Monday, April 5, 2010

iPad + Mobile Auction House = ?

So this past weekend, April 3rd, I fell in love all over again (Don't tell my fiancé), however, this love was for my iPad. So after spending the last few days never letting it leave my side, every day I continue to find new things to do on it. With all this time spent it just got me thinking of how amazing this could be to use with WoW. For the people who remember, about a month or two ago Blizzard announced that they were going to be bringing WoW Auction House support to their mobile platforms. (For those who missed it, the post is here)Sure it would be nice to do your daily Auction House work on an iPhone, but the interface would be a bit small. But the iPad would be the perfect platform to be able to do this.

Let me explain why:

  1. The larger screen would allow to show your full inventory on the screen at the same time. On an iPhone we would be forced to scroll through your items.
  2. It would be just a quick tap on the item, list your price, then post. Blizzard would not need to recreate a full new version of the current Auction House, they would be able to keep the "Search" and "Post" tabs the same, so it would be easy to pick up and use for anyone.

Now here are some benefits (or disadvantages, it depends how you currently use the Auction House)


  1. Posting items will allow you to post on the go. An example of this would be for people who work say from 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday. Currently these people are able to post before they go to work, but once they are undercutted they are out of luck. Being able to repost while on the go will allow them to compete at all times during the day.
  2. Auction House trends will be noticeable to more people. Right now I know all the times in which certain markets are low and when they are high. However some people may not have access to WoW while they are out and are missing out on these incredible deals.
  3. The potential bad is people who do not have access to a mobile Auction House will get killed. 1/3rd of the population uses a smart phone, even less will have an iPad and play WoW. The mobile Auction House would really favor those who had access to these devices and I am not sure if Blizzard is ready to do that.

What do you all think? Could this really be something that ends up to be great? Or am I just looking for an excuse to use my iPad for more things (I say this as I am typing this post in Pages on my iPad...)

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