

App Store Spam - 28 identical apps, one developer - kennywinker
http://objectivesea.tumblr.com/post/13988481450/appstorespam28

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jon914
Apple's been fairly lax lately with its checking. A friend's game that we were
able to get crashing on launch 100% of the time passed through the original
submit process without a peep.

The same friend, just for kicks, submitted a deliberately broken app that
didn't crash but showed a blank screen after launch. It also got approved
without incident. It's like Apple just ran automated tests, but no human ever
saw it.

I have a feeling that Apple's process varies depending on the kind of app
(free vs. paid), the platforms you're targeting and your past history.

~~~
d_r
It's hit or miss. Once I made a free app that displayed a picture of a cartoon
cow and made a "Moooo" sound when you turned the phone upside down. I had a
toy like that as a kid. Okay, don't judge me -- but I thought I would be a fun
quick idea and any kids (and even some adults) to whom I've shown the
prototype loved it. I had an artist draw the cow, and bought rights to a sound
I really liked.

The app was rejected twice for having "limited functionality." After I
resubmitted it with various tweaks, someone actually called me personally to
reject it. They were classy, communicated well, and were very polite, but ...

There are plenty of apps in the store, often in Top 100, that do less, or
actually do nothing. My favorite is "traffic light changer" that claims to
change traffic lights. Or a "fingerprint scanner." Also, there's "lockify your
screen" that claims to give you Android-like screen unlock, and yet just
displays a wallpaper with dots. Yes, they all have oodles of 1-star reviews
from upset buyers, but they did get approved somehow. It seems like I just got
unlucky with reviewers.

~~~
GrantS
I had a toy sheep like that as a kid, so it seems like a legitimate app to me,
sorry to hear it was rejected. I noticed those fake fingerprint scanners -- at
least two of which were consistently in the top 100 -- last year when I was
creating an app that performs real 3D scanning. I thought "Surely if a fake
fingerprint scanner is so popular, something that actually takes a 3D scan of
your face would be even more popular." I was incorrect. (Though my app has
done just fine -- it's just that those fake fingerprint scanners are
disgustingly successful given what they are.)

~~~
d_r
I just bought your app out of curiosity. That is a very interesting concept --
would love to see how you keep innovating further! Good luck! It took a few
tries/a darker room to get just the right effect. I don't actually know much
about image processing -- I figured you would try to detect the
face/cheeks/nose and "extrude" those when rotated, but it seems like it's
doing something more sophisticated.

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alttab
This is a common business model for mobile apps. I see blog posts here on the
hacker news front page from iphone app guys describing the development of
their app product line. In the end its quite literally make a tool that poops
out apps that are just a little different.

This is rampant in the industry and is motivated by cross-promotion and social
marketing with little development overhead. Their product is the eventual user
base. Apple doesn't care because it feeds the market and they get their cut.
To top all that off, its successful enough that there are armies of micro-
companies out there doing this every day because to them it actually works.

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apike
App Store spam should be like web spam - if the search and browse tools are
good, it should fade into the background. Instead, actually choosing a good
app in one of these categories is intensely frustrating. Blocking noise like
this at approval time is a lot less sustainable than making it less prominent
than good competitors.

~~~
iradik
How can it be like web spam? Web spam is in hypertext and app store spam is
compiled code.

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benguild
THANK YOU. I wrote about this in September on my Tumblr, which ironically
currently shares the same theme as his/hers:
[http://benguild.com/post/10435496115/attack-of-the-itunes-
ap...](http://benguild.com/post/10435496115/attack-of-the-itunes-app-store-
name-squatters)

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mahmud
To those wondering "why"? He's creating artificial crowding in a very niche
market, which will ultimately deter competitors, effectively creating a
monopoly for him in that niche.

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pagliara
I can understand how 28 identical apps does seem like overkill.

But what's the difference between this and Colgate releasing hundreds of
different variations of toothpastes every year? Or Unilever utilizing multiple
brand names to sell thousands of different variations of soap and shampoo.
It's all pretty much the same product, just marketed differently. This is just
a classic sales technique to increase sales and keep customers coming.

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apurvamehta
It seems to me that there is a large luck factor involved. I submitted an app
a month ago, and it just got approved today.

The reason for the delay?

My service is invitation only. I had a 'login' and a 'request invite' screen
in the app. The 'request invite' screen accepted the email address of the user
requesting the invite.

Apple said 'We do not permit invitation only apps on the app store. Please
remove the request invite button'. I tried arguing with them, citing popular
apps (like pinterest) which behave identically.

But to no avail. I had to remove the button before they approved the process.

Apple were really thorough. They actually logged in using the credentials I
provided and played with the whole end to end service.

They even called me to explain their original rejection.

So I was both impressed by their thoroughness, and miffed by their lack of
standards.

On the whole, I don't like this approval process. It seems whimsical and is
not good for the small-guys: sometimes they land hard on us, or at other times
let total crap in, which devalues the trust people have on non-popular apps in
general.

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sjs
Brighthouse Labs had over 3,000 apps for sale at one point. I'm not sure how
many are left but Apple has pulled the plug on at least some of them.

[http://www.google.ca/search?q=brighthouse+labs+site%3Aitunes...](http://www.google.ca/search?q=brighthouse+labs+site%3Aitunes.apple.com)

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dangero
Interesting. It seems even if Apple does something about it, the next step
would be to slightly tweak each of them to be non-identical to the others.

I wonder if the developer is making a lot of money because that would be the
real indicator of whether or not we will see a lot more of this.

~~~
jayfuerstenberg
The developer is ultimately hurting himself here. Each of these apps is
competing against the other for attention.

If he had a single app, and if that app were useful it would garner all the
downloads and help it rise higher up the popularity ladder.

~~~
kennywinker
I disagree. With an app like his, a white noise generator, he is unlikely to
ever rank highly or be featured by Apple. But if you are searching for white
noise/pink
noise/relaxation/relax/sleep/dreaming/rest/calm/tranquil/tranquility/peaceful
you're guaranteed to encounter one of his apps. Classic SEO stuff.

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dmauro
Seems like a good way to do some experiments with what catches people's eyes
and how much they're willing to pay for a white noise generator. If Apple's
going to let him do it, more power to him.

~~~
kennywinker
This is _hacker_ news, some respect for people who find loopholes in a system
is due, of course. But basically I think the point is that Apple shouldn't let
him do it. The app store is worse for users and developers because of it.

If it was just about science, he could have pulled 27 of the apps a month ago.

I wouldn't say no to a peek at his download stats though. ;)

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TamDenholm
While this is obviously spam, it'd be interesting to know the results of this
from an A/B testing perspective.

~~~
igorgue
You mean ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ testing?

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mkramlich
"competing" against spooge like that was one big thing that turned me off
iPhone development. So many apps that don't have to actually be apps, could
have just been a web app, or could have been an MP3 file you listen to in
iTunes, or a PDF at some HTTP URL, or whatever.

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Brajeshwar
Few years back, I found a bunch of News Apps from a single Developer -
<http://brajeshwar.posterous.com/one-devs-news-iphone-apps>

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resnamen
When profit motives meet user-generated content, you're going to see SEO.

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rrpp
He is probably doing some kind of research

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richcollins
This is the same strategy Android device makers use to compete with the Apple.
Fill the shelves with crap and plenty of people will never see the good stuff.

~~~
lazugod
It's a strategy made by bad manufacturers, not necessarily those that use
Android.

