3 ms·

I agree, it does come off a little whiney from the outside... but let me ask you, how long have you been publishing to the AppStore? It's a lot easier to be a

by pxlpshr 18y ago

I agree, it does come off a little whiney from the outside... but let me ask you, how long have you been publishing to the AppStore? It's a lot easier to be a contributor to the problems than it is to show restraint and professionalism for your peers given the state of the store. Please make no mistake about it, there's nothing stopping us from playing the same game except our commitment to be a provider of quality. Obnoxious penny-scraping behavior is not something we intend to be apart of out of respect for other developers. We could very easily repackage our apps 10 ways to Sunday, submit faux updates every few days, game the ratings/reviews, etc. and would certainly be a lot better off fiscally. I'm not trying to sound like an AppStore Hero here either, this is something that a number of developers have all agreed upon to attempt to set an example and respect each other. My snide remarks aside — I think it's perfectly acceptable for people to have a few novelty apps under their belt for no other reason than to have fun — we have one and I'm sure we'll make another one at some point in the future. But to have 40+ (I've seen some devs with 60+ of useless crap) just because "you can" is a gluttonous, self-serving assumption that deserves no respect. Sorry, call me an whiney ass for all I care. It's no different that email spammers. I think my preference would be a completely open-market for iPhone applications that's disconnected from the AppStore, whereby the AppStore only contains applications that Apple hand-picks if developers are inclined to give up 30%. It would seemingly solve all the problems, aside from the burden Apple shoulders of dealing w/ customer support for their iPhone/iPod due to 3rd party crapware.

moe 18y ago
I'm not an iPhone developer, I don't even own an iPhone, so this is all coming from the outside. Obnoxious penny-scraping behavior is not something we intend to be apart of out of respect for other developers. That idealistic attitude is honorable but a bit out of this world, too. It's somewhat akin to entering the tiger's cage and asking him: "Can't we just be friends?". Okay, maybe the tiger will fall into your arms, cry, and tell you how he has waited all his life for this moment. Then you'll be watching TV and killing a sixpack for the rest of the night. But I think more likely is that the tiger will fall into your arms and do something else entirely...
- pxlpshr 18y ago
  It's not idealistic, it's realistic and Apple will -hopefully- put a stop to the gaming sooner rather than later because I know for a fact that it's killing their approval process (every update has to be approved), among other things. Application updates use to take 2-3 days, they are now taking 5+ days and more, and new apps are being stalled by weeks/months on end. For the last 3 months, two of our products been Top 50 in Social Networking. That's pretty difficult to do for an indie shop not leveraging an established/existing brand (ie: twitter client), yet we've maintained a position without gaming the system. Things are changing now because devs are putting their apps in Social Networking section, even though their app shouldn't even be there in the first place, and obviously it's those guys that focus their time on exploits rather than the product. The health & fitness charts are filled with top apps that are ONLY in their respective place because they're being gamed, not because it's a quality product that deserves that spot. These people don't want to work hard, they just want easy money cause they got caught up in the fool's gold. It's easier to post a fictitious update in 2 minutes, than it is to spend a week building a new feature and improving. Honestly, I could go on and on but I'll just stop. I'm becoming redundant explaining the problems of the AppStore to people that don't get. You can call me idealistic or a whiner, but I have 4 months of daily sales and marketing data across multiple products and monitor the AppStore on a daily basis. I've been living and breathing this since August and its frustrating to say the least. ps. Apple has promoted 3 of our products, and I'm still whining because the economics of the AppStore are flawed and hurting more people than it helps.
  - moe 18y ago
    Well, you entered their (Apple's) game, you play by their rules. Their rules allow for, or are at least not resilient to, cheating. You make it sound here as if Apple had some kind of obligation to turn the AppStore into a fair market. They don't. Their obligation is to make profits and to push the platform forward. If a fair app-market helps with that then they'll do it. If an unfair app-market helps with that then they'll do that. Tough luck I say. You could also build desktop applications or develop for a more open mobile platform (Android?).

by pxlpshr 18y ago

moe 18y ago

I'm not an iPhone developer, I don't even own an iPhone, so this is all coming from the outside. Obnoxious penny-scraping behavior is not something we intend to be apart of out of respect for other developers. That idealistic attitude is honorable but a bit out of this world, too. It's somewhat akin to entering the tiger's cage and asking him: "Can't we just be friends?". Okay, maybe the tiger will fall into your arms, cry, and tell you how he has waited all his life for this moment. Then you'll be watching TV and killing a sixpack for the rest of the night. But I think more likely is that the tiger will fall into your arms and do something else entirely...

pxlpshr 18y ago
It's not idealistic, it's realistic and Apple will -hopefully- put a stop to the gaming sooner rather than later because I know for a fact that it's killing their approval process (every update has to be approved), among other things. Application updates use to take 2-3 days, they are now taking 5+ days and more, and new apps are being stalled by weeks/months on end. For the last 3 months, two of our products been Top 50 in Social Networking. That's pretty difficult to do for an indie shop not leveraging an established/existing brand (ie: twitter client), yet we've maintained a position without gaming the system. Things are changing now because devs are putting their apps in Social Networking section, even though their app shouldn't even be there in the first place, and obviously it's those guys that focus their time on exploits rather than the product. The health & fitness charts are filled with top apps that are ONLY in their respective place because they're being gamed, not because it's a quality product that deserves that spot. These people don't want to work hard, they just want easy money cause they got caught up in the fool's gold. It's easier to post a fictitious update in 2 minutes, than it is to spend a week building a new feature and improving. Honestly, I could go on and on but I'll just stop. I'm becoming redundant explaining the problems of the AppStore to people that don't get. You can call me idealistic or a whiner, but I have 4 months of daily sales and marketing data across multiple products and monitor the AppStore on a daily basis. I've been living and breathing this since August and its frustrating to say the least. ps. Apple has promoted 3 of our products, and I'm still whining because the economics of the AppStore are flawed and hurting more people than it helps.
- moe 18y ago
  Well, you entered their (Apple's) game, you play by their rules. Their rules allow for, or are at least not resilient to, cheating. You make it sound here as if Apple had some kind of obligation to turn the AppStore into a fair market. They don't. Their obligation is to make profits and to push the platform forward. If a fair app-market helps with that then they'll do it. If an unfair app-market helps with that then they'll do that. Tough luck I say. You could also build desktop applications or develop for a more open mobile platform (Android?).