

The App Store, 3 years later: Apple just doesn't care. - SeoxyS
http://kswizz.com/post/20535041240/app-store-retrospective?3-years-later-apple-does-not-care

======
mechanical_fish
If I were forced to reduce the entire problem of tech punditry down to a
single sentence, I think I'd try this: "Internet time", the incredibly-
accelerated pace of everything, is a modern myth, a lie we tell ourselves. In
fact, meaningful change takes time, perhaps as much time as it always has.

Three years? Come back in, say, seven more years. By then maybe we'll know if
Apple's store has a systemic, unsolveable problem or is just suffering growing
pains from its overwhelming flood of success. Half a million apps and billions
of downloads: It's a wonder that the system isn't _considerably worse_ than it
was a few years ago. Just think of how much stuff has needed to be scaled out
and scaled up. They're probably running as fast as they can just to remain in
place.

Apple's "problem" is that they have a fairly small team that can only
accomplish so much at one time, and yet they allow that team to invent bold
new things that are minimally functional, then release them, then succeed so
overwhelmingly that it's a struggle to keep up with the traffic. But does
anyone have a better idea? This is what innovation looks like.

~~~
bad_user

        "Internet time", the incredibly-accelerated pace of 
        everything, is a modern myth, a lie we tell ourselves
    

I wouldn't call it a lie, because software scales better than humans do.

When you're saying " _half a million apps and billions of downloads_ " it's as
if Apple themselves worked on those apps and all of those downloads were
manually packaged by Apple employees in envelopes, signed by Ive and sent by
postal office. Well, actually, the number of downloads is irrelevant.

And if Apple can't handle the approval of those million apps, maybe that's
because they've dug themselves into a corner by trying to force an asinine
policy that doesn't even work for its intended purpose anyway.

~~~
ryannielsen
As I read it, you're positing two things:

1) It's effortless to build an infrastructure that handles reviewing half a
million apps and hosting billions of downloads, and to scale up to those
levels from nothing.

2) The app store review process doesn't serve its intended purpose.

If that interpretation's correct, how do you support those assertions?

#1 is demonstrably false, given the effort that many companies exert to handle
reviewing and approving numerous kinds of content, and then vending that
content to consumers around the world. Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and
Google are just a few companies that have large chunks of their organization
devoted to approving content (be it movies, ads, apps, or ebooks) and then
supporting the systems which host and vend that content around the world. Both
are non-trivial problems and difficult things to scale at those magnitudes. To
claim otherwise is disingenuous.

I'd also claim that #2 is false. Malware is not a problem on the App Stores,
and I feel eminently confident as a consumer that I can trust apps purchased
on Apple's App Stores. As a developer, the review process has caught bugs in
my apps before they've hit my users, and they've also been quick to approve
updates that address urgent bugs that slipped past both my and their testing.
You may disagree with some of their policies and the review process does make
mistakes, but I don't believe you can assert they're largely ineffectual or
incompetent, nor do I believe you can claim the process doesn't offer benefits
to consumers. What other software store is as confidently and easily used by
consumers around the world?

------
stock_toaster
> Apple just doesn’t care about its third-party developers

I think Apple simply cares _more_ about end users than third-party developers.
Third-party developers are a means to an end (selling more hardware), not an
end themselves (except insofar as developers are also users). I don't think
that means that Apple as a company doesn't care about third-party developers.
I think they clearly do. I just think they tend to side with users when there
is a choice of making one group happy over the other. You can see this with
new OS versions (faster deprecation cycles, api changes, etc). Contrast with
companies you tend to think of that favor keeping third-party developers (and
companies) happy over users.

There is always a balance I think. The author even notes the "UDID Fiasco"[1].
This sure was a pain from an ad network point of view (it sure did make for a
rough week at $dayjob), but as a consumer I was pleased. It was a while coming
too, so it isn't like it was a surprise.

[1]: The author of the article appears to work for chartboost, which runs a
mobile ad network.

~~~
abraxasz
Completely agree. This might explain why Apple didn't act on some of the
"issues" raised by the OP:

\- "Junk Apps": As someone mentioned below, this one's really unreasonable.
"Junk" is subjective, and even if it's not, who's to decide which app should
be removed?

\- "[App Reviews] are nearly always of terrible quality": Again, what is Apple
supposed to do here? Let the developers chose which reviews should be
displayed for their apps? Impose a minimum number of characters for a review?
Non of this makes much sense to me.

\- "Ringtone Apps": I really, really don't get this one. Maybe it makes sense
from a developer point of view, but for a user point of view, I don't see
what's wrong with apps prices decreasing.

\- "Customer Data is hidden": Uh? As a consumer, I'm happy about this one.

Concerning the App Review paragraph, I can't say much, except that the
complaints seem more reasonable.

Anyway, I can understand the OP's opinion, but I think it's unfair to say that
Apple doesn't care about developers. They probably care about developers (they
do realize that the app store and app developers are central to the iphone's
succes), but they care more about end users. And if they have to make a
choice, they'd probably try to satisfy consumers over developers.

------
guan
It’s worth noting that Apple has at least attempted to address many of these
concerns. Rate on delete is gone and they’ve added “Top Grossing”. These days
app reviews usually take a week.

Of course the app store is still filled with junk apps, there are no paid
updates, search is still broken and iTunes Connect is still a mess.

~~~
chmars
iTunes itself remains a mess. I often change the audio books I sync to my
iPhone. In iTunes, I cannot efficiently select audio books since after each
click, iTunes pauses for 5-10 seconds including the usual spinning wait
cursor. I am wondering if Apple will ever be able to release a version of
iTunes with acceptable performance and a GUI for more than one task as a time.

~~~
stock_toaster
I kind of wish that Apple rolled the various 'stores' into a more unified
interface, and did something like they did with quicktimeX for itunes (ituneX?
ha).

I think it may be more possible now that they are starting to rely/focus on
icloud for various things (backups, match, sync). There is still a close
relation between syncing media with iDevices via itunes though, so I can see
how unifying stores outside of itunes would be challenging and possibly
confusing to many end users.

I really would like to see itunes becomes lighter and more usable though.

------
chmars
I still miss trial versions. And downloads have recently become rather slow …

Reviews are mostly useless except for actual paid apps. Reviews for 'free'
apps (usually with ads or in-app purchases) are mostly worthless:

[http://notes.kateva.org/2012/04/side-effect-of-ios-in-app-
pu...](http://notes.kateva.org/2012/04/side-effect-of-ios-in-app-
purchase.html)

~~~
sunnynagra
I do believe that when implemented properly by a developer, in-app purchasing
can lead to a pseudo trial versions of apps. There is an implementation that I
have used in an app that hasn't had anything, but good responses from users.
Users are able to try out the vast majority of the features in a "trial." Even
after the "trial" is over, most of the features are still accessible to users.

If you want to check out our use of in app, check out the app here: Basketball
Shot Tracker HD [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/basketball-shot-tracker-
hd/id...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/basketball-shot-tracker-
hd/id479103761?ls=1&mt=8)

------
orangecat
_There’s no way to contest or respond to an erroneous review. There’s not even
a way to respond to a review saying there’s a problem with the app with a
solution, or a "that’s coming in the next update—hang tight."_

As both a developer and user, that's one of my main complaints with the
Android market as well. Is there a good reason to not allow this that I'm
overlooking?

~~~
sunnynagra
It seems that I may be in the minority, but I contested a 1 star written
review because it was obvious that the reviewer didn't read the description
and didn't even try the app before reviewing it badly. I reported it to Apple,
stated my reasoning and within a day or two that review was removed. It was
for this app: [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/basketball-shot-tracker-
hd/id...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/basketball-shot-tracker-
hd/id479103761?ls=1&mt=8)

Granted I only did this once, but I think that since it was a clear cut case,
Apple quickly removed that poor review.

~~~
pkamb
I successfully contested a customer review that was basically a text dump of
promo codes I had posted elsewhere. But had no luck with the review I posted
above, where I think it was obvious the review never read the description.
Your milage may vary I guess, just like with app reviews.

------
joejohnson
This blog is very well designed.

~~~
SeoxyS
Thanks, much appreciated.

As an aside, I just posted about my redesign and my motivations behind it:
<http://kswizz.com/post/20668660473/redesign>

~~~
dpark
FYI, in Chrome 18.0.1025.151 on Windows 7, your header (the crown, your name,
and the slogan) stays in place when scrolling, obscuring the text. I don't
know if other Chrome users are seeing this or not. (This behavior doesn't
occur in IE on my machine).

~~~
SeoxyS
Should be good now if you reload, right? I've been messing with the javascript
trying to add a lightbox and accidentally pushed a syntax error.

------
adjwilli
I was expecting more blow by boo coverage for the original post. Apple really
had done a lot to smooth the process for app developers. Apps are getting
review much quicker than before. With in-app purchases you can sell additional
features in your upgrade, thus making those new features paid upgrades. I'm
sure the charts algorithms are more complex than just pure download numbers,
even normalized for time. The only real problems I see still are not being
able to respond to unfair/untruthful reviews.

------
alpb
Completely off-topic before reading the post: This guy's blog has a
ridiculously tempting design.

------
signalsignal
I noticed the problem with iTunes connect has been fixed. It is actually much,
much better than it used to be.

------
batista
His most basic complaint is BS.

There are 98% junk apps out there, he says. First, what's junk for one might
be handy for another. Second, if Apple was to eliminate even 10% of this 98%,
everybody would be screaming "censorship". Does he seriously suggest Apple
remove 98% of apps (some 500.000+ apps) from the App Store?

I also don't see what the "recent UUID fiasco" is. If anything it's allowing
it in the first place, and not the deprecating of it now as he seems to
suggest.

Also Apple has taken lots of steps to make app reviews faster and more
transparent.

As for "Top Apps Charts: These charts have so much effect on whether an
application gets noticed and downloaded that whether you show up on these
charts can decide the fate of your application."

Is that a gripe or just an observation? I fail to see how it can be a gripe
--except as "sour grapes".

The only relevant points are those about paid updates and maybe promotions.
Paid updates would be very useful.

~~~
SeoxyS
Hey, author here.

I just want to explain myself here. My most basic complaint is not that there
are a lot of junk apps, nor am I suggesting that Apple remove them from the
App Store. I'm merely pointing out that it's a problem, and causes problems
for legitimate developers in the same way that newsletter clutter makes it
hard to read emails from human beings when your inbox has 10,000 emails.

I think this would not be an issue if the App Store's search functionality was
not piss-poor, and if Apple had better discovery mechanisms in place for
people to find the gems, which often are not present on the top charts.
Hopefully the Chomp acquisition will help with that.

The other thing I want to point out is that I'm not posting the list as a
current list of complaints, more as a way to point out how sad it is that 3
years later, only two of these complaints have been addressed: rate-on-delete,
and outrageous review times.

~~~
warmfuzzykitten
Sorry, you invalidated your entire article with the last paragraph, which this
has nothing to do with how the app store is managed and everything to do with
the axe you have to grind with the very concept of a successful corporate
enterprise.

"The App Store’s biggest flaw, at the end of the day, is that it is not a free
market. It is not a meritocracy, and app success is slave to the whim of a
corporate overlord that changes it mind without explanation more often than a
5 year old."

If I were Apple, after reading that I wouldn't give you the time of day.

