5 ms·

Well it's "winning hearts and minds" of users who accidentally download these spammy template apps.

tyingq 9y ago
There's likely a mix of legitimate ones and spammy ones. For example, the app needs of small family owned restaurants likely don't vary much. A templated app that does coupons, menus, take out orders, maps, etc, likely works for all. Why build a custom app from scratch?
- valuearb 9y ago
  You don't have to build from scratch. You can build apps quickly using native code that are more performant, secure, and work better, and white label it with custom graphics and features. But they should actually do things and add value to your business. Most of these banned apps did very little other than display web views and images.
- jandrese 9y ago
  Is the app any better than just loading their webpage in the browser? There are precious few of those custom apps that offer any value over just loading the website in the built-in browser.
  - jasonlotito 9y ago
    You mean like an app for ordering things? Like food? Yeah, apps are useless for this and provide no value.
    - colemickens 9y ago
      There's no reason you couldn't accept food orders in a mobile web app...
    - jandrese 9y ago
      You can do that on the website just fine.
    - natch 9y ago
      Can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but a mobile web site would be a better choice than an app if all it is doing is providing the phone number, address, and simple ordering.
- PeterisP 9y ago
  Having every restaurant I frequent having a separate app sounds like a very, very bad thing from the user perspective. If you're not adding any new functionality, what benefit does having this app give the user? If "A templated app that does coupons, menus, take out orders, maps, etc, likely works for all." then it should be one app on my phone for all such restaurants, not a separate one for each. Having separate apps is intentionally getting worse user experience just for the sake of restaurant branding/advertising, so the needs of users and restaurant owners conflict here. The whole point of a walled garden is to steer the growth towards something that users want in the end, so if that's your example, then Apple should be putting in work to ensure that we don't get to a future where each small family restaurant has such an app; I'd want Apple to ensure that the needs of users prevail even if that's not what the restaurant owners want.
  - TheCoelacanth 9y ago
    > The whole point of a walled garden is to steer the growth towards something that users want in the end That's incredibly naive. The whole point of a walled garden is to steer growth towards something that benefits the owner of the walled garden.
    - dkonofalski 9y ago
      Your response is a bit naive too. Isn't the most beneficial thing for Apple (the owner of the walled garden) for their users to get the information they want easily so that they can spend money there? The better and faster the conversion happens, the better Apple makes out both financially and in repeat business.
- dkonofalski 9y ago
  Those types of apps wouldn't have a problem as long as the app was being published directly from the restaurant's App Store account. The issue is with companies publishing all of these apps from 1 account where it's just flooding the category.

There's likely a mix of legitimate ones and spammy ones. For example, the app needs of small family owned restaurants likely don't vary much. A templated app that does coupons, menus, take out orders, maps, etc, likely works for all. Why build a custom app from scratch?

valuearb 9y ago
You don't have to build from scratch. You can build apps quickly using native code that are more performant, secure, and work better, and white label it with custom graphics and features. But they should actually do things and add value to your business. Most of these banned apps did very little other than display web views and images.
jandrese 9y ago
Is the app any better than just loading their webpage in the browser? There are precious few of those custom apps that offer any value over just loading the website in the built-in browser.
- jasonlotito 9y ago
  You mean like an app for ordering things? Like food? Yeah, apps are useless for this and provide no value.
  - colemickens 9y ago
    There's no reason you couldn't accept food orders in a mobile web app...
  - jandrese 9y ago
    You can do that on the website just fine.
  - natch 9y ago
    Can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but a mobile web site would be a better choice than an app if all it is doing is providing the phone number, address, and simple ordering.
PeterisP 9y ago
Having every restaurant I frequent having a separate app sounds like a very, very bad thing from the user perspective. If you're not adding any new functionality, what benefit does having this app give the user? If "A templated app that does coupons, menus, take out orders, maps, etc, likely works for all." then it should be one app on my phone for all such restaurants, not a separate one for each. Having separate apps is intentionally getting worse user experience just for the sake of restaurant branding/advertising, so the needs of users and restaurant owners conflict here. The whole point of a walled garden is to steer the growth towards something that users want in the end, so if that's your example, then Apple should be putting in work to ensure that we don't get to a future where each small family restaurant has such an app; I'd want Apple to ensure that the needs of users prevail even if that's not what the restaurant owners want.
- TheCoelacanth 9y ago
  > The whole point of a walled garden is to steer the growth towards something that users want in the end That's incredibly naive. The whole point of a walled garden is to steer growth towards something that benefits the owner of the walled garden.
  - dkonofalski 9y ago
    Your response is a bit naive too. Isn't the most beneficial thing for Apple (the owner of the walled garden) for their users to get the information they want easily so that they can spend money there? The better and faster the conversion happens, the better Apple makes out both financially and in repeat business.
dkonofalski 9y ago
Those types of apps wouldn't have a problem as long as the app was being published directly from the restaurant's App Store account. The issue is with companies publishing all of these apps from 1 account where it's just flooding the category.