte movie rip is taking too long over the air. I've done this with a jailbroken phone over wifi-it's a pain. People would try it over 3G, or worse, EDGE.
And two non user experience reasons:
3. It's scope creep. A phone or tablet isn't meant to replace a computer, despite what everyone says. There isn't a solib business case for them to spend the time to develop this or add in additional storage for all the garbage people would acquire.
4. It's another possible attack vector.
1. It would require users to think about how much room they have on the device. Yes, you theoretically have to do this anyway, but with approx. half of users never, ever connecting to iTunes, that is something they would have to begin worrying about. Apple doesn't want people to have to think.
2. It wouldn't be fast, especially for big files. Soon, people would be complaining that their multi gigabyte movie rip is taking too long over the air. I've done this with a jailbroken phone over wifi-it's a pain. People would try it over 3G, or worse, EDGE.
And two non user experience reasons:
3. It's scope creep. A phone or tablet isn't meant to replace a computer, despite what everyone says. There isn't a solib business case for them to spend the time to develop this or add in additional storage for all the garbage people would acquire.
4. It's another possible attack vector.
But they let apps upload photos, why not just let the web browser only upload photos from the photo/camera section?
It seems crazy that they can't just allow photo upload. I am surprised that (many) others are not frustrated as well. It forces me to write an app just to allow the user to upload photos.