600,000 APPS AND THE BEST WE HAVE IS "PRODUCTIVITY". "GAMES". "UTILITIES".
Subcategories of subcategories of subcategories.
Absolutely yes yes yes!
I hate 'shopping' the app store. Search is nice but unless you already know the exact app you want, I find it's too broad and not useful. Especially when you're at the computer and have to do it through iTunes. I really wish they would a) pull the iOS app store out of the iTunes music store, and b) revamp it with more categories and sub-categories. I also agree with the suggestion of pulling games out and putting them in their own separate store.
I hate 'shopping' the app store. Search is nice but unless you already know the exact app you want, I find it's too broad and not useful. Especially when you're at the computer and have to do it through iTunes. I really wish they would a) pull the iOS app store out of the iTunes music store, and b) revamp it with more categories and sub-categories. I also agree with the suggestion of pulling games out and putting them in their own separate store.
So you do not use the existing categories and subcategories and you want more of each? games already are separated under the games category. Basically you are saying you have no idea what kind of app you want but you want to browse every app on the app store to find the one you want? That makes no sense. By the way, Apple has something called Genius which will make app recommendations for you. Sounds like you have no clue what you are doing and no store interface will help you. Or you are just trolling.
These guys missed one key point - lots of Apps don't need to be "discovered" because they are part of a company or organization. When the internet first started everyone scrambled to get a website for their business so they didn't get "left behind". Today companies are doing it all over again, this time with Apps.
Walking down the street in my neighborhood and several local merchants have their own Apps specifically for their store. For example, last year I ordered a brined turkey for a holiday dinner through an App my local butcher has. How may websites have you ever visited where you got the banner "This site has an App - would you like to get it?" Local sports teams, clubs, schools and others often have Apps made up.
And guess what? None of these would be something people would "discover" by searching the App Store. They are Apps people found out while visiting a website, seeing a billboard or even a small window poster in a store.
While I agree there are a lot of "orphan" Apps out there I don't think you can fault the App Store. If you're a developer then I think it's your repsonsibly to promote your App - not Apple's. There are too many Apps to make this Apple's responsibility. How about getting some blogs to review your App for you (for example)?
Considering the whole article is an advertisement/puff-piece for the guys "app-analytics tools," I don't know why anyone should bother taking him seriously or why AppleInsider would bother to publish this.
Also, something that always bugs me in articles like this ... did anyone ever stop to think that it isn't necessarily Apple's job to make your app "discoverable" in the app store?
Apple provides a store and all the back end you need for selling your app. Isn't the promotion of said app actually up to the developer? Does it even make sense to talk about "discoverability" in a system which is basically just a listing of over 650,000 apps? IMO absolutely *nothing* could rightly be called "discoverable" in a giant mess of stuff like that. It's a freaking list.
I can see why there is a desire on the part of developers to have their apps discovered and a similar desire on the part of the users to be able to discover good apps, but is so-called "discoverability" (mostly used as a synonym for "promotion"), really Apple's job? I don't really see that it is.
Well said - particularly the first paragraph. This company is competing with Apple in a sense, so of course their spin will be negative.
I'd like to see a blacklist option like Netflix's 'not interested' button. I hate seeing the same apps I don't want over and over. I want to be able to tell the iTunes Store that I never want to see the apps again. Same deal for apps I own. Apps I own should be held in a separate area so I can review them but not appear in the store again - it's not as if I can buy them again.
This way I can sift through apps and discover new ones. Without a blacklist, I just rely on the top charts too because I just don't have time to flip through hundreds of apps one day only to go through the same list the next day.
Apple can use the number of 'not interested' tags to push really poor or low utility apps further down in searches based on iTunes profile.
I don't see why they persist with global top listings. In the top chart, they have Peppa Pig's Sports Day, which is clearly a children's game. If my profile says no kid's games, the top listing shouldn't have it because I'm not going to be buying it. All it's doing is taking up the spot of a game I might buy if I could see it. Similarly I don't need apps about menopause or periods.
Two simple things:
- blacklist (including entire genres) - personalised top listings
I don't even browse for apps anymore because I'm sick of scrolling through a bunch of garbage. What I don't understand is if apps have to go through an approval process, why are there thousands of crap apps?
Apples closed eco system doesn't prevent app developers from promoting their app outside of the app store. For me, a majority of the apps I download for iOS i didn't even find out about through the appstore. Of course when you have so many apps you can put each of them on a pedestal and give them a full page cover on why u need to download it. Developers complaining should just put a little bit more effort in promoting their app if they already put all this effort in developing it.
I don't even browse for apps anymore because I'm sick of scrolling through a bunch of garbage. What I don't understand is if apps have to go through an approval process, why are there thousands of crap apps?
Because even "crap" apps have a right to be there. There are certain minimum standards that apps should meet, and as long as they do, they can be there.
It's an app store. You'll get all kinds of apps.
If you want to find good ones, there's the Search function, the ratings, the Top Apps, and so on. It's not that hard.
I guess they missed the large magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the App Store with the word "Search" written under it.
I find loads of my apps using search.
I'm sure there are loads of rubbish applications on the internet that don't get downloaded either, this is nothing unique to the app store. If the developers want people to download their apps, they need to promote them. It isn't very difficult.
Zunx, I'd put that anger in a box and not shout it out. If I saw your tag on some software I was thinking of purchasing, I'd probably avoid it. I use plenty of apps (yeah, apps—that's what everyone calls software now) that aren't available through the Mac App store. But if an unknown developer is shouting to me that he doesn't want to comply with Apple's standards without giving me an explanation as to why his products can't be offered that way, I'm going to worry about why it isn't available. Then I'm likely to conclude it's because the app isn't secure.
The fact that this article (which reeks of an ad company trying to gin up business, as others have pointed out) is about the iOS App store makes your post look like misplaced anger. Think about what matters to your business and focus on that, rather than computer politics.
If Apple had "standards" in the AppStore, they would require apps to post a notice that additional In-app purchases were needed to make the app useable beyond a limited free trial. Or at least make developers state that the "free" download was limited, or that a paid subscription was required to make use of it. A good number of these apps do little more than provide opportunities for spamming.
I like the way the Amazon app store is set up, they give away one paid app free a day. I discover many great apps that way basically because I am getting free exposure to a company I otherwise may never have heard of or thought of. I get the free-be, like it and search out more by that company.
"Software products branded with our badge shown above identify applications which are too powerful to be sold on Apple's Mac® App Store?."
You mean more powerful than OS X? Final Cut Pro? Aperture? Logic Pro? AutoCad WS?
Agreed. Use the app store where it makes sense to do so, and don't use it where it doesn't. Why does it have to turn into some sort of personal crusade? One can certainly create powerful apps which meet the app store guidelines.
I like the way the Amazon app store is set up, they give away one paid app free a day. I discover many great apps that way basically because I am getting free exposure to a company I otherwise may never have heard of or thought of. I get the free-be, like it and search out more by that company.
On the flip side, I know a person who simply follows free-be/price tracking sites and only downloads apps when they are offered for free. So it could have the reverse effect where people who might otherwise purchase an app will wait for it to show up in their free-be tracker because they've seen it happen with other apps offered by that company.
Similar to a company offering a product at a sale price, then people not buying it at regular price because they heard from others about the sale price and don't want to pay more than someone else did for that product.
Apple is failing and falling down on the job when it comes to the App Store. 600,000 titles and its nearly impossible to discover, search for and actually purchase apps you really want. When I got the first iPad I went crazy buying apps, 2 years later with my iPad 3 its harder and harder to find anything. I hope their app discovery will improve and soon.
App (short for application, also known as software) is the generally accepted term by the common user today and is why the term "app" should not be trade marked or patented, like the word window. Still I think Apple should be doing more to generate app discovery, what good is 600k apps and counting mean if the app developers can't be discovered, make any money. Since we have to use iTunes (bloated piece of sotware/app/application) there ever way then they should make it more useful.
Echoing some other posters, one would expect that most apps, in either the iOS App Store or the Android Market aren't going to gain a lot of traction. (Interesting that they had nothing to say about the Android Market) And, it's pretty stupid to quote these guys saying it's because the App Store is "closed", when clearly "open" or "closed" have absolutely nothing to do with it.
What there are, in fact, are a lot of popular apps that get most of the downloads because a) they are better and/or b) their publishers were better at promoting them. Other apps, that don't make that cut, aren't going to see a lot of action. There's no difference between the App Store and any other marketplace in that regard.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
BECAUSE WE CAN'T FIND ANYTHING.
600,000 APPS AND THE BEST WE HAVE IS "PRODUCTIVITY". "GAMES". "UTILITIES".
Subcategories of subcategories of subcategories.
Absolutely yes yes yes!
I hate 'shopping' the app store. Search is nice but unless you already know the exact app you want, I find it's too broad and not useful. Especially when you're at the computer and have to do it through iTunes. I really wish they would a) pull the iOS app store out of the iTunes music store, and b) revamp it with more categories and sub-categories. I also agree with the suggestion of pulling games out and putting them in their own separate store.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atashi
Absolutely yes yes yes!
I hate 'shopping' the app store. Search is nice but unless you already know the exact app you want, I find it's too broad and not useful. Especially when you're at the computer and have to do it through iTunes. I really wish they would a) pull the iOS app store out of the iTunes music store, and b) revamp it with more categories and sub-categories. I also agree with the suggestion of pulling games out and putting them in their own separate store.
So you do not use the existing categories and subcategories and you want more of each? games already are separated under the games category. Basically you are saying you have no idea what kind of app you want but you want to browse every app on the app store to find the one you want? That makes no sense. By the way, Apple has something called Genius which will make app recommendations for you. Sounds like you have no clue what you are doing and no store interface will help you. Or you are just trolling.
The App Store is obnoxious:
Full software, not an App!
http://www.bresink.com/osx/FullSoftware.html
Exactly
Well said - particularly the first paragraph. This company is competing with Apple in a sense, so of course their spin will be negative.
This way I can sift through apps and discover new ones. Without a blacklist, I just rely on the top charts too because I just don't have time to flip through hundreds of apps one day only to go through the same list the next day.
Apple can use the number of 'not interested' tags to push really poor or low utility apps further down in searches based on iTunes profile.
I don't see why they persist with global top listings. In the top chart, they have Peppa Pig's Sports Day, which is clearly a children's game. If my profile says no kid's games, the top listing shouldn't have it because I'm not going to be buying it. All it's doing is taking up the spot of a game I might buy if I could see it. Similarly I don't need apps about menopause or periods.
Two simple things:
- blacklist (including entire genres)
- personalised top listings
That should sort the problem of discoverability.
I don't even browse for apps anymore because I'm sick of scrolling through a bunch of garbage. What I don't understand is if apps have to go through an approval process, why are there thousands of crap apps?
Apples closed eco system doesn't prevent app developers from promoting their app outside of the app store. For me, a majority of the apps I download for iOS i didn't even find out about through the appstore. Of course when you have so many apps you can put each of them on a pedestal and give them a full page cover on why u need to download it. Developers complaining should just put a little bit more effort in promoting their app if they already put all this effort in developing it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bdkennedy
I don't even browse for apps anymore because I'm sick of scrolling through a bunch of garbage. What I don't understand is if apps have to go through an approval process, why are there thousands of crap apps?
Because even "crap" apps have a right to be there. There are certain minimum standards that apps should meet, and as long as they do, they can be there.
It's an app store. You'll get all kinds of apps.
If you want to find good ones, there's the Search function, the ratings, the Top Apps, and so on. It's not that hard.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Downpour
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I guess they missed the large magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the App Store with the word "Search" written under it.
I find loads of my apps using search.
I'm sure there are loads of rubbish applications on the internet that don't get downloaded either, this is nothing unique to the app store. If the developers want people to download their apps, they need to promote them. It isn't very difficult.
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This. Navigating the App Store really isn't that hard. All the tools are there.
Ridiculous.
"Software products branded with our badge shown above identify applications which are too powerful to be sold on Apple's Mac® App Store?."
You mean more powerful than OS X? Final Cut Pro? Aperture? Logic Pro? AutoCad WS?
Seems to me that Marcel Bresink has an inflated opinion of his little apps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jd_in_sb
The term "zombie" in the title made me think that the apps were malware, before I read the article.
Agree. Very misleading.
Quote:
Originally Posted by zunx
The App Store is obnoxious:
Full software, not an App!
http://www.bresink.com/osx/FullSoftware.html
#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }Zunx, I'd put that anger in a box and not shout it out. If I saw your tag on some software I was thinking of purchasing, I'd probably avoid it. I use plenty of apps (yeah, apps—that's what everyone calls software now) that aren't available through the Mac App store. But if an unknown developer is shouting to me that he doesn't want to comply with Apple's standards without giving me an explanation as to why his products can't be offered that way, I'm going to worry about why it isn't available. Then I'm likely to conclude it's because the app isn't secure.
The fact that this article (which reeks of an ad company trying to gin up business, as others have pointed out) is about the iOS App store makes your post look like misplaced anger. Think about what matters to your business and focus on that, rather than computer politics.
#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
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Anyone heard of the 80/20 rule?
I like the way the Amazon app store is set up, they give away one paid app free a day. I discover many great apps that way basically because I am getting free exposure to a company I otherwise may never have heard of or thought of. I get the free-be, like it and search out more by that company.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
Ridiculous.
"Software products branded with our badge shown above identify applications which are too powerful to be sold on Apple's Mac® App Store?."
You mean more powerful than OS X? Final Cut Pro? Aperture? Logic Pro? AutoCad WS?
Agreed. Use the app store where it makes sense to do so, and don't use it where it doesn't. Why does it have to turn into some sort of personal crusade? One can certainly create powerful apps which meet the app store guidelines.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hellacool
I like the way the Amazon app store is set up, they give away one paid app free a day. I discover many great apps that way basically because I am getting free exposure to a company I otherwise may never have heard of or thought of. I get the free-be, like it and search out more by that company.
On the flip side, I know a person who simply follows free-be/price tracking sites and only downloads apps when they are offered for free. So it could have the reverse effect where people who might otherwise purchase an app will wait for it to show up in their free-be tracker because they've seen it happen with other apps offered by that company.
Similar to a company offering a product at a sale price, then people not buying it at regular price because they heard from others about the sale price and don't want to pay more than someone else did for that product.
Apple is failing and falling down on the job when it comes to the App Store. 600,000 titles and its nearly impossible to discover, search for and actually purchase apps you really want. When I got the first iPad I went crazy buying apps, 2 years later with my iPad 3 its harder and harder to find anything. I hope their app discovery will improve and soon.
App (short for application, also known as software) is the generally accepted term by the common user today and is why the term "app" should not be trade marked or patented, like the word window. Still I think Apple should be doing more to generate app discovery, what good is 600k apps and counting mean if the app developers can't be discovered, make any money. Since we have to use iTunes (bloated piece of sotware/app/application) there ever way then they should make it more useful.
Echoing some other posters, one would expect that most apps, in either the iOS App Store or the Android Market aren't going to gain a lot of traction. (Interesting that they had nothing to say about the Android Market) And, it's pretty stupid to quote these guys saying it's because the App Store is "closed", when clearly "open" or "closed" have absolutely nothing to do with it.
What there are, in fact, are a lot of popular apps that get most of the downloads because a) they are better and/or b) their publishers were better at promoting them. Other apps, that don't make that cut, aren't going to see a lot of action. There's no difference between the App Store and any other marketplace in that regard.