4 ms·

I agree with the problem but Wouldn't this be more because the indie market is fighting the larger businesses for prices until the final lowest price step to co

by cdevs 9y ago

I agree with the problem but Wouldn't this be more because the indie market is fighting the larger businesses for prices until the final lowest price step to compete for buyers was a .99 cent app or in app purchase or ads. If App Store kept indies out we would have had 9.99 Microsoft word style apps everywhere. It sucks now for a single dev who can't market a app for $30,000 dollars that only makes $8,000. It almost mimics the American economy where the top %1 wins, sometimes you hear of a lower class citizen making it and then everyone thinks they can make it.

bo1024 9y ago
I think your point relates to the discoverability problem the author mentioned. People mostly find or learn about apps through the App Store. So apps that get to the top of search results can get millions of downloads while similar but unlucky apps get almost nothing.
- wayn3 9y ago
  Its almost like you have to learn some marketing to sell stuff(?)
- w0utert 9y ago
  Better app discovery could help a lot: even if 90% of your potential customers are unwilling to spend more than $0.00 for apps, that still leaves literally millions who would consider buying if they were only able to find it. It's not an easy thing to solve though, I think the promotion and discovery model should be changed fundamentally. First of all ratings and 'most popular' should be completely eliminated from the equation, because they are self-fullfilling and relatively easy to manipulate. I would like to see some form of syndication for apps, which suggests me apps that fit my preferences and use cases, which could (and likely is) vastly different from other people. For example, I would love to be able to find (by whatever means possible) more developer-oriented apps (either on desktop or mobile) for things I don't even know I could use. The current app store model provides basically zero opportunities for this, I can go to the 'developer section' in the app store and look at the top 25 apps but there my options to discover apps stops. There really is no way for niche apps that could find a decent number of paid customers to promote themselves. Besides better app discovery, trial versions are really essential. I would like some kind of subscription service that lets me try literally every app I want, but only for one month after which I would have to buy it at the regular price. Yet another idea could be to allow developers to join forces and bundle their apps, dividing the profits through some kind of agreed-on distribution. This way low-volume/high-margin apps that would be hard to sell in large numbers as standalone could piggyback on high-volume/low-margin apps. Plenty of possible improvements.. At any rate I feel something needs to change, because the current situation is hurting creativity and decreasing the quality and value of many app categories.
  - misingnoglic 9y ago
    Being able to try apps is something I've always been surprised isn't widely available right now. There's a sheet music writing app on the Microsoft app store for $60 - I really want it, but I can't justify paying that much for something I can't even try out. What if it just doesn't feel right?
  - petra 9y ago
    I'm an Android user, but i often prefer to discover apps via the web(search/forums), an it works pretty well - doesn't this exist on the iPhone ? And sure, maybe this way won't fit my mom, but often, lacking the drive to look for apps, is related with lacking the drive to pay for apps.

by cdevs 9y ago

bo1024 9y ago

I think your point relates to the discoverability problem the author mentioned. People mostly find or learn about apps through the App Store. So apps that get to the top of search results can get millions of downloads while similar but unlucky apps get almost nothing.

wayn3 9y ago
Its almost like you have to learn some marketing to sell stuff(?)
w0utert 9y ago
Better app discovery could help a lot: even if 90% of your potential customers are unwilling to spend more than $0.00 for apps, that still leaves literally millions who would consider buying if they were only able to find it. It's not an easy thing to solve though, I think the promotion and discovery model should be changed fundamentally. First of all ratings and 'most popular' should be completely eliminated from the equation, because they are self-fullfilling and relatively easy to manipulate. I would like to see some form of syndication for apps, which suggests me apps that fit my preferences and use cases, which could (and likely is) vastly different from other people. For example, I would love to be able to find (by whatever means possible) more developer-oriented apps (either on desktop or mobile) for things I don't even know I could use. The current app store model provides basically zero opportunities for this, I can go to the 'developer section' in the app store and look at the top 25 apps but there my options to discover apps stops. There really is no way for niche apps that could find a decent number of paid customers to promote themselves. Besides better app discovery, trial versions are really essential. I would like some kind of subscription service that lets me try literally every app I want, but only for one month after which I would have to buy it at the regular price. Yet another idea could be to allow developers to join forces and bundle their apps, dividing the profits through some kind of agreed-on distribution. This way low-volume/high-margin apps that would be hard to sell in large numbers as standalone could piggyback on high-volume/low-margin apps. Plenty of possible improvements.. At any rate I feel something needs to change, because the current situation is hurting creativity and decreasing the quality and value of many app categories.
- misingnoglic 9y ago
  Being able to try apps is something I've always been surprised isn't widely available right now. There's a sheet music writing app on the Microsoft app store for $60 - I really want it, but I can't justify paying that much for something I can't even try out. What if it just doesn't feel right?
- petra 9y ago
  I'm an Android user, but i often prefer to discover apps via the web(search/forums), an it works pretty well - doesn't this exist on the iPhone ? And sure, maybe this way won't fit my mom, but often, lacking the drive to look for apps, is related with lacking the drive to pay for apps.