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They're not trying to make development harder but they're not trying to make it easier either. They won't put the effort into fixing developer pain points if th

They're not trying to make development harder but they're not trying to make it easier either. They won't put the effort into fixing developer pain points if the only practical outcome will be more mediocre apps. As long as they don't scare away the A-list developers, or hurt the quality of their apps, the development situation is good enough and they would rather spend resources on things that more directly benefit customers. At the same time, the marketing dept. is milking their leading app count for all it's worth, so they won't be doing a purge. Rather, I think they will work on more ways for the cream to float to the top, like the "genius" feature of the app store, and on raising the quality bar with their own apps like Garage Band and iMovie.

Aqua_Geek 16y ago
> They're not trying to make development harder but they're not trying to make it easier either. Agreed. There are so many things that can and should be improved upon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for iOS 5. > They won't put the effort into fixing developer pain points if the only practical outcome will be more mediocre apps. I think you're being a little too cynical. I prefer to give Apple the benefit of the doubt. After the whole Xcode 4 mess, I get the feeling that there's some disconnect between how Apple uses the tools and how the community at large does - a gap I hope Apple works to eliminate. > At the same time, the marketing dept. is milking their leading app count for all it's worth, so they won't be doing a purge. Yeah - totally agree. They'll never do a direct purge (ie "Hey, your app isn't selling, so we killed it"), but I'm holding out hope of my other suggestion of their using a price schedule to "encourage" developers of low-sellings apps to pull them themselves. > Rather, I think they will work on more ways for the cream to float to the top, like the "genius" feature of the app store It's a hard problem to fix, and I imagine we'll see some good breakthroughs in this area in the next year or so. I'm genuinely curious, though, about how your experience with the "genius" feature has been. To me it seems to just recommend random apps from similar categories; most of the time, I walk away thinking, "No, I already bought an app to deal with [x/y/z] - I don't need a second." Given the amount of info Apple has on me (app, music, and movie/TV show purchase histories, age bracket, metro area, etc, etc), I'm surprised that their recommendations are not better. > and on raising the quality bar with their own apps like Garage Band and iMovie. I think they've definitely succeeded with this one. After seeing apps like that, it really makes you want to push the boundaries and really up the quality of your apps.

Aqua_Geek 16y ago

> They're not trying to make development harder but they're not trying to make it easier either. Agreed. There are so many things that can and should be improved upon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for iOS 5. > They won't put the effort into fixing developer pain points if the only practical outcome will be more mediocre apps. I think you're being a little too cynical. I prefer to give Apple the benefit of the doubt. After the whole Xcode 4 mess, I get the feeling that there's some disconnect between how Apple uses the tools and how the community at large does - a gap I hope Apple works to eliminate. > At the same time, the marketing dept. is milking their leading app count for all it's worth, so they won't be doing a purge. Yeah - totally agree. They'll never do a direct purge (ie "Hey, your app isn't selling, so we killed it"), but I'm holding out hope of my other suggestion of their using a price schedule to "encourage" developers of low-sellings apps to pull them themselves. > Rather, I think they will work on more ways for the cream to float to the top, like the "genius" feature of the app store It's a hard problem to fix, and I imagine we'll see some good breakthroughs in this area in the next year or so. I'm genuinely curious, though, about how your experience with the "genius" feature has been. To me it seems to just recommend random apps from similar categories; most of the time, I walk away thinking, "No, I already bought an app to deal with [x/y/z] - I don't need a second." Given the amount of info Apple has on me (app, music, and movie/TV show purchase histories, age bracket, metro area, etc, etc), I'm surprised that their recommendations are not better. > and on raising the quality bar with their own apps like Garage Band and iMovie. I think they've definitely succeeded with this one. After seeing apps like that, it really makes you want to push the boundaries and really up the quality of your apps.