What happened to “Talking Carl?”
Carl, star of one of the most charming apps in the iTunes Store, is no more. His successor refers to himself by first initial only and wears a cardboard box, presumably to hide his shame.
For the uninitiated, Talking Carl is a simple yet enchanting bit of fun iPhone fun. The geometric Carl sits there on the screen, eyes askew and ready to listen. You speak, and he echoes your words, reinterpreted in his own squeaky voice. Poke him and he growls. Tickle him and he laughs. It’s all inane and ridiculous and yet I defy you to keep from smiling. You can even get Carl to face off with himself in a death match.
Regularly one of the highest rated free apps in the store, it’s unclear what Awyse was thinking in abandoning their popular character. In Carl’s place, they are now running a contest asking customers to submit drawings with the chance to see their work come to life in a future app update.
Judging by the comments and iTunes app ratings, the move was a mistake, and an enormous one at that. An app which previously had nearly 60% of its ratings as 4- and 5-stars has suddenly been banished to the basement with this update. The vitriol in the written comments is striking, too. People love their Carl.
What I don’t understand is why Awyse removed Carl from the app at all. It would seem trivial to have simply included the contest alongside their star, perhaps even using him to squeak out the rules for submitting your entry. Awyse clearly knows that they’ve got a problem on their hands, and manages to squeeze a lame warning into the “What’s New” section just above the fold:
Of course, no one will see this until it is too late, as most users will simply click the Update link in iTunes without reading what changes are in store (a shortcoming of the iTunes update model that is probably worth a discussion of its own). Hence the overwhelming sentiment in the comments that users feel duped and betrayed.
In the grand scheme of things, this is unquestionably small-potatoes stuff. But what it does show in miniature is just how fragile a brand can be, even one based on a free app with a talking red blob with eyes. Developers, marketers and designers risk a great deal with every product change they carry out. No good deed, the saying promises, goes unpunished. And the jilted Carl seems to be exacting his last revenge, indeed.
