
Apple Promotes Jeff Williams to COO, Puts Phil Schiller in Charge of App Store - Rifu
http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/17/apple-promotes-jeff-williams-to-coo-puts-phil-schiller-in-charge-of-app-store/
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wlesieutre
> In addition, Apple says it’s expanding VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil
> Schiller’s duties to now include running the App Store _across all Apple
> platforms_.

Emphasis mine, this means there's now a visible figure responsible for the Mac
App Store. I'm not in Mac development, but by many accounts it's been
neglected to the point that the well known software is bailing. Most specific
complaints center around the sandbox limitations, but there's also frustration
with wondering what you're shelling out such a big chunk of your money for if
the store hasn't improved in years.

Apple can get away with whatever they want on iOS because there are no other
options. On Mac, they can't expect to charge 30% of revenue and have everyone
stick around if the service isn't worth it.

Example, with many related links at the bottom:
[https://www.macstories.net/linked/sketch-is-leaving-the-
mac-...](https://www.macstories.net/linked/sketch-is-leaving-the-mac-app-
store/)

I don't know what they have planned to fix it, but the timing of this feels
like at least a tacit acknowledgement that there's a problem.

~~~
ohitsdom
This comes up whenever the Mac App Store is mentioned, but it deserves being
repeated until it's fixed:

The Mac App Store is an awful program. It's incredibly slow. You make a great
point- I'm glad there's now a public face and hope that it's a sign Apple is
taking the issue seriously.

~~~
wlesieutre
That reminds me, I have a screenshot of the App Store where it downloaded all
of the store page _data_ , but didn't get the stylesheet. And since it's just
a shitty webview in a box and not a full browser, there's no obvious way to
make it reload.

These sorts of things happen when you download your whole program's page
layout off the internet. How idiotic would it look if you pulled up a playlist
view in iTunes and everything turned into an unstyled HTML bulleted list?

Don't have the computer with that screenshot handy, but I can post it later.

~~~
wlesieutre
Screenshot as promised:
[http://i.imgur.com/5xNgwMH.png](http://i.imgur.com/5xNgwMH.png)

Only have the "Check for Updates" screen, but I have to assume the same can
happen in any section of the store.

If this were built as a native app (or even cached the CSS for common pages),
you'd at least get a usable layout, even if your connection sucks too much to
get images or even download software.

It's a joke as-is. You get the "there are 5 updates" badge on your dock icon,
the store app _knows_ what the updates are, but can't display the list
properly without a connection to the internet.

~~~
vitd
Can you send the screenshot to them with a suggestion of shipping the CSS with
it? I think you can file bugs at
[http://bugreport.apple.com/](http://bugreport.apple.com/).

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dhagz
I've been wanting to start developing software for the Mac, and seeing that
there is now someone in charge of the App Store - not just for iOS but for the
Mac as well - is a big thing. OSX is my main platform, and I've watched the
Mac App Store stagnate and float around in a holding pattern. Here's hoping it
finally gets a wishlist.

~~~
ThomPete
I learned something the hard way so let me pass it on :)

The Mac App Store is just a distribution channel and should not hold anyone
back if they seriously think they have a product of value.

Even if they improve the Mac App store the rationale for even having it wont
change much and so some of the same issues will still prevail IMO.

You will still only be featured if you either know someone or use some of
their latest features/libraries.

You will still not be able to do a lot of things because of Sandbox.

You will not be able to reach the majority of target market (Google is your
friend there)

And there are plenty of other great solutions for distribution out there.

Just my five cents.

P.S. If you are serious about developing for the Mac but don't have a project.
Contact me I am expanding my product line and could use a good osx dev.

------
robterrell
No mention of Eddie Cue? He was previously in charge of the store, right?

~~~
georgespencer
Yes. IMO:

Optically, Cue has been peculiar in the last year. The night before the
keynote introducing Apple Music, he was photographed at a basketball game. The
keynote was a disaster: he was easily the least polished presenter; the
segments didn't flow together; he stumbled a few times; he did awful dad
dancing and cracked jokes which folks didn't laugh at; Drake (?) and Jimmy
Iovine had clearly not told anyone what they were going to say.

The product has not been a smash hit success, either. There was so much heat
over how bad it was that some of Apple's best-known cheerleaders in the press
and blogs were battering it for being unusable and buggy.

This is a logical clipping of Cue's wings. Apple Music + Beats 1 are a
significantly different challenge to iTunes which was buoyed by rapid
expansion of a category (iPod -- which lest we forget forced Amazon to have a
product page for "non-iPod MP3 players") and a low threshold to entry. Apple
Music is a wartime product competing against Spotify's headstart.

Schiller has for years been better at courting developers. He's more at ease
scaling from macro perspectives on Apple's philosophy down to nerding out over
software.

~~~
eridius
Eddie Cue is doing a lot of things (including being responsible for iCloud and
the Maps backend IIRC). And really his strength and the reason why he was
instrumental to iTunes lay in his ability to negotiate and drive deals with
all of the music industry players.

~~~
bonaldi
Deals which are visibly not getting made for the Apple TV service, by most
accounts

~~~
donarb
Don't blame Cue, media companies are scared to death of making deals like Jobs
made with the record labels.

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ebbv
I really hope this comes with big changes. The App Store on all platforms has
been a disaster for years, IMHO. Overrun with junk ware, it really needs some
serious people power put into curating categories to help you find what you're
interested in.

Years ago I used to download new iOS apps all the time, I rarely do any more.
Every time I go on the store all I see is junk apps loaded with in app
purchase traps.

~~~
nacs
The iOS app store is actually pretty clean if you look at Google Play -- now
that is truly overrun with junk ware. Same with the Chrome extension store.

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cpr
Small rays of hope for fixing the app store problems start to glimmer on the
horizon...

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stephgonnasteph
Where's the diversity though...

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exabrial
Now if they can reverse the momentum on the "War on Ports" on their "pro"
models of crap. And get rid of the damn trash can design for the Mac Pro.

