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Is Apple trying to flood the competition with second rate apps?


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Is Apple trying to flood the competition with second rate apps?
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Doxxic
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Amsterdam
 
2010-03-22, 08:10

Apart from being careful about what software is selling under their brand, Apple has another reason to move bad software out of their store fast and rigorously.

The dumped developers will go to the Android store.

It appears that Apple has removed an amount of software titles from their store that roughly equals the total amount of available titles in the Android store, according to this article: http://treestman.posterous.com/despi...ore-is-kicking

That means that a significant share of those titles must have been dumped by Apple before.

I have always been thinking that it doesn't seem to be worth the trouble for Apple to remove so much software visitors hardly ever know of, so now I'm wondering if Apple is deliberately trying to flood the competitors with second rate apps?
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2010-03-22, 08:18

Ha...maybe.

That recent App Store purge was odd. Kind of a bummer if you were a longtime iPhone app developer in good standing, but you were suddenly shown the door because (this week) your app(s) didn't conform to Apple's overall vision.

My hope is that Apple doesn't become so fickle and ever-changing about their various policies that serious developers (who take their work seriously, and value their time and sanity) won't tire of the grind and hassle.

Seems like every couple of months, the rules or standards change. These kinds of apps, but not these. Okay, we can sell these, but not these. But we're not going to carry those, even though we did yesterday. We are, however, going to sell these and these. But not those. Okay, we used to sell iTitties, but now we're not. However, we are going to have a Playboy app, because it's an "accepted, longtime brand".

Nipples and hoo-has are nipples and hoo-has, people. Either have them or not, and make the standards apply equally across the board. You start granting these random exceptions and you just create confusion, distrust and conflict.



Mind you, I'm all for QC and Apple setting the rules for their own sandbox (it's why my iPhone is a joy to use, and not laden with shitball third-party software that never should've seen the light of day), but I think they might come across to many as "still figuring it out", and making it all up as they go, with all the arbitrary stuff lately.

Then again, I can understand some of where they're coming from. Some apps are just...well, idiotic. And those developers who have coasted on said idiocy for a solid 18 months now might need a wake-up call.

"Can you create something other than a Fart-O-Meter app?"

Man does not live by beans alone.
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bassplayinMacFiend
Banging the Bottom End
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
 
2010-03-22, 08:29

Developers leaving is one worrying trend, but there is another that's troublesome as well. Due to the race to the bottom leading to difficulty selling $2 apps, developers are making more and more "shallow" apps.

Why spend 5 months developing one app that, if you're lucky, might sell 100 copies, when you can spend 5 months developing 5 simpler apps, possibly leading to 500 sales? I'm seeing more discussion of this topic on developer boards. Especially since it's getting harder and harder for people to find apps as the app store grows towards 150K apps. What if your app is released on the same day as a thousand other apps? What's the possibility of getting on the new release page that defaults to a list of 25 apps?
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Satchmo
can't read sarcasm.
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Toronto, Canada
 
2010-03-22, 09:01

I think it's incumbent for developers to budget funds for marketing their apps.

That 30% going to Apple was suppose to help bring your product to the masses, but with 150K apps, it's difficult to find anything.
But you simply can't rely on having your app appear on the front page. That alone won't guarantee success.
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scratt
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2010-03-22, 09:03

The answer is to make quality apps, market them well, and not join the race to the bottom. And hang tight.

It's the same problem that all software makers face to be honest. It's just that a lot of "young" hopefuls with little commercial experience are still hoping to get in on the App Store Gold Rush.

What's more; marketing shills, bogus app review sites and unscrupulous companies are also trying to exploit the system.

In some ways it's a little worrying that Apple have now dropped the entry price for people to develop for desktop OS X too.

I have been arguing in the dev forums for a long time that apps should be sorted and approved in reverse order of submission frequency. That way people who submit one or two apps a year jump the queue over all the crap being fed in by SPAM developers. I would also advocate a "Per New App" submission fee over and above two per year. This would stamp out speculation overnight.

Apple are well aware of these suggestions, but for their own reasons choose to ignore them.

'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take'
Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt
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bassplayinMacFiend
Banging the Bottom End
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
 
2010-03-22, 09:31

The price to develop for desktop OS X has always been free. Sure, you could become a paid ADC member but the requirement was never there. With iPhone development, you have to buy an ADC membership in order to put your software onto an unjailbroken iPhone.
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Luca
ಠ_ರೃ
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
 
2010-03-22, 09:54

I doubt they are actually trying to flood Android with bad apps, but it is true that there are plenty of bad apps on the Android marketplace. I was looking for an alarm clock app the other day and I came across a huge glut of self-described "designer" clocks all from the same developer, all of which were extremely expensive (between $4 and $50, yes $50 for a clock widget).

On the one hand, you have to sift through some bad apps to get to the good ones. On the other hand, Apple's app store still has plenty of bad apps on its own, so it's really not that different. Also, Android's open source nature makes it easy and cheap to develop for, and there is nothing stopping you from installing apps not downloaded through the store. I have installed several .apk (Android Package) files that I downloaded from a computer and transferred over USB.

There are benefits and drawbacks to both Apple's and Google's methods. Apple's strategy is very similar to what they do with Macs: exert tight control over them in order to ensure a positive user experience. Google's, on the other hand, leaves things more up to the user, which means more potential for techies but also more potential problems for newbies.
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scratt
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2010-03-22, 11:04

Quote:
Originally Posted by bassplayinMacFiend View Post
The price to develop for desktop OS X has always been free. Sure, you could become a paid ADC member but the requirement was never there. With iPhone development, you have to buy an ADC membership in order to put your software onto an unjailbroken iPhone.
Sorry, I should have been clearer. I've been having chats with people recently about the possibility of Apple expanding the App Store to desktop etc. I had that in my mind when I was writing that.

The general consensus is that this general $99 ADC fee may be a prelude to something along those lines. Of course, that is pure speculation, and it may be simply a way to help grow Apple's desktop market share.

'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take'
Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt
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bassplayinMacFiend
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Join Date: Jun 2004
 
2010-03-22, 11:30

Apple starts trying to control desktop OS X like they're doing with iThings, I won't buy another Mac. I like OS X very much, but not that much.
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scratt
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2010-03-22, 11:35

Quote:
Originally Posted by bassplayinMacFiend View Post
Apple starts trying to control desktop OS X like they're doing with iThings, I won't buy another Mac. I like OS X very much, but not that much.
I don't think that is much of a possibility. What they may do is experiment with an App Store alongside the current market. It's just a theory. Personally, if you want my opinion I don't see it happening. But I am sure it's been discussed, as has de-restricting iPhone / iPod and iPad development. Which I don't see happening either, unless government mandated.

'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take'
Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt
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bassplayinMacFiend
Banging the Bottom End
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
 
2010-03-22, 12:14

Quote:
Originally Posted by scratt View Post
I don't think that is much of a possibility. What they may do is experiment with an App Store alongside the current market. It's just a theory. Personally, if you want my opinion I don't see it happening. But I am sure it's been discussed, as has de-restricting iPhone / iPod and iPad development. Which I don't see happening either, unless government mandated.
I agree that Apple couldn't lock desktop apps to a single store run by them, approved by them, and removed by them whenever they feel like it. That would kill any momentum they have in the desktop/laptop space. Similarly, I hope someone forces Apple to de-restrict iThing app distribution and sooner rather than later. We know the US gov't is basically non-functional unless it's a month before election so maybe the EU will take it up.
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scratt
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2010-03-22, 12:27

I'm not that bothered about "de-restriction" of the App Store.

I see a lot more opportunity within a slightly walled garden with a strongly supported infrastructure behind it. Which is what the App Store is.

I see Apple's hand as reasonable and fair within what I perceive as the kind of place I want to publish within. I have not experienced any of the horror stories which have been widely reported in the blog-o-sphere. When you look at the majority of those "reports" you have to take a close look at the people reporting them, and the software they were actually peddling, to get a better cross section of what actually is going on. Sure Apple had teething problems with approvals. But so what? The vitriol then directed at them, particularly in the Dev Forums, seemed to me to be coming from people who wondered why their 25'th boob app was being delayed in approval. If their use of English in their posts was anything to go by (and I am referring to people I know are located in the US and UK and their general punctuation and ability to express themselves) then I think Apple should be applauded for their patience at times!

Sure there were a few "high profile" people from FaceBook who are perceived as "god-like" social media devs in that same blog-o-sphere, who quit iPhone development publicly when having hissy fits over the App Store. But frankly they seemed more interested in getting page views than the issue they said they had.

If you look closely at what Apple has "kicked out", it's sex apps, apps which have broken their own API guidelines - which are there mostly to keep development stable - and those that have broken the rules.

Those rules relate to not gaming or exploiting the system. For example, the India App SPAM farm which was publishing several apps a day, with a total portfolio of 450 totally useless apps by the time it was shut down.

I feel no fear of being ejected from the store without good reason, and welcome the fact that Apple don't want the store to degenerate. In fact I wish they would do more to remove pointless apps. But I understand that my perception of pointless is not necessarily everyone else's.

Anyone who sees Apple's App Store management policy as evil is being led by the nose by reactionist articles in the blog-o-sphere, and not by looking at the facts. And sorry I don't feel any sympathy for people who have had their earnings slashed when their cheap porn mag apps were pulled without warning. Sure Apple should have given some warning if being totally fair. But if you lie down with dogs you get fleas. So I have little sympathy. Sorry.

If the App Store lost the monopoly it has and was diluted, or weakened by Cydia clones and the like springing up all over it would actually make it harder for people to sell quality apps IMO, as the market would be fragmented, so you'd have to publish everywhere. We'd be back where we were before the App Store, without the indie explosion it created.

If that happened, then I'd probably stay in the App Store and hope it remained a place for quality apps. So perhaps it might be a good thing.. Who knows.

But I am in no rush to see any great change right now, personally.

To illuminate that point further. If there was an OS X Desktop App Store I'd publish in it. I have no interest publishing OS X Desktop Apps right now. Likewise if the iPad was not a walled garden I would not publish on that either.

'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take'
Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt

Last edited by scratt : 2010-03-22 at 12:40.
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addabox
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: oaktown
 
2010-03-22, 20:47

I've never understood the "My app got lost in the App Store" thing. As opposed to what, exactly? If I'm a Mac or PC dev, I write my app and.... toss it onto the internet? Which is several kajillion time bigger than the App Store? And hope for the best? Of course not, I set up shop at a web site and do what I can to market it. If it's being sold through a particular channel, I link to it from my website. Over which I have complete control. To flog the hell out of my app.

And which any iPhone developer can easily do. Now, if your idea is that the App Store is the only possible channel for, not just selling your app, but any kind of presence whatsoever, then, yeah, good luck with that. But if your standards for self promotion are that low, it's hard to believe you would have been terribly successful without an App Store.

This principle of needing to do a bit more than toss your product on the heap of whatever the local bazaar is would be true, of course, of, um, every fucking thing for sale, anywhere, ever.

That which doesn't kill you weakens you slightly and makes you less able to cope until you're completely incapacitated
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scratt
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2010-03-22, 20:51

Exactly. Like I said, I think the problem is that a lot of inexperienced people with a sense of self entitlement, and a splash of greed are peddling the equivalent of handy crafts in the App Store and expecting to get rich quick.

When that doesn't happen overnight they need someone to blame.

'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take'
Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt
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addabox
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Join Date: May 2004
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2010-03-23, 13:52

Quote:
Originally Posted by scratt View Post
Exactly. Like I said, I think the problem is that a lot of inexperienced people with a sense of self entitlement, and a splash of greed are peddling the equivalent of handy crafts in the App Store and expecting to get rich quick.

When that doesn't happen overnight they need someone to blame.
Yep, precisely. But you also hear this a lot from users of the App Store, as if the only way to identify potentially useful/fun apps is to just go over there and start wandering around. Where else is this strategy used? Do people rely on random luck to find the music they want on the iTunes Store? Do they go to Amazon to just, I dunno, check out what's for sale? And then get frustrated because a lot of what's for sale is crap, or doesn't interest them, or whatever?

Or I guess the real analogy would be "Oh Hai Internets, can I has product, please?"

That which doesn't kill you weakens you slightly and makes you less able to cope until you're completely incapacitated
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