5 ms·

App Store shrank for first time in 2017 due to crackdowns on spam, clones etc.

78 points by bitumen 9y ago

wpdev_63 9y ago
It would be great if google did tiding up in the play store. It's filled with knock off and junk apps.
- rhizome 9y ago
  It's launched, they're done with it if engineers can't get promoted for incremental improvements.
- ASalazarMX 9y ago
  That would require gasp employing more humans! The management algorithms would not approve!
IBM 9y ago
>Those are pretty interesting numbers. There’s actually a common misconception that more and more apps are being developed using non-native tools so they can be deployed to multiple platforms easily. >According to our data, that’s not the case. Well that's interesting.
- T-Winsnes 9y ago
  I wonder if the numbers change if you filter out the applications that don't have an equivalent app on a different platform
- jds375 9y ago
  That data appears to be relative to the number of native apps in the app store, so that doesn't necessarily mean that moving towards non-native development is a misconception. In addition, many apps are not moving to non-native entirely... but instead module by module. I wonder how they account for that and how it impacts their statistics.
  - arielm 9y ago
    We (Appfigures) looked at the SDKs that apps use to determine what's native vs. non-native. This method will catch "partially" non-native apps as well as fully non-native apps as the former will need to have the non-native SDK even for a single module.
    - austenallred 9y ago
      Is React Native “native” in this instance?
      - arielm 8y ago
        Nope
    - ASalazarMX 9y ago
      You might want to correct a typo in the landing page: "Our indespensible reports..."
      - arielm 9y ago
        Good catch. Thanks!
    - mi5ha 8y ago
      So basically these stats are representation of the usage of your SDK over your userbase right? And it seems that your SDK is not that popular with those using non native technologies? Are your SDKs installed on at least 90% of all apps in PlayStore? If not 90% what is the percentage?
      - arielm 8y ago
        This data is for all new apps released and has nothing to do with our user base. In fact, we don't have an SDK. The report uses data from our SDK identification engine, which works for all apps.
megablast 9y ago
Probably the big reason was removing all the non-64bit apps, and apps have have not updated their UI to support > iphone 6.
- mmacvicarprett 9y ago
  You are right, this is for sure the main reason, the title is misleading.
  - arielm 9y ago
    That’s definitely a large contributor, but if you look at the number of new app releases you’ll see it went down quite a lot when compared to previous years. That’s the other side of the equation for the decrease.
everdev 9y ago
I've also read somewhere and it send true for me that users typically engage with only a small number of non-OS apps regularly (maybe 3-5?). I know when considering launching a business, apps seem more like swinging for a home run.
osrec 9y ago
About time they cleaned it up a bit. I find the app store a bit of a mess and finding a good quality app for a particular task is rather difficult at times. The best app is rarely the most "discoverable" so the more noise they remove the better.
- jandrese 9y ago
  Weirdly, some of the best apps I still use are 32 bit only and long since abandoned. They're the ones that do their job without cloud nonsense or built-in advertising or some damn "pro" version that requires a yearly fee and the free version won't shut up about it.
makecheck 9y ago
A start. Now they need to shrink in-app purchases. Seriously, I see games with over a dozen kinds of in-app purchases that total well over $100 (sometimes individually that high), and many listed purchases seem to be for repeatable things like gem bags. How much money can you possibly spend on a game!? It should be completely against the rules for heaps of purchases like these to even be an option. Basically, your app should have a hard limit on the number of items, a lifetime limit on dollars spent in total, and this theoretical maximum spend should be displayed in giant print next to the price when you download it. Furthermore, on every single app update, if any in-app purchases are changed, the new total dollar amount should be displayed in large text next to the updating button and such apps should not be possible to install via auto-update on a device.
- derefr 9y ago
  I agree that, for normal people, these purchases would only be made as symptoms of addiction, and so should likely be prevented or regulated like you say. However, I don’t think the people at the head of the revenue distribution for these games (the “whales”) are really in the throes of addiction. They’re actually spending completely normal amounts of money... for them. They’re just ungodly rich. Ask anyone from one of these mobile-casual-F2P game companies who their “real” customers are—the ones they cater to with their designs. They have specific profiles. At the company I worked at, the whales were Saudi princes, wasting their oil money. Personally, I see nothing wrong with US tech companies (slightly!) draining the pockets of such people, and in exchange fueling their Veblen-goods signalling competitions against their equally stupid-rich friends. It’s like making money as an arms dealer, except nobody’s getting shot!
  - domevent 9y ago
    I recently read a story here about someone spending a significant portion of their yearly income on a Fate game in Japan. I think it might be a mistake to assume that the only whales are rich.
  - rrdharan 9y ago
    I wouldn’t be so quick to assume these folks can actually afford what they are spending: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-07-06/zynga-s-quest-for-big-spending-whales https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-07-06/zynga-s-q... There were many articles covering this topic during the Zynga peak years, about folks developing gambling-type addictions to freemium games and spending money they don’t have. EDIT: here’s another article exploring these connections... https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/6/8544303/casino-slot-machine-gambling-addiction-psychology-mobile-games https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/6/8544303/casino-slot-machin... And sadly even as far as violence is concerned - there was a horrific story a few years back about a woman who murdered her infant in anger when the child interrupted her FarmVille game.
mythz 9y ago
A lot of it is also their new policy of removing old Apps that haven't received an update in a long time, of which from last year they started removing my earliest Apps.

78 points by bitumen 9y ago

wpdev_63 9y ago

It would be great if google did tiding up in the play store. It's filled with knock off and junk apps.

rhizome 9y ago
It's launched, they're done with it if engineers can't get promoted for incremental improvements.
ASalazarMX 9y ago
That would require gasp employing more humans! The management algorithms would not approve!

IBM 9y ago

>Those are pretty interesting numbers. There’s actually a common misconception that more and more apps are being developed using non-native tools so they can be deployed to multiple platforms easily. >According to our data, that’s not the case. Well that's interesting.

T-Winsnes 9y ago
I wonder if the numbers change if you filter out the applications that don't have an equivalent app on a different platform
jds375 9y ago
That data appears to be relative to the number of native apps in the app store, so that doesn't necessarily mean that moving towards non-native development is a misconception. In addition, many apps are not moving to non-native entirely... but instead module by module. I wonder how they account for that and how it impacts their statistics.
- arielm 9y ago
  We (Appfigures) looked at the SDKs that apps use to determine what's native vs. non-native. This method will catch "partially" non-native apps as well as fully non-native apps as the former will need to have the non-native SDK even for a single module.
  - austenallred 9y ago
    Is React Native “native” in this instance?
    - arielm 8y ago
      Nope
  - ASalazarMX 9y ago
    You might want to correct a typo in the landing page: "Our indespensible reports..."
    - arielm 9y ago
      Good catch. Thanks!
  - mi5ha 8y ago
    So basically these stats are representation of the usage of your SDK over your userbase right? And it seems that your SDK is not that popular with those using non native technologies? Are your SDKs installed on at least 90% of all apps in PlayStore? If not 90% what is the percentage?
    - arielm 8y ago
      This data is for all new apps released and has nothing to do with our user base. In fact, we don't have an SDK. The report uses data from our SDK identification engine, which works for all apps.

megablast 9y ago

Probably the big reason was removing all the non-64bit apps, and apps have have not updated their UI to support > iphone 6.

mmacvicarprett 9y ago
You are right, this is for sure the main reason, the title is misleading.
- arielm 9y ago
  That’s definitely a large contributor, but if you look at the number of new app releases you’ll see it went down quite a lot when compared to previous years. That’s the other side of the equation for the decrease.

everdev 9y ago

I've also read somewhere and it send true for me that users typically engage with only a small number of non-OS apps regularly (maybe 3-5?). I know when considering launching a business, apps seem more like swinging for a home run.

osrec 9y ago

About time they cleaned it up a bit. I find the app store a bit of a mess and finding a good quality app for a particular task is rather difficult at times. The best app is rarely the most "discoverable" so the more noise they remove the better.

jandrese 9y ago
Weirdly, some of the best apps I still use are 32 bit only and long since abandoned. They're the ones that do their job without cloud nonsense or built-in advertising or some damn "pro" version that requires a yearly fee and the free version won't shut up about it.

makecheck 9y ago

A start. Now they need to shrink in-app purchases. Seriously, I see games with over a dozen kinds of in-app purchases that total well over $100 (sometimes individually that high), and many listed purchases seem to be for repeatable things like gem bags. How much money can you possibly spend on a game!? It should be completely against the rules for heaps of purchases like these to even be an option. Basically, your app should have a hard limit on the number of items, a lifetime limit on dollars spent in total, and this theoretical maximum spend should be displayed in giant print next to the price when you download it. Furthermore, on every single app update, if any in-app purchases are changed, the new total dollar amount should be displayed in large text next to the updating button and such apps should not be possible to install via auto-update on a device.

derefr 9y ago
I agree that, for normal people, these purchases would only be made as symptoms of addiction, and so should likely be prevented or regulated like you say. However, I don’t think the people at the head of the revenue distribution for these games (the “whales”) are really in the throes of addiction. They’re actually spending completely normal amounts of money... for them. They’re just ungodly rich. Ask anyone from one of these mobile-casual-F2P game companies who their “real” customers are—the ones they cater to with their designs. They have specific profiles. At the company I worked at, the whales were Saudi princes, wasting their oil money. Personally, I see nothing wrong with US tech companies (slightly!) draining the pockets of such people, and in exchange fueling their Veblen-goods signalling competitions against their equally stupid-rich friends. It’s like making money as an arms dealer, except nobody’s getting shot!
- domevent 9y ago
  I recently read a story here about someone spending a significant portion of their yearly income on a Fate game in Japan. I think it might be a mistake to assume that the only whales are rich.
- rrdharan 9y ago
  I wouldn’t be so quick to assume these folks can actually afford what they are spending: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-07-06/zynga-s-quest-for-big-spending-whales https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-07-06/zynga-s-q... There were many articles covering this topic during the Zynga peak years, about folks developing gambling-type addictions to freemium games and spending money they don’t have. EDIT: here’s another article exploring these connections... https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/6/8544303/casino-slot-machine-gambling-addiction-psychology-mobile-games https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/6/8544303/casino-slot-machin... And sadly even as far as violence is concerned - there was a horrific story a few years back about a woman who murdered her infant in anger when the child interrupted her FarmVille game.

mythz 9y ago

A lot of it is also their new policy of removing old Apps that haven't received an update in a long time, of which from last year they started removing my earliest Apps.