I posted a Tweet earlier, describing my surprise at the poor quality of the Spotify app on iPad.
It should be noted that these comments relate particularly to the iPad version (in comparison with the Android version); I haven't used the iPhone version, although I assume that they're the same.
- Firstly, and this is no fault of Spotify, the app is unable to run in background mode, which means you have to keep it active otherwise it stops playing. Hopefully matters will improve if Apple releases an update to the iPad's iOS to allow background tasks. It seems to me that this is more of an issue on the iPad than the iPhone because the former is primarily a media consumption device. Its easy to imagine a scenario in which a user would like to listen to music on Spotify while reading an ebook for example.
- Secondly, a specific iPad version is not available. Spotify could make excellent use of the larger screen real-estate of the iPad to create a much more involving experience (more like the desktop version).
- In comparison with the Android version, the text seems rather large and cumbersome, giving the app a slightly childish feel - and reducing the amount of information on the screen.
- On the iPhone version the designers have gone for a vertical scroll for all of the information (along with horizontal scrolling of individual sections). To my mind, the tabbed arrangement of the Android version makes for a more intuitive experience.
- The settings on the Android version seem to be more comprehensive.
All in all, upon reflection, this hardly adds up to the tale of woe my tweet implied but I feel much happier with the Android experience. Perhaps I expected the Android version to be the poor cousin on the version for the Apple platform (as is so often the case) but I was left feeling that the boot is on the other foot. The iPad is crying out for a specific version of the Spotify client which makes use of its larger screen - any hopefully runs in the background (if Steve J lets them).
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