4 ms·

Consumers want cheap apps. Don't blame Apple over that. It's entirely possible there is no market for $10 games by big studios. Meanwhile a tiny studio can writ

by jsz0 17y ago

Consumers want cheap apps. Don't blame Apple over that. It's entirely possible there is no market for $10 games by big studios. Meanwhile a tiny studio can write an app like Flight Control that is insanely popular. What were their development costs? Next to nothing I suspect. They understand what consumers want. You can't blame consumers, or Apple, if you're trying to sell a $50 steak at a fast food restaurant. It's not going to work and it's your fault. You have to understand the market you're trying to compete in. You don't see many console game publishers releasing $90 games do you? The acceptable console price is $50-$60 (unless it includes hardware ala Guitar Hero) You don't see Coke selling a $10 soft drink because the acceptable price point is <$2.

seldo 17y ago
The problem with the App Store is that the display model is too simple. Think of a real online store, namely Amazon: sure, they have categories and you can find stuff by category if you want, but categories are tertiary at best. The primary driver is search. If you're installing an app, you're probably looking for something that does something specific. App store's search is rudimentary. All that stuff is server side; they could implement "customers who looked at this app 90% of the time eventually bought...", just like Amazon does. The secondary driver is recommendations, both editorial and automatic. The editorial side is pretty good. But Apple also knows which apps you've already downloaded, so it's in a perfect position to say "customers who bought this app also bought". It's just Genius for Apps -- they clearly have the technology already, it's even already in iTunes. The result of these omitted features is that the only way to get noticed outside of being editorially featured is volume -- and this promotes a race to the bottom, both in terms of price and in terms of appeal (hence iFart and a thousand other apps that are just gags for idiots to blow 99 cents on).

by jsz0 17y ago

seldo 17y ago

The problem with the App Store is that the display model is too simple. Think of a real online store, namely Amazon: sure, they have categories and you can find stuff by category if you want, but categories are tertiary at best. The primary driver is search. If you're installing an app, you're probably looking for something that does something specific. App store's search is rudimentary. All that stuff is server side; they could implement "customers who looked at this app 90% of the time eventually bought...", just like Amazon does. The secondary driver is recommendations, both editorial and automatic. The editorial side is pretty good. But Apple also knows which apps you've already downloaded, so it's in a perfect position to say "customers who bought this app also bought". It's just Genius for Apps -- they clearly have the technology already, it's even already in iTunes. The result of these omitted features is that the only way to get noticed outside of being editorially featured is volume -- and this promotes a race to the bottom, both in terms of price and in terms of appeal (hence iFart and a thousand other apps that are just gags for idiots to blow 99 cents on).