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The real reason is that they don't want more apps. There are too many, so any small independent dev has an uphill battle getting their app approved.

megablast 4y ago
Exactly. The reviewer isn’t thinking about the big picture. It’s so weird people think this. As if the Ceo is reviewing every app.
_aavaa_ 4y ago
Or they could let the users and developers decide how many apps are too many apps.z
- MiddleEndian 4y ago
  Letting people install programs without a store!? Ridiculous!
dylan604 4y ago
If only they'd go and cull the list of already accepted/approved apps that are nothing but clones. that would probably make the list so small that it would look bad.
Victerius 4y ago
Now that would be a fascinating development. Apple blocking most new apps because there are already too many of them. I can imagine some scenarios. "Candidates for this job are required to have released an app on the iOS store" "Fortune 100 corporation is suing Apple because it won't accept its app" "Only 1 in 154 app applications is accepted by Apple" "College admission consultants are starting to recommend high school students seeking admission to top colleges to release an app on the Apple store" "Study shows college applicants who have release an app on the iOS store are twice as likely to gain admission to an Ivy League school" "82% of Harvard's class of 2028 released an app on the Apple store prior to admission" "Study shows that releasing an app on the Apple store and advertising that fact in your online dating profile triples your odds of a match"
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  > Fortune 100 corporation is suing Apple because it won't accept its app Apple refusing Fortune 100 apps happens more often than people think IMO. Big corps churn out apps that are mere browsing shells of an otherwise widely available online service, just to have an icon on the AppStore. And they’ll get shutdown for that, forced to add some dumb gimmick to the app to get approval.
CharlesW 4y ago
> The real reason is that they don't want more apps. There are too many… Is your thought process here that 3.7 million apps is where Apple decided to draw a line in the sand?
- DiggyJohnson 4y ago
  I don’t see how that wouldn’t make sense… It’s not that they decided to set an arbitrary threshold of 3.7M apps, but that they have become more stringent on app approvals in light of the growth and quantity of apps in their store. I don’t think GP’s comment requires an incredulous snarky response, despite me not doing a great job making this point…
  - mikeyouse 4y ago
    FWIW, I completely got your point. The Android ecosystem is horrible for this kind of thing. There are roughly 200,000 varieties of calculator apps. Why? There should be some criteria to help consumers avoid poorly supported simplistic clones that are often just filled with adware.
    - jabbany 4y ago
      Ratings were supposed to be the criteria but we all know how well that worked...
    - drekipus 4y ago
      Is there? If 200,000 calculator apps all fulfill your need, what is the problem? Just use one, and if it doesn't, use another. Use the stock one if you want, or ask some friends what they use. I agree rating systems are not an effective measure, and can be gamed, however.
      - randallsquared 4y ago
        There's something to be said for knowing you're using the best available app for something. Obviously, if that means keeping better apps out of the pool, that's a failure. However, one near-guarantee with 200,000 calculator apps is that whatever app you are using is suboptimal: you are definitely not using the one that would work best for your use cases, flow, comfort, or whatever. For some people, none of that matters. For others, the FOMO wears on them.
quickthrower2 4y ago
Which would be weird, because that means, like an oracle investor they need to predict which new apps will be a hit and are worth adding, and which will be flops and will add to the noise. If they ban all new indie apps, then the next hits are going to happen over in Android land, and Apple miss out on a lot of revenue. Maybe that is the idea, make a hit on Android first, then you are allowed in the Apple store!
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  To expand on parent’s point, it’s not that they want a set number of apps available. They’ll just raise the bar as they approach what they see as “too many apps” situation, and will put pressure on app devs to show better, more viables ideas to their eyes. Noise will still grow, but at a way lower pace. To your point, there’s two mechanisms already at play: indie devs need to spend significant effort to be published, so they need to at least believe in their ideas (weeds out an enormous number of new apps already), and they need to keep maintaining their apps, as they’ll get garbage collected if the app stays unupdated.
- nine_k 4y ago
  Why, they can reject but make notes, keep statistics of what "too simple" features people try to develop. Then some of that could be rolled into their existing core apps.
- imtringued 4y ago
  This reminds me of the StarCraft Arcade which was supposed to be the successor of the Warcraft 3 modding scene. Well it turns out they didn't add a way to browse all maps, you can only pick among the top 50 of maps. How do you get your map to be in the top 50? The creator must upload his map and only he can host it and then play it with other players until it is popular enough to displace one of the top 50 maps. What this means is that the original maps were entrenched because it was impossible and incredibly inconvenient to play any other maps. If you wanted to play a map you would just upload it yourself, which then counts as a separate map in the popularity statistics meaning all new maps had pretty much zero popularity in the ranking. Compare this to warcraft3 where playing a map downloads it onto your computer and people thereby build up a collection of maps they can host organically through playing the game. People host maps they like so you got an automatic ranking system where good maps spread on everyone's computers and bad maps don't get shared further.
makeitdouble 4y ago
This is probably true, and also so sad. They have their business reasons, but this comes at the detriment of some many things, as they’re fighting tooth and nails against side loading.
Aeolun 4y ago
There’s a few million garbage apps waiting to be deleted. Namely the billions of unique apps for ever single brandless Chinese peripheral ever.

megablast 4y ago

Exactly. The reviewer isn’t thinking about the big picture. It’s so weird people think this. As if the Ceo is reviewing every app.

_aavaa_ 4y ago

Or they could let the users and developers decide how many apps are too many apps.z

MiddleEndian 4y ago
Letting people install programs without a store!? Ridiculous!

dylan604 4y ago

If only they'd go and cull the list of already accepted/approved apps that are nothing but clones. that would probably make the list so small that it would look bad.

Victerius 4y ago

Now that would be a fascinating development. Apple blocking most new apps because there are already too many of them. I can imagine some scenarios. "Candidates for this job are required to have released an app on the iOS store" "Fortune 100 corporation is suing Apple because it won't accept its app" "Only 1 in 154 app applications is accepted by Apple" "College admission consultants are starting to recommend high school students seeking admission to top colleges to release an app on the Apple store" "Study shows college applicants who have release an app on the iOS store are twice as likely to gain admission to an Ivy League school" "82% of Harvard's class of 2028 released an app on the Apple store prior to admission" "Study shows that releasing an app on the Apple store and advertising that fact in your online dating profile triples your odds of a match"

makeitdouble 4y ago
> Fortune 100 corporation is suing Apple because it won't accept its app Apple refusing Fortune 100 apps happens more often than people think IMO. Big corps churn out apps that are mere browsing shells of an otherwise widely available online service, just to have an icon on the AppStore. And they’ll get shutdown for that, forced to add some dumb gimmick to the app to get approval.

CharlesW 4y ago

> The real reason is that they don't want more apps. There are too many… Is your thought process here that 3.7 million apps is where Apple decided to draw a line in the sand?

DiggyJohnson 4y ago
I don’t see how that wouldn’t make sense… It’s not that they decided to set an arbitrary threshold of 3.7M apps, but that they have become more stringent on app approvals in light of the growth and quantity of apps in their store. I don’t think GP’s comment requires an incredulous snarky response, despite me not doing a great job making this point…
- mikeyouse 4y ago
  FWIW, I completely got your point. The Android ecosystem is horrible for this kind of thing. There are roughly 200,000 varieties of calculator apps. Why? There should be some criteria to help consumers avoid poorly supported simplistic clones that are often just filled with adware.
  - jabbany 4y ago
    Ratings were supposed to be the criteria but we all know how well that worked...
  - drekipus 4y ago
    Is there? If 200,000 calculator apps all fulfill your need, what is the problem? Just use one, and if it doesn't, use another. Use the stock one if you want, or ask some friends what they use. I agree rating systems are not an effective measure, and can be gamed, however.
    - randallsquared 4y ago
      There's something to be said for knowing you're using the best available app for something. Obviously, if that means keeping better apps out of the pool, that's a failure. However, one near-guarantee with 200,000 calculator apps is that whatever app you are using is suboptimal: you are definitely not using the one that would work best for your use cases, flow, comfort, or whatever. For some people, none of that matters. For others, the FOMO wears on them.

quickthrower2 4y ago

Which would be weird, because that means, like an oracle investor they need to predict which new apps will be a hit and are worth adding, and which will be flops and will add to the noise. If they ban all new indie apps, then the next hits are going to happen over in Android land, and Apple miss out on a lot of revenue. Maybe that is the idea, make a hit on Android first, then you are allowed in the Apple store!

makeitdouble 4y ago
To expand on parent’s point, it’s not that they want a set number of apps available. They’ll just raise the bar as they approach what they see as “too many apps” situation, and will put pressure on app devs to show better, more viables ideas to their eyes. Noise will still grow, but at a way lower pace. To your point, there’s two mechanisms already at play: indie devs need to spend significant effort to be published, so they need to at least believe in their ideas (weeds out an enormous number of new apps already), and they need to keep maintaining their apps, as they’ll get garbage collected if the app stays unupdated.
nine_k 4y ago
Why, they can reject but make notes, keep statistics of what "too simple" features people try to develop. Then some of that could be rolled into their existing core apps.
imtringued 4y ago
This reminds me of the StarCraft Arcade which was supposed to be the successor of the Warcraft 3 modding scene. Well it turns out they didn't add a way to browse all maps, you can only pick among the top 50 of maps. How do you get your map to be in the top 50? The creator must upload his map and only he can host it and then play it with other players until it is popular enough to displace one of the top 50 maps. What this means is that the original maps were entrenched because it was impossible and incredibly inconvenient to play any other maps. If you wanted to play a map you would just upload it yourself, which then counts as a separate map in the popularity statistics meaning all new maps had pretty much zero popularity in the ranking. Compare this to warcraft3 where playing a map downloads it onto your computer and people thereby build up a collection of maps they can host organically through playing the game. People host maps they like so you got an automatic ranking system where good maps spread on everyone's computers and bad maps don't get shared further.

makeitdouble 4y ago

This is probably true, and also so sad. They have their business reasons, but this comes at the detriment of some many things, as they’re fighting tooth and nails against side loading.

Aeolun 4y ago

There’s a few million garbage apps waiting to be deleted. Namely the billions of unique apps for ever single brandless Chinese peripheral ever.