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His most basic complaint is BS. There are 98% junk apps out there, he says. First, what's junk for one might be handy for another. Second, if Apple was to elim

by batista 15y ago

His most basic complaint is BS. There are 98% junk apps out there, he says. First, what's junk for one might be handy for another. Second, if Apple was to eliminate even 10% of this 98%, everybody would be screaming "censorship". Does he seriously suggest Apple remove 98% of apps (some 500.000+ apps) from the App Store? I also don't see what the "recent UUID fiasco" is. If anything it's allowing it in the first place, and not the deprecating of it now as he seems to suggest. Also Apple has taken lots of steps to make app reviews faster and more transparent. As for "Top Apps Charts: These charts have so much effect on whether an application gets noticed and downloaded that whether you show up on these charts can decide the fate of your application." Is that a gripe or just an observation? I fail to see how it can be a gripe --except as "sour grapes". The only relevant points are those about paid updates and maybe promotions. Paid updates would be very useful.

objclxt 15y ago
It's worth pointing out that Apple also acquired Chomp, the app discovery startup, a few months ago...you'd hope they acquired them to bring some of that knowledge into the app store.
SeoxyS 15y ago
Hey, author here. I just want to explain myself here. My most basic complaint is not that there are a lot of junk apps, nor am I suggesting that Apple remove them from the App Store. I'm merely pointing out that it's a problem, and causes problems for legitimate developers in the same way that newsletter clutter makes it hard to read emails from human beings when your inbox has 10,000 emails. I think this would not be an issue if the App Store's search functionality was not piss-poor, and if Apple had better discovery mechanisms in place for people to find the gems, which often are not present on the top charts. Hopefully the Chomp acquisition will help with that. The other thing I want to point out is that I'm not posting the list as a current list of complaints, more as a way to point out how sad it is that 3 years later, only two of these complaints have been addressed: rate-on-delete, and outrageous review times.
- ktizo 15y ago
  A solution would be for apple to allow 3rd party apps and crowdsource ratings well, then have an app store tied to the warranty that contained things that apple was happy with.
- batista 15y ago
  Thanks for taking time to respond. >I just want to explain myself here. My most basic complaint is not that there are a lot of junk apps, nor am I suggesting that Apple remove them from the App Store. I'm merely pointing out that it's a problem, and causes problems for legitimate developers in the same way that newsletter clutter makes it hard to read emails from human beings when your inbox has 10,000 emails. I agree that it's a problem too, but I consider it to be a problem akin to democracy, i.e it doesn't always lead to the best result, but the alternative is even worse. I think this would not be an issue if the App Store's search functionality was not piss-poor, and if Apple had better discovery mechanisms in place for people to find the gems, which often are not present on the top charts. I think a lot of people make those decisions based on third party reviews and app review sites, though. With 500,000 apps it would be very difficult to do something about it, considering that great masses of people might even like shitty apps over some gems (like great masses of people prefer the latest bullshit blockbuster over Inception, or NCIS over FireFly).
- warmfuzzykitten 15y ago
  Sorry, you invalidated your entire article with the last paragraph, which this has nothing to do with how the app store is managed and everything to do with the axe you have to grind with the very concept of a successful corporate enterprise. "The App Store’s biggest flaw, at the end of the day, is that it is not a free market. It is not a meritocracy, and app success is slave to the whim of a corporate overlord that changes it mind without explanation more often than a 5 year old." If I were Apple, after reading that I wouldn't give you the time of day.
bane 15y ago
I think what he probably means is that, despite a draconian review policy, 98% of the app store is junk. Like seriously junk. Like fart apps junk. So this means that they aren't reviewing for app quality. How about bugs? "Updates: Updates take ages to get approved. They sometimes get rejected while being only a bug-fix update to an app that got approved. (This has happened to me.) And even when they get approved, it takes forever, possibly leaving some critical bug or crash in your application and costing you tons of negative reviews and ratings." So not really for bugs. And on down the list till it appears the only things they are looking for are scams, undocumented API usage and similar other junk. It's not that these things aren't worth reviewing for, but it'd probably be better for everyone (Apple included) if Apple was simply overt about this and didn't mess around with the rest of the stuff.

by batista 15y ago

objclxt 15y ago

It's worth pointing out that Apple also acquired Chomp, the app discovery startup, a few months ago...you'd hope they acquired them to bring some of that knowledge into the app store.

SeoxyS 15y ago

Hey, author here. I just want to explain myself here. My most basic complaint is not that there are a lot of junk apps, nor am I suggesting that Apple remove them from the App Store. I'm merely pointing out that it's a problem, and causes problems for legitimate developers in the same way that newsletter clutter makes it hard to read emails from human beings when your inbox has 10,000 emails. I think this would not be an issue if the App Store's search functionality was not piss-poor, and if Apple had better discovery mechanisms in place for people to find the gems, which often are not present on the top charts. Hopefully the Chomp acquisition will help with that. The other thing I want to point out is that I'm not posting the list as a current list of complaints, more as a way to point out how sad it is that 3 years later, only two of these complaints have been addressed: rate-on-delete, and outrageous review times.

ktizo 15y ago
A solution would be for apple to allow 3rd party apps and crowdsource ratings well, then have an app store tied to the warranty that contained things that apple was happy with.
batista 15y ago
Thanks for taking time to respond. >I just want to explain myself here. My most basic complaint is not that there are a lot of junk apps, nor am I suggesting that Apple remove them from the App Store. I'm merely pointing out that it's a problem, and causes problems for legitimate developers in the same way that newsletter clutter makes it hard to read emails from human beings when your inbox has 10,000 emails. I agree that it's a problem too, but I consider it to be a problem akin to democracy, i.e it doesn't always lead to the best result, but the alternative is even worse. I think this would not be an issue if the App Store's search functionality was not piss-poor, and if Apple had better discovery mechanisms in place for people to find the gems, which often are not present on the top charts. I think a lot of people make those decisions based on third party reviews and app review sites, though. With 500,000 apps it would be very difficult to do something about it, considering that great masses of people might even like shitty apps over some gems (like great masses of people prefer the latest bullshit blockbuster over Inception, or NCIS over FireFly).
warmfuzzykitten 15y ago
Sorry, you invalidated your entire article with the last paragraph, which this has nothing to do with how the app store is managed and everything to do with the axe you have to grind with the very concept of a successful corporate enterprise. "The App Store’s biggest flaw, at the end of the day, is that it is not a free market. It is not a meritocracy, and app success is slave to the whim of a corporate overlord that changes it mind without explanation more often than a 5 year old." If I were Apple, after reading that I wouldn't give you the time of day.

bane 15y ago

I think what he probably means is that, despite a draconian review policy, 98% of the app store is junk. Like seriously junk. Like fart apps junk. So this means that they aren't reviewing for app quality. How about bugs? "Updates: Updates take ages to get approved. They sometimes get rejected while being only a bug-fix update to an app that got approved. (This has happened to me.) And even when they get approved, it takes forever, possibly leaving some critical bug or crash in your application and costing you tons of negative reviews and ratings." So not really for bugs. And on down the list till it appears the only things they are looking for are scams, undocumented API usage and similar other junk. It's not that these things aren't worth reviewing for, but it'd probably be better for everyone (Apple included) if Apple was simply overt about this and didn't mess around with the rest of the stuff.