Even though it’s been more than 15 years since Joe Montana threw a pass in a professional football game, you’d be hard pressed to come up with another name so synonymous with great quarterbacking.
So that makes him a natural name and talent to base the instructional football iPhone app Joe Montana QB Coach ($9.99) around. It’s the first app in Rausch Studios’ “Get in the Game” series, which has commitments from athletes such as Jerry Rice, Alex Rodriguez, Hulk Hogan and Brett Hull to release similar instructional apps in the future.
The app’s opening menu is its only menu, with a play button and two buttons that allow you to scroll through the different videos. There are 23 clips in all, with most ranging from two to three minutes in length.
There’s a great deal of detail in the videos, as Montana walks you through such fundamentals as receiving a snap, proper form and footwork, as well as exercises to strengthen your arm. All told, there’s almost an hour worth of video included, which goes a long way in explaining the price tag.
And while both the amount and quality of the content is solid, it’s a little silly to call this an instructional app. This is an instructional video that happens to be available for the iPhone and iPad; there’s nothing about it that makes use of the iPhone’s interactive capabilities, instead it merely turns your device into a television.
For example, Nike Football+ presents: Master Control was an instructional app that mixed similar videos with a training program feature as well as timed challenges. There’s none of that in QB Coach, which leaves the overall experience lacking.
The app is instead more comparable to Jack Nicklaus’ Golf My Way, an app remake of the VHS classic. Like that app, QB Coach is a massive download (nearly 500 MB) that eliminates the need for Internet access, but ensures you’ll need Wi-Fi for the lengthy download.
Also like Golf My Way, I have a feeling that many iPhone users will balk at the price. While there’s no doubt there’s $10 worth of information in the app, too many users have become familiar with paying no more than a couple of bucks for their apps.
It’s a shame, too, because I think this would be a solid purchase for hopeful quarterbacks, and the entire “Get in the Game” series seems like a great idea. But it’s really hard to get people to pay that much money for an app – especially with no interactive content – and I have a feeling Rausch Studios will quickly find that out.
With all of that said, I still think the app will appeal to some people — just know its limitations going in. As far as instructional videos go, it’s more of the same, which is a bit disappointing on a device that is so good at being new and different.
