iOS users can now install apps directly from Pinterest with new 'app pins'
Apple and social network Pinterest on Thursday rolled out "app pins," a new type of enhanced pin that lets users of Pinterest's iOS app install pinned apps on their device without switching to the App Store.
App pins --?denoted by a small "App Store" badge that also includes the Apple logo --?function just like regular pins, but with some added versatility. Included next to the traditional "Pin it" button is a new "Install" button, with an additional "view this on the App Store" button below the pin's photo.
Tapping either button will bring up an App Store sheet with the pinned app's entry. The view is identical to a typical App Store page, and users can see screenshots, read reviews, and browse related apps from within the sheet.
Tapping the "Get" or "Buy" button within the sheet will ask the user to authenticate with their Apple ID password or via Touch ID, then install the app as usual. Users can then close the sheet and return to the Pinterest app, or tap a "Store" button to open the App Store app.
Alongside the app pins functionality, Apple has launched a new App Store profile on Pinterest. It remains to be seen whether Apple will expand the App Store sheet functionality to other partners in the future.
For its part, Pinterest believes it can help alleviate the App Store's much-maligned discoverability problems.
"We can be a really powerful service for app discovery, which is a problem that still really hasn't been solved," Pinterest cofounder Evan Sharp told the New York Times. "Our specialty is really connecting people to the things they want to do."
Pinterest version 4.3 is available now as a free, 40.8-megabyte download from the App Store.
App pins --?denoted by a small "App Store" badge that also includes the Apple logo --?function just like regular pins, but with some added versatility. Included next to the traditional "Pin it" button is a new "Install" button, with an additional "view this on the App Store" button below the pin's photo.
Tapping either button will bring up an App Store sheet with the pinned app's entry. The view is identical to a typical App Store page, and users can see screenshots, read reviews, and browse related apps from within the sheet.
Tapping the "Get" or "Buy" button within the sheet will ask the user to authenticate with their Apple ID password or via Touch ID, then install the app as usual. Users can then close the sheet and return to the Pinterest app, or tap a "Store" button to open the App Store app.
Alongside the app pins functionality, Apple has launched a new App Store profile on Pinterest. It remains to be seen whether Apple will expand the App Store sheet functionality to other partners in the future.
For its part, Pinterest believes it can help alleviate the App Store's much-maligned discoverability problems.
"We can be a really powerful service for app discovery, which is a problem that still really hasn't been solved," Pinterest cofounder Evan Sharp told the New York Times. "Our specialty is really connecting people to the things they want to do."
Pinterest version 4.3 is available now as a free, 40.8-megabyte download from the App Store.
Comments
...and what might this "much-maligned discoverability problems" that I've not heard of be," said one who has never heard of such a thing?
...and what might this "much-maligned discoverability problems" that I've not heard of be," said one who has never heard of such a thing?
Me too, I've seen no problems discovering the Apps I want and need. First I've heard of pinterest. It's certainly a large App.
Could it be this social site benefits from the Apps installed via them ???
...and what might this "much-maligned discoverability problems" that I've not heard of be," said one who has never heard of such a thing?
Oh, come on. There are millions of apps and well, just a few list to see them. For a devellopper, this is a major issue. I'm a big Apple fan, and yes there is a problems in discovering decent apps.
Me too, I've seen no problems discovering the Apps I want and need. First I've heard of pinterest. It's certainly a large App.
Could it be this social site benefits from the Apps installed via them ???
With each iTunes version Apple removed more and more advance search functionality until there are none now.
There are some tricks like looking for "Free" gives moreover free apps but that is probably all.
You can not search for language specific apps, search in category, by popularity or rating or by minimum iOS version and so on.
And in smaller countries apps do not have much ratings because we do not see those from US app store so one have to do research outside app store to get some reasonable info.
I'd say the "discovery problem" is more of a recognition problem than a finding problem. If you know the category of app you're looking for along with some descriptive keywords you have a decent chance of finding it in the App Store via search, assuming all of the apps that fit your search criteria have been indexed and tagged in a way that aids your search. On the other hand if you just want to browse, or window shop, the App Store store looking for something that may entice you - good luck with that. An average Walmart has something like 140,000 unique items for sale. If you're idea of a fun shopping experience is to wander through the aisles of 8-10 Walmart sized stores in succession, each with the same number but a different set of unique items (SKUs) - good luck with that too. On the other side of the equation, if you are the manufacturer of a new and unique product that you want to sell, how exciting is the prospect of throwing your product into a sales environment where you know that you'll just be one more item sitting on one shelf in one of those 10 Walmarts?
This is really a marketplace problem. It's not much different than the challenges faced by product manufacturers selling through existing retail channels or online marketplaces like Amazon. The larger Amazon distribution warehouses have well over 3 million unique items in inventory so you can imagine the challenge they are facing across their entire system, probably tens of millions of unique items channeled through a single marketplace. This is obviously not an inventory that lends itself to window shopping.
The App Store has completely changed the landscape for how applications are created, packaged, and sold. It's no longer the 1990s with a dozen or fewer offerings in each product category being sold through specialty boutique sized stores. It's now thousands of offerings in every product category, times thousands of new product categories, with many of which are slices of what we used to view as unique product categories. The specialty boutique sized stores are no longer viable. Even the super Walmart sized stores are no longer viable. It's now super mega 10X (and counting) Walmart sized stores that are at the low end of the spectrum. This is before we tap into the worldwide expansion of app developer potential as the development environments and languages make app development more approachable for a greater number of people.
The real question becomes whether the current owners of all of the disparate app stores can continue to hold down their ever expanding fort without alienating app developers. Is there a need for an independent retail channel and marketplace for apps, one that is not owned by the current owners? After all, for the most part (excluding store brands), Walmart doesn't own and control the production of the vast majority of products that it sells in its stores. As the inventory of the App Store and app stores in general start to approach ginormous proportions we may see a need to segregate and diversify the app marketplace from the current single owner model. Or maybe not, assuming Apple continues to expand to meet the demand and becomes capable of managing a super mega 100X Walmart sized store within its own corporate boundaries without any loss in the quality of service to both developers and consumers.
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The article makes it sound as if Pinterest isn't just throwing up a page from the app store directly, but might be curating their own store. Isn't that still Apple's app store, just as a sheet within their site? As evidence for this possible misconception, check out the first comment.
This could conceivably lead to users accepting fake install pages because there is no longer the visual cue that something "different" is happening ("Oh, no...this must be malware because I'm not in the iOS App Store! Abandon app!")...
This appears to be the allowance of an unwise user behavior change by Apple, if this story is to be believed.
This could conceivably lead to users accepting fake install pages because there is no longer the visual cue that something "different" is happening ("Oh, no...this must be malware because I'm not in the iOS App Store! Abandon app!")...
For that to be true, a fake app store would have to have the ability to actually complete an installation. I don't think that's the case, since this is actually Apple's App Store, and Pinterest is just linking to it.
I'm talking about a fake install, one that is actually enabling access to your phone or data with a pop-up.
This is a HUGE win for Pinterest.
Pretty sure this isn't an API, rather a deal between Pinterest and Apple. Just like how Twitter and Facebook were "integrated" into iOS.
Apple has previously cracked down on "App discovery Apps" due to abuse. Not likely they're introducing an API anyone could use.
It's got to be an API but my guess is not one that will be opened up for any developer to use. Only those blessed by leadership in Cupertino.
It looks like it's one of those things women are into:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2014/06/24/still-more-data-shows-pinterest-passing-twitter-in-popularity/
"Currently its audience in the U.S. is around 80% female, and a study by RJMetrics suggested that the gender gap is widening, with the percentage of pins by men falling from 13% to 8% over the course of three years."
A woman here explains what they're doing with it:
http://www.sheknows.com/living/articles/852875/pinterest-what-it-is-how-to-use-it-and-why-youll-be-addicted
It's to save pictures of food/recipes and fashion items so if they spot some nice shoes or clothes, they pin it as a wishlist for things to buy.
Tim will sort out the gender inequality though, at the Goldman Sachs conference he said there were too many men in the audience. Give it a few days, he'll put up a message about how Pinterest needs more men involved. Unless there's some sort of crazy double standard with this sort of thing of course.
Maybe this is how they plan to get women more involved in tech by putting apps where their shoes would normally be. That might just work. Or it'll get more men interested in Pinterest.
The popularity of Pinterest eludes me. Could someone explain?
It looks a bit like the old del.icio.us concept. A bookmark collector/sharing tool. Like everything else social media, you have to be inclined to that sort of thing.
Guys, it's obvious Apple and Pinterest struck a deal. Pinterest didn't just start using a new feature by Apple to allow direct App installs. That would be a horrible idea and open to rampant abuse. I'm sure Apple is keeping track of which Apps are getting installed and it's not a free-for-all.
This is a HUGE win for Pinterest.
Concur. Probably more to come. It first with Apple's strategy of letting their third party partners solve some of their problems. It is kinda cool...so long as the ultimate install process is a secure trip through the walled garden. It appears to simply be a different user interface for the app store. Cool.
Why, Marvin...I do believe you are being 'politically incorrect' here. There's hope. ????
I don't use it much, but have a few friends that do.
However, the fact Apple partnered with them first for this feature pretty much means they've arrived.