Another one bites the dust, it seems, due to a software license expiration. JapanTransit, a paid application from Apple's AppStore, has reached its end of life and will no longer return any useful information. Up until July 31st at one second to midnight, this 600円 application provided a wealth of travel information to people such as the best trains to take from one station to another anywhere on mainland Japan. Fares were reported as well as the departure and transit times for almost any travel plan a person may have entered ... but now it's all gone. Why is this?
There's a new version of the software, and the old is being phased out. That's why.
Poor Communication
Back in February, the makers of Japan Transit put up a very short notification on their website. It stated:
駅探エクスプレス for iPhone/iPod touch ご好評を頂いております、iPhone/iPod touch向けのネイティブアプリケーション「駅探エクスプレス」がバージョンアップしました。
Seems the application went through a name change, and it was receiving regular updates. But what about the previous version? No mention of it can be found anywhere on the site, but there is something interesting in smaller text providing a clue to what happened to Japan Transit:
駅探ラボのサービスは、日々改善を加えたり、新しいテストを実施したりしています。ある日突然、サービスが変わったり、使いにくくなったりすることもあるかもしれません。あらかじめご了承ください。
Roughly translated, this means:
We make regular updates to the software and, if one day the application stops working without notice, it's not our problem. You've been warned.
Thanks, EkiLab. I really want to fess up the 350円 for this next version you've strapped together, now. When will the software licence for this application expire? Will I get at least a year for my 350円? No. It seems that the software will be good until March of 2012; less than nine months from now.I can understand that this organization may not want to support older versions of the software, and I can understand that they may have an incredibly restricted API access contract with various transit authorities. What I can't understand, however, is why they never mentioned the software expiration before, and why the program doesn't pop up a message advising people get the updated software. This is just a poorly planned slap in the face for anyone that had come to rely on this application.Alas, I don't think I'll be upgrading to the next version. I don't have a problem paying for software, but I do have a problem shelling out money in a pseudo-subscription basis when there is no mention of it.
