Post: Apple's App Store: From Wild West to ugly mess
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02-13-2012, 01:11 PM
#1
Otib
lolololololol
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Those unconscionable spoilsports among us who, unaccountably, manage not to punish our credit cards whenever any shiny gadget bearing that fruity logo comes out know that something has been awry in the App Store for some time. To put it bluntly, it's a mess.
If ever a website was due for a redesign, the App Store is it. In fact, it's in such a bad state these days that it actually makes one feel a tiny bit sorry for Apple, even if you rank the Cupertino concern among the most hubristic and overhyped companies in history. For the App Store has become a victim of its insanely huge success.
When Apple launched the App Store in 2008, it contained 500-odd apps. Today, it holds over 425,000 - the vast majority games. Of which approximately 424,600 are buried as permanently as a mobster in a Chicago flyover. So the age-old web page problem kicks in: once your app falls off the front page, it might as well become invisible, even though the App Store's search engine is pretty decent. And expensive digital marketing is required to get to that front page, let alone to stay there for more than a week or two. So most of the paid-for games you find there are published by big companies.
Of course, that contradicts the supposed ethos of the App Store, which is to emulate the early, Wild West days of games, when tiny teams with truly original ideas could knock out games in a matter of months which could become chart-toppers if they were sufficiently well constructed. Every iOS developer wants to make the next Angry Birds, but it's debatable whether Angry Birds itself would succeed now if it was self-published.
Of course, developers can put themselves on the map by giving away their iOS games for free. But to do that, they need some sort of Trojan Horse - a game that isn't their most innovative effort, because they would like to maximise their potential profits by selling their truly ground-breaking games. And the list of top free-to-download iOS games has recently begun to resemble a Shanghai market stall selling watches, handbags and sunglasses: full of cheap and nasty rip-offs. At least Apple has begun to crack down on such sharp practices, so there's a chance the free games list could return to more meritocratic ground.
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02-13-2012, 09:31 PM
#2
Coqui
Former Staff
Originally posted by harrydazza
Apple has been throwing its weight around, removing shoddy rip-offs of popular iOS games (Angry Ninja Birds or the singularly derivative Plant vs Zombie, anyone?). Another developer has been singing like an (Angry) bird about how a dodgy company offered to get his free game to the top of the App Store charts, using a bot-farm, for the paltry sum of $5,000. Now that the sainted Jobs has assumed his place on high, is something awry in his ex-fiefdom?
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Those unconscionable spoilsports among us who, unaccountably, manage not to punish our credit cards whenever any shiny gadget bearing that fruity logo comes out know that something has been awry in the App Store for some time. To put it bluntly, it's a mess.
If ever a website was due for a redesign, the App Store is it. In fact, it's in such a bad state these days that it actually makes one feel a tiny bit sorry for Apple, even if you rank the Cupertino concern among the most hubristic and overhyped companies in history. For the App Store has become a victim of its insanely huge success.
When Apple launched the App Store in 2008, it contained 500-odd apps. Today, it holds over 425,000 - the vast majority games. Of which approximately 424,600 are buried as permanently as a mobster in a Chicago flyover. So the age-old web page problem kicks in: once your app falls off the front page, it might as well become invisible, even though the App Store's search engine is pretty decent. And expensive digital marketing is required to get to that front page, let alone to stay there for more than a week or two. So most of the paid-for games you find there are published by big companies.
Of course, that contradicts the supposed ethos of the App Store, which is to emulate the early, Wild West days of games, when tiny teams with truly original ideas could knock out games in a matter of months which could become chart-toppers if they were sufficiently well constructed. Every iOS developer wants to make the next Angry Birds, but it's debatable whether Angry Birds itself would succeed now if it was self-published.
Of course, developers can put themselves on the map by giving away their iOS games for free. But to do that, they need some sort of Trojan Horse - a game that isn't their most innovative effort, because they would like to maximise their potential profits by selling their truly ground-breaking games. And the list of top free-to-download iOS games has recently begun to resemble a Shanghai market stall selling watches, handbags and sunglasses: full of cheap and nasty rip-offs. At least Apple has begun to crack down on such sharp practices, so there's a chance the free games list could return to more meritocratic ground.
Source = You must login or register to view this content.
You must login or register to view this content.
Those unconscionable spoilsports among us who, unaccountably, manage not to punish our credit cards whenever any shiny gadget bearing that fruity logo comes out know that something has been awry in the App Store for some time. To put it bluntly, it's a mess.
If ever a website was due for a redesign, the App Store is it. In fact, it's in such a bad state these days that it actually makes one feel a tiny bit sorry for Apple, even if you rank the Cupertino concern among the most hubristic and overhyped companies in history. For the App Store has become a victim of its insanely huge success.
When Apple launched the App Store in 2008, it contained 500-odd apps. Today, it holds over 425,000 - the vast majority games. Of which approximately 424,600 are buried as permanently as a mobster in a Chicago flyover. So the age-old web page problem kicks in: once your app falls off the front page, it might as well become invisible, even though the App Store's search engine is pretty decent. And expensive digital marketing is required to get to that front page, let alone to stay there for more than a week or two. So most of the paid-for games you find there are published by big companies.
Of course, that contradicts the supposed ethos of the App Store, which is to emulate the early, Wild West days of games, when tiny teams with truly original ideas could knock out games in a matter of months which could become chart-toppers if they were sufficiently well constructed. Every iOS developer wants to make the next Angry Birds, but it's debatable whether Angry Birds itself would succeed now if it was self-published.
Of course, developers can put themselves on the map by giving away their iOS games for free. But to do that, they need some sort of Trojan Horse - a game that isn't their most innovative effort, because they would like to maximise their potential profits by selling their truly ground-breaking games. And the list of top free-to-download iOS games has recently begun to resemble a Shanghai market stall selling watches, handbags and sunglasses: full of cheap and nasty rip-offs. At least Apple has begun to crack down on such sharp practices, so there's a chance the free games list could return to more meritocratic ground.
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Source? :O This was a complete C&P :dumb:
02-13-2012, 10:24 PM
#6
schaffinosx
To and fro the island.
Can we not talk about something as absurd as whether or not he sourced the site correctly? He has text, and a source. Discussion over.
While the App Store definitely does have thousands of applications that never see the light of day, that's also due to consumer laziness. You can find some of the most underrated applications by doing a little web search; applications that would never make it to the top 25, but are wholly better, more fun, and more useful than all of them. But how can this be solved when Apple is so massively popular that they have tons of applications flooding in constantly?
I don't have a problem with the App Store, personally. It's not perfect, but it does what I need it to do.
While the App Store definitely does have thousands of applications that never see the light of day, that's also due to consumer laziness. You can find some of the most underrated applications by doing a little web search; applications that would never make it to the top 25, but are wholly better, more fun, and more useful than all of them. But how can this be solved when Apple is so massively popular that they have tons of applications flooding in constantly?
I don't have a problem with the App Store, personally. It's not perfect, but it does what I need it to do.
The following user thanked schaffinosx for this useful post:
02-19-2012, 01:59 AM
#8
The Rangers
At least I can fight
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