Ken Loh

View Original

Free version of #MobileChat? I think I'll pass.

Almost a year ago when the App Store was just a babe I bought a little program called MobileChat. The promise was, it would keep you logged in to AIM (or another IM platform) whether or not you had the application open since there was no Push technology at the time. The app cost me a whopping $2.99. I wasn't happy about paying for an app (since the majority of the ones I got were free at that time), but I thought it would be worth it given their value proposition.

Well, here's the rub. MobileChat never worked as advertised. The guys who made it knew they had problems and tried desperately to get it fixed. I'm sure they made a nice bundle off people like me, and I'm sure their intentions were good, but at the end of the day, the app didn't work. Sure, they released a few free updates but none of them ever worked consistently for me. I considered asking for a refund at the time, but they were so insistent on their blog that a fix was coming that I decided to just wait this one out and give them a chance. They eventually just became a forgotten app on my iPhone since thee were plenty of other free IM clients out there.

Fast forward about a year later. MobileChat is now under new ownership:

And the original developers changed the name of their company from Twenty08 to Enormego:

With all the bad press they got over MobileChat, it's no surprise they decided to change the name and try to wipe their slate clean. In fact, MobileChat is nowhere to be found on Enormego.com.

It's unclear whether "new ownership" means Enormego or some other company named Mobile Apps, Inc. as specified on the MobileCh.at website. Regardless, I'm keeping my distance from anything from either of those companies. If Mobile Apps, Inc. is really a different company, why the heck would they take over an app that had such a bad rap? I sent an email to them requesting a refund. We'll see if that goes anywhere. 
 
Not likely.