I have something to add about the missing incentive for developers to update their apps in the app store:
The MAS actually penalizes you if you update an app which has a bunch of good reviews. Because after you publish a new update the average rating that is shown next to your app in the search results/category lists disappears until you get at least 5 new reviews for the current version.
Now this was introduced to the app store(s) because iOS developers bemoaned that they couldn't get rid of bad average ratings when they published a well-received update.
So Apple changed from displaying an average rating of all version to displaying just the average rating for the current version. With the requirement of at least 5 ratings to display any average at all.
On iOS this might work because the volume there is large. But on the Mac App Store it takes months for an average application (read: one that is not permanently featured by Apple) to acquire said 5 ratings.
So you think twice about pushing out an update to your app when the current average rating is 4 or 5 stars. Because once your average stars are gone, your app doesn't look very different from any other 0 rating app in the search results and it's pure luck if the user likes your icon enough to click on it. (Which measurably impacts sales numbers).
I see this with my own software: I currently have an app in the MAS which has an average rating of 4.5 stars and hasn't been updated since June 2014. Because I once made the mistake to update a well rated app and sales plummeted over the next few months until the app could re-acquire 5 ratings to show an average. So I'm not going to push an update of the app to the MAS anytime soon. And if a user complains I send them to the direct download version (which got several big updates during the last year). Yes, I feel bad about it but in the end I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot if I can help it.
It's a problem in the App Store too and it definitely discourages us from submitting updates when we otherwise would. It amazes me that they don't deal with a fairly small problem like this.
The MAS actually penalizes you if you update an app which has a bunch of good reviews. Because after you publish a new update the average rating that is shown next to your app in the search results/category lists disappears until you get at least 5 new reviews for the current version.
Now this was introduced to the app store(s) because iOS developers bemoaned that they couldn't get rid of bad average ratings when they published a well-received update.
So Apple changed from displaying an average rating of all version to displaying just the average rating for the current version. With the requirement of at least 5 ratings to display any average at all.
On iOS this might work because the volume there is large. But on the Mac App Store it takes months for an average application (read: one that is not permanently featured by Apple) to acquire said 5 ratings.
So you think twice about pushing out an update to your app when the current average rating is 4 or 5 stars. Because once your average stars are gone, your app doesn't look very different from any other 0 rating app in the search results and it's pure luck if the user likes your icon enough to click on it. (Which measurably impacts sales numbers).
I see this with my own software: I currently have an app in the MAS which has an average rating of 4.5 stars and hasn't been updated since June 2014. Because I once made the mistake to update a well rated app and sales plummeted over the next few months until the app could re-acquire 5 ratings to show an average. So I'm not going to push an update of the app to the MAS anytime soon. And if a user complains I send them to the direct download version (which got several big updates during the last year). Yes, I feel bad about it but in the end I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot if I can help it.