

It's time for an App Store 2.0 - dojogrant
http://www.pocketnext.com/stories/time-for-an-app-store-2-0/

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mdonahoe
"1. An easy way to see what apps my friends are using and enjoying"

Game Center does this for games, which is the use case he was specifically
asking about. You dont even have to leave Game Center to read about and
download your friend's game.

"2. Ability to create 'playlists' and share them with friends"

I've emailed lists of my favorite apps to friends. Not sure if I would
maintain and vote on a playlist though.

"3. Subscriptions to developers and push notifications to my device when they
have released a new game"

Smart developers already let you know about their new games by sending you
messages in their games that you are currently playing.

"4. Multiple categories for popular apps, such as 'Popular Today,' 'Popular
This Month' and 'Popular All-Time'

Seems reasonable, but it is just adding more lists to navigate in the already
cluttered App Store.

There are 5 main sections, and lots of sub lists:

* Featured (New, What's Hot, Genius)

* Categories (22 x [Top paid, top free, release date])

* Top 25 (Top Paid, Top Free, Top Grossing)

* Search (N/A)

* Updates (updates, purchased, not-on-this-device)

"5. Saving games to a wishlist"

Could be useful if it had a social component. Like if a grandma could get the
app their kid wanted. Maybe?

"6. A Sale category that shows which games are currently discounted from their
normal cost"

This would get gamed.

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oacgnol
My biggest gripe with the App Store (both iOS and Mac App Stores) is that you
can't sort what you see by downloads, ratings, or other metrics. There's no
granularity with the way the user sifts through the App Store, just what Apple
deems to be the "Top ___" with whatever secret sauce algorithm they use. The
current method of app discovery is great for the average user, but for a power
user/developer like myself it leaves much to be desired.

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andrewingram
It's not just the App Store, it's iTunes as well.

After buying the new iPad, one of the first things I did was browse the
available movies to look for a 1080p one. I literally had to open the details
for each film, scroll to the bottom to find the small print which said what
resolution the HD was. The vast majority wee only 720p, and a lot simply
didn't mention resolution, leaving me to make a guess based on file size.

There are also serious categorisation shortcomings for movies and films.
Basically, I think Apple's entire suite for selling digital content and apps
needs to be fundamentally restructured to aid intelligent discoverability.
They simply have too many products for the current method of basic homepage
merchandising and bestsellers lists.

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untog
My personal pet hate having gone from iPhone to Android and now owning an iPod
Touch: re-entering in my password all the damn time. _Especially_ when it's a
free app.

Fix that and I'll be a very happy man.

~~~
hcarvalhoalves
Allow me to disagree. Apple is doing the right thing asking the user
confirmation for installing apps. Better safe than sorry.

~~~
nupark2
Confirmation doesn't necessarily require password input.

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larrik
As the father of a talented 3 year old: yes it does.

~~~
lazerwalker
If clever children are the main argument against not requiring password
confirmation, it sounds like "always require password on purchase" could be a
great Parental Controls toggle.

~~~
ydant
Android Market / Play solves this by letting you set a PIN that's required to
make purchases (which does not include Free app installs). It seems like a
good compromise.

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signalsignal
Basically, Ping for apps. As a developer/ misv in the app store I am not
adverse to this idea but do feel the trepidation to its implementation.
Keywords are really enough for right now and there is a major reduction in the
crapps which in the past ruined customer expectations. In a nutshell, things
are good and even improving so please don't break things, Apple (if you're
reading)

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Groxx
My main 'wtf' moment with the app store is that you pay for something, and
_then_ you get to see if it's any good, and God help you if it's a borderline
scam with no reviews yet. Yes, many developers release a 'lite/free' version
and a 'normal/pro/plus/paid/hd/etc' version - these are crappy bandages for an
inherent problem.

Apple: you control the OS. The store. The hardware. Would it _really_ be _so
hard_ to offer X-day demos of the full version of a paid app? Some of them are
absolute crap, but nobody has any idea until 50-some curious people buy it and
rank it into oblivion, with no (practical) way to get their money back. You
could do it without requiring apps to write different code, or bloat your
store with multiple versions (which also break apart the ratings). Just lock /
delete it after the time is up.

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kylec
I really want Apple to move the games out of the App Store and into a separate
Game Store. As someone that's frequently NOT looking for games it's hard to
find good apps because so many of the top spots are taken by games.

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elicymet
I'm really hoping that the acquisition of chomp will set things straight(er).
I have to hope it's for the purposes of "yelpifying" the process of searching,
reviewing, etc.

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manojlds
They did buy Chomp, so they are probably trying something

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j05h
Isn't this why Apple bought Chomp?
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3627347>

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akmiller
All I want in the App Store 2.0 model (and I realize I will never get this) is
the ability to submit a web application to be included in the store.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
There is PhoneGap...

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akmiller
Yes, I've looked at PhoneGap before and it looks like a great tool.
Unfortunately our needs (or our customers) involve using an existing web app
but wanting the ability to find that app in the app store. Our solution has
been to create small wrappers utilizing UIWebView but that is far from ideal!
It appears that PhoneGap is mainly a platform for building apps using html/js,
not for creating wrappers around existing web sites (but I could be wrong).

~~~
lucian1900
It's perfectly possible to either point PhoneGap's webview to your website or
load parts of it dynamically, either with XHR from JS or with native code.

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philip1209
The CSS on that page, specifically the block alignment, brings a tear to my
eye.

~~~
Groxx
This drove me to check the CSS for myself. I'm tearing up as well, now.

