

Apple Shuts Down Push Notifications From AppGratis - jeremylevy
http://www.macrumors.com/2013/04/18/apple-shuts-down-push-notifications-from-appgratis/

======
itafroma
AppGratis's response[1] to this new development (and the repeated allegations
of gaming the App Store) is weird and full of double-speak.

> Allow me to jump right into this by saying that yes, we have created a
> business while solving a problem.

> And that last time we checked, it was still OK to do that.

Double-speak: "solving a problem" wasn't why AppGratis was banned: if "solving
a problem" was a bannable offense, every app would be banned. No, it was
banned for a specific "solution" to a very specific "problem": providing pay-
to-play access to their install base in order to game the ostensibly organic
rankings of the App Store.

Under the section that promises to explain why AppGratis's business model is
fair, you'd expect it to be about that, but it's not: instead, it's a short
biography of the founder, a recap of all the money they raised, and this
curious statement:

> And this is how we helped and are still helping – for free – hundreds of
> indie devs with great apps to get well-deserved visibility. In the past few
> days, many of them have stood up for us – and many haven’t, probably in fear
> that Apple will stop featuring their app if they speak. I make no judgement
> of this. I thank the former, and fully understand what motivates (or
> doesn’t) the later.

So everyone believes AppGratis is good, and the people who actively state
otherwise are only doing so under threat from Apple? That's begging the
question on a grand scale.

Under the "Where's the money coming from?" section, they go into great detail
about how AppGratis was accepting money from people with big marketing budgets
to feature their applications on a CPI basis— something they admit Apple
banned—and how the companies were using this to game the App Store:

> And to guide them through their complicated media buying, we’d send them –
> with no guarantees whatsoever – a spreadsheet that indicates the forecasts
> of installs we thought we’d be a able to drive for their app in each
> country. Since the App Store algorithm relies mostly on download velocity,
> it’s simple math to buy your way to the top of the charts by purchasing the
> numbers of installs you need combining multiple vendors.

Yet they immediately deny that they were gaming the App Store. Their entire
business model, _as described by them_ , was built upon facilitating app store
gaming. The hair they're splitting here is that they are not providing an
explicit statement of guarantee regarding placement in Apple's App Store
rankings. Yet that's the entire value of AppGratis to potential buyers and
what a CPI business model would result in, leading to the same end result:
buying placement on AppGratis guarantees better rankings in Apple's App Store.

Finally:

> We have always based our business on solving the App Discovery needs that
> consumers have.

and

> We then surveyed our community: “Folks, happy with this new type of deals?”
> Answer: “Yes”. Status: OK. Carry on, AppGratis.

are both double-speak: their consumers and community are the companies that
buy placement in AppGratis, not the people downloading the app (much less the
people who are relying on Apple's App Store rankings). Of course they're happy
with AppGratis: they wouldn't be paying them otherwise.

AppGratis had a fairly sympathetic narrative handed to them: mean old Apple,
who has a history of ostensibly capricious and arbitrary decisions regarding
their app store, banned an app that had 12 million installs. Blog posts like
the ones they've been posting that at best sidestep the issues raised, or at
worst confirm them, do them no favors.

[1]: [http://appgratis.com/blog/2013/04/18/setting-things-
straight...](http://appgratis.com/blog/2013/04/18/setting-things-straight-
about-the-appgratis-business-model/)

------
andrewljohnson
Get off my App Store.

All of you vultures with your paid and "incentivized" marketing can just
leave. Go "solve" a problem that doesn't cause a myriad problems for the
victims. Instead of making golden crumbs from rich app developers at the
expense of poor app developers - instead of running up the score for scumbags
and becoming scummy in the process, make something that helps people do
something worthwhile in the world.

Seriously, get out. You are bad people running these kind of companies, or you
are delusional to not understand how the things you do are bad. You are so
infatuated with success or entrepreneurship or hacking or whatever, that you
lost sight of what it means to be human and part of society.

Apple's response to App Gratis is another reason why the App Store is a good
market for honest, hard-working people. Even if the walls around the garden
seem a little imposing sometimes, at least scumbags can be kicked out. It's
not like the internet where malware and dishonesty flood over you if you
venture out of the well-trodden nodes.

------
j_s
A new AppGratis blogpost shares their perspective:

[http://appgratis.com/blog/2013/04/18/setting-things-
straight...](http://appgratis.com/blog/2013/04/18/setting-things-straight-
about-the-appgratis-business-model/)

    
    
      > And to guide them through their complicated media buying, we’d 
      > send them – with no guarantees whatsoever – a spreadsheet that 
      > indicates the forecasts of installs we thought we’d be a able 
      > to drive for their app in each country.
    

The crux of the issue (from my limited perspective):

    
    
      > Since the App Store algorithm relies mostly on download velocity, 
      > it’s simple math to buy your way to the top of the charts by 
      > purchasing the numbers of installs you need combining multiple 
      > vendors. It’s the most common marketing strategy in the market 
      > today, and at the end of the day, it’s just regular advertising.
    

Glad this is out in the open in this way; it is useful to see where people
line up on this issue.

~~~
fpgeek
One thing I wonder is if AppGratis' s business model (intentionally or not)
games Apple's App Store ranking algorithm... Why not just change the algorithm
instead of playing whack-a-mole with AppGratis and similar apps?

For example, I could imagine Apple requiring disclosure of promoted apps and
factoring that in to the rankings. Sure, that adjustment wouldn't be perfect,
but there's lots of other noise to deal with (e.g. iOS apps with Android
counterparts that are featured by Amazon or Google can see a significant bump)
that it shouldn't be hard to make it good enough.

~~~
itafroma
I'm somewhat surprised Apple doesn't do something similar to what Google does
in their SERPs: blacklist anyone caught paying for placement from the App
Store rankings.

~~~
fpgeek
One complication is that Apple's "death penalty" is at least theoretically far
harsher than Google's. With Google's even if you're blacklisted people can
still go to your site and use it if they want to. The only penalty is that the
site is (much) harder to find (especially when you're not looking for that
site specifically).

With Apple's, once an app is kicked out of their app store, there's no way to
use it short of jailbreaking (with the possible exception of grandfathering
depending on the particular circumstances).

~~~
itafroma
Oh, I'm not suggesting Apple blacklist an app entirely. Rather, remove them
from consideration from the Top Paid/Free/Grossing lists (or put them at the
bottom). Maybe even remove them from keyword search results in more severe
cases.

So you could still find the app by direct link or searching for the app name,
but paying to increase rankings would be for naught. Like Google, Apple could
then accept reconsideration requests that demonstrate the app is no longer the
beneficiary of app store ranking manipulation.

~~~
fpgeek
Ah, that's a much more proportional response. That makes a lot of sense to me
(though maybe not to Apple who often seems to act in black and white).

------
billdhn
Why would they not kill push they banned the app from sale.

~~~
Someone
Apple rarely (did they ever?) uses a full kill switch on apps. They will stop
further sales, but they will not, typically, disable features that customers
already have in their hands. For example, I think the tethering in
FlashArmyKnife still works for those who have it.

~~~
georgemcbay
They didn't kill-switch AppGratis, they just blacklisted it from sending APNS
notification messages which is a different thing.

I'm not a huge fan of Apple and a big part of that is due to the power they
have over the app store (and the fact that they were successful with this
model encouraged so many others to emulate it), but given that they removed
the app from the App Store, disabling APNS for it is a pretty reasonable thing
to have done on top of that.

Why expend resources (all APNS go through Apple's server infrastructure)
servicing an app that isn't even allowed in your store anymore?

~~~
Someone
Because, as I said, they have users using the app. They have said "we will not
sell this app anymore", but they typically do not extend that to "we will no
longer support existing customers for this product" (and even less so to "we
will take this app away from those customers who downloaded/bought it")

~~~
pwinn
By "even less so," you mean "never," right? Because they literally never have.

Disabling a feature within an app != shutting off push messaging. The first
doesn't use Apple's infrastructure. There aren't a lot of apps that have been
permanently removed from the store by Apple, and I can't remember if any of
them used push messaging, so I can't be sure, but it seems reasonable to infer
that if an app is permanently removed, its APNS profile might be automatically
removed as well.

~~~
Someone
I meant "I don't think they ever did, but I am not sure, and don't want to see
replies discussing this minor point".

As to disabling push messaging: I think this is a bit of a gray area. For some
apps, push messages are minor features. for others, they can be an essential
part of the app. Disabling them for such apps is equivalent to removing the
app from the user's device.

I haven't seen the AppGratis App, so I don't know what push messages mean for
that app.

~~~
julien_c
They're pretty essential.

------
JuDue
Gaming the ranking system.

That's Apples #1 concern.

Don't panic over the other issues listed.

For example, AppGratis tried to rally developer sympathy by claiming this rule
was being used : "Apps that are not very useful, unique, are simply web sites
bundled as Apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be
rejected."

And while that rule is ridiculous and too generic, it wasn't what caught
Apple's attention.

Gaming the ranking is what concerns Apple.

------
NewAccnt2
This is Apple letting you know who really owns your phone.

~~~
shawnphoffman
I think you meant "this is Apple letting you know who owns their notification
infrastructure".

~~~
olgeni
...which, by the way, is the only one you are allowed to use...

~~~
mannkind
... thankfully ...

As a user: I want the platform to take care of notifications. I care not to
install dozens of different notification systems because some app decides to
use Yet Another Notification System.

As a developer: I want the platform to take care of notifications. I don't
want to worry about some third-party server works as expected nor do I want to
have to care about the user having the right software install either.

