Can now only review apps you purchased

[Pring]

Finally!

You can only review applications which you've actually bought! No more 1 star reviews by people who've not bought your app!

[m4rc]

Finally!

You can only review applications which you've actually bought! No more 1 star reviews by people who've not bought your app!



Its nice for the developer, but its even nicer for the buyers, I don't want to know what someone thinks of an app when they have never tried it, thats irrelevant, and usually its just a whinge about the price. If someone has paid for it and doesn't like it I want to know, that will help me make an informed choice. I don't need some spoilt kid who's run out of iTunes Store credit to tell me the app 'should be free' just because they can't afford it.

[yoman]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

wow. It's about time.

[moopf]

This is a really welcome move. Shame they aren't purging old reviews made by people who didn't buy an app, however. That would be another step in the right direction.

[sammich]

Honestly, how hard is the code to implement something like this?

[Pring]

I'd also like to see the star rating normalized for how helpful a review is. eg if someone gave a 0 star review but has "0 out of 5 people find this review helpful" then it wouldn't contribute to the star rating.

[Cyroceon]

This is a surprising move from Apple. I've noticed over the past few years that Apple is much more responsive to their customer needs/wants, and they are faster in implementation. App Store is out only 2 months and a few days, and BOOM a great change like this one. Good job Apple, I commend you.

[hellomoto4]

Thank you very much Apple!

I hate when I'm considering a download and people that haven't even downloaded (let alone read the description) think it's bad!

[cube]

They should remove the old baseless reviews, too.

[spyker3292]

This is a surprising move from Apple. I've noticed over the past few years that Apple is much more responsive to their customer needs/wants, and they are faster in implementation. App Store is out only 2 months and a few days, and BOOM a great change like this one. Good job Apple, I commend you.

Haha, ya like when they gave $100 credit to all those agree early iPhone buyers (me included, just not angry :P).

Anyway, this is great!

http://img.skitch.com/20080927-a2qqkg475cm8wrq9h3ewrgy1q.jpg

[macmacey]

I couldn't believe it until I saw the pop up for myself. Great job Apple! Now, please also remove past reviews posted by people who did not purchase the application. If you don't want to remove, then at least mark them with an "*" and recalculate the 5-star rating based only on people who purchased the app. This should also reduce the number of fake 5-star reviews from the few developers who engage in this practice.

One more request. Please provide the date of the review, the app version the person purchased, and the price they originally paid. Give me the option to only see reviews (and a 5-star rating) from people who actually paid $ for the app. If you don't want to reset the download counter for the free-to-paid apps, at least let me quickly find out how many reviewers paid for the app.

[ajnicho]

So those with cracked apps can't review either...?

[moopf]

So those with cracked apps can't review either...?

haha, I think you know the answer to that one already. Aren't you clever.

[sushi]

This is good news.

It's about time they did it.

[Rojo]

Finally!! Though I agree Apple needs to find a way to get rid of older reviews from people who didn't buy the apps. It's only fair.

[arkitect]

How long did it take for the penny to drop at Apple?
:confused: :rolleyes:

[g4cubed]

Glad to see them finally get this done.
I agree that they should erase all the reviews and start new and if you purchased it you can review it again.

[ayasin]

Fantastic news. I agree also that old reviews with 1 star "lol all appz shud b free" should be purged.

[ayasin]

I agree that they should erase all the reviews and start new and if you purchased it you can review it again.

I don't think they should purge old reviews, just the ones where people didn't buy the app. It's not fair to people who spent quite a bit of time writing detailed reviews (whether positive or negative) to be thrown out with the bath water.

[g4cubed]

Very true but wouldn't that take more effort on Apples part? Took them long enough to do something that should have been done from the beginning. But your idea would be the best.

[admanimal]

This is great news. Now I think the only thing they could do to make the review system better is to indicate which version of the app a particular review is for, so that a buyer can see whether a particular review is still completely accurate/relevant.

[Luap]

Agreed. Good news :)
I think we'll see a lot less trashy reviews written by angry penniless kids now.

[Delirium39]

Fantastic news! As a developer, this makes me very happy. Although I doubt they will purge any of the old reviews, as that would be an entirely different, and more difficult, task.

[ucfgrad93]

wow. It's about time.

Agreed, it is way overdue, and a very welcome change.

[smfinlay]

I hate to harp on what everyone has already said. But this is really great news for the App Store. Too bad nothing can be done for previous bogus reviews but we should start to see things clear up in the near future.

[Rybold]

It should have been this way from the very beginning.

They should also make a requirement that have to have used (downloaded) the App for
at least one week before being able to submit a review/rating.

[Darkroom]

this is smart. there is NOTHING worse than some douche poorly rating the hard work of a developer based on his/her assumptions, just because they don't find it useful... grrrrr... kill the bitches...

i hope MacUpdate and other sites like that will take note... people leave the nastiest "reviews" on apps that they didn't even download (yes, you can see user's download history).

[HarryKeogh]

Add one more to the "about time" and "Good Move Apple!" piles.

[jstanier]

This makes me very happy indeed. Not only as a developer, but as a customer as well.

[gkarris]

It should have been this way from the very beginning.

They should also make a requirement that have to have used (downloaded) the App for
at least one week before being able to submit a review/rating.

I guess I wasn't paying attention.

Yes, an app I finally decided to buy I thought was good, but a lot of reviewers said it was horrible. I guess it's because they never used the app to start with... :eek:

I'm surprised Apple didn't implement this from the very start...

[gotzero]

I am glad they are fixing this. I have found the quality of reviews to be completely unhelpful when trying to figure out what to buy.

[Doctor Q]

Are there other sites that do this? I read online reviews of electronics, books, and other products all the time and wonder how unusual Apple's restriction to purchasers is.

this is smart. there is NOTHING worse than some douche poorly rating the hard work of a developer based on his/her assumptions, just because they don't find it useful... grrrrr... kill the bitches...Yeah, better to save that for separate forum sites! ;)

[wakeua]

Seems fair.

Even doubting that the user commenting never used the apps. It is more likely they used the app without purchesing it. So their comment would have been in most cases true reflecting..

[Aznsensation45]

again...ABOUT TIME APPLE!:p

[radiogod69]

About freaking time!!!! Hopefully the reviews will actually be worthwhile to read, "non paying" app store reviewers so far should have their review removed to give the app a more realistic review for the product.

[cublah]

Fantastic news! As a developer, this makes me very happy. Although I doubt they will purge any of the old reviews, as that would be an entirely different, and more difficult, task.


As a programmer and developer you should know this is not a difficult task at all, they just cross reference each review with the users bought list, if they haven't bought it remove the review, actually very simple indeed.

[(L)]

This is a surprising move from Apple. I've noticed over the past few years that Apple is much more responsive to their customer needs/wants, and they are faster in implementation. App Store is out only 2 months and a few days, and BOOM a great change like this one. Good job Apple, I commend you.

Yes, I agree with you on the trend, but something like this really is a no-brainer. Hopefully as Apple expands, they will anticipate more of these and press on more and more.

[Delirium39]

As a programmer and developer you should know this is not a difficult task at all, they just cross reference each review with the users bought list, if they haven't bought it remove the review, actually very simple indeed.

Yes, I realise it isn't difficult codewise, but it is more code than what they just did. It took them forever to pull this out of their hat. I have no expectation that they're going to bother taking the time to go all the way with it.

[neesh0]

thank goodness, I hate when people complain about the price for the app without even trying it

[cublah]

Yes, I realise it isn't difficult codewise, but it is more code than what they just did. It took them forever to pull this out of their hat. I have no expectation that they're going to bother taking the time to go all the way with it.

Probably you are right, but to be honest this sort of code will take a programmer an hour of his time to do at most.

[jstanier]

Yes, I realise it isn't difficult codewise, but it is more code than what they just did. It took them forever to pull this out of their hat. I have no expectation that they're going to bother taking the time to go all the way with it.

I agree. If the whole App Store system wasn't designed with the original functionality of deleting reviews in mind, then getting rid of them may actually have lots of awkward connotations that might affect lots of wild and wacky things.

[cublah]

I agree. If the whole App Store system wasn't designed with the original functionality of deleting reviews in mind, then getting rid of them may actually have lots of awkward connotations that might affect lots of wild and wacky things.

Its a database!!!!, how hard is that, database's are designed for this very thing!

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

This should have been there from the beginning.

[diesel]

It should have been this way from the very beginning.

They should also make a requirement that have to have used (downloaded) the App for
at least one week before being able to submit a review/rating.


ummmm, no

you only need a few minutes tops to be able to effectively rate the vast majority of apps

[Delirium39]

Its a database!!!!, how hard is that, database's are designed for this very thing!

Considering it took them over 24 hours to fully update the price of my app a couple weeks ago, removing hundreds of thousands of reviews may be a giant task for them.

[Delirium39]

Probably you are right, but to be honest this sort of code will take a programmer an hour of his time to do at most.

No doubt. But the processing time, and the updating could be huge.

[hainezee]

Generally I agree with this idea, however, there are a few gullable types out there who need to be steered away from making some very bad choices, take "Tunic Guitar" for example, at £37.99 this is not just pocket money and while it may be a guitar tuner, as a musician and one who is not completely tone deaf, I can say with confidence that I would not benefit one jot from having my guitar tuned "his" way than my own, I DO NOT NEED TO BUY IT to know this, it's obvious to me but unfortunately for those less experienced it may not be, hence my negative "review" of the product, and within my "review" I clearly stated that I had not bought or tried the product so readers could discount my comment if they so chose. I would also like to know if App producers are prohibited from reviewing their own apps? They quite possibly are as part of their contract, but there almost certainly won't be a clause which prevents the missus and kids from positively reviewing within minutes of launch - this too skews the polls. The more of people's opinions whether absolute, tried and tested or whether based on hunch the better I say.

[Doctor Q]

I agree. If the whole App Store system wasn't designed with the original functionality of deleting reviews in mind, then getting rid of them may actually have lots of awkward connotations that might affect lots of wild and wacky things.
Sometimes reviews reference earlier reviews, so deleting some in the middle might leave others not making sense. But the overall benefit from deleting old reviews by non-purchasers would make it worthwhile.

Of course, how many reviews of "I Am Rich" would they have available?

[Snakepit]

This is great news. Now I think the only thing they could do to make the review system better is to indicate which version of the app a particular review is for, so that a buyer can see whether a particular review is still completely accurate/relevant.

I AGREE 100%!

Users should be required to enter a version number of the apps that they review. With the fast turnaround time for most iPhone apps, old reviews become outdated very quickly.

[Eric Isaacson]

Haha,
Anyway, this is great!

http://img.skitch.com/20080927-a2qqkg475cm8wrq9h3ewrgy1q.jpg

This is nice to see.

[hexonxonx]

i hope MacUpdate and other sites like that will take note... people leave the nastiest "reviews" on apps that they didn't even download (yes, you can see user's download history).

How can you see someones purchase history on iTunes? I didn't think that was possible. I click on their name in a review and it doesn't show what they have bought.

[Mr. Zorg]

Fantastic news! As a developer, this makes me very happy. Although I doubt they will purge any of the old reviews, as that would be an entirely different, and more difficult, task.

Not that difficult:

delete from reviews
where not exists (
select * from orders
where orders.itemid = reviews.itemid
and orders.userid = reviews.userid
and orders.price > 0.00
);
commit;

There. All done!

[pauerbach08]

Thank all that is holy! It's about time!

[jstanier]

Not that difficult:

delete from reviews
where not exists (
select * from orders
where orders.itemid = reviews.itemid
and orders.userid = reviews.userid
and orders.price > 0.00
);
commit;

There. All done!

Assuming they're using that kind of database implementation, and those kind of flags on reviews. :) But yeah, I understand.

[MacGeekDC]

They should do the same thing for songs. I find a lot of song reviews suspicious.

[bobbleheadbob]

What kind of a maroon would take the time to review an app they've never used or bought anyway? :confused: Get a life, will ya? :rolleyes:

[Steve Jobs=God]

They should do the same thing for songs. I find a lot of song reviews suspicious.

And movies and TV shows. I'm fed up of looking at reviews and just seeing whining about pricing, don't like the prices don't bloody buy it!!!

[emt1]

Now they need to remove ALL reviews made by people who did not own the program... and if they can't do that they should just remove ALL reviews and we can start from fresh.

[NinjaHERO]

Holy Crap. First 2.1 stops my phone from crashing and now a fantastic idea in the app store. I hope Apple is not starting a trend of getting things right...LOL

I agree, should have been there from the beginning. But I am very happy its there now. Nothing worse than a useless review.

Great work Apple.

[autrefois]

I understand the reasoning behind this, but this won't entirely solve the problem.

* Developers of free apps will be a lot more likely to have unwarranted negative reviews. All I have to do is download a free app, and then I can say anything I want about it, whether or not I use the app or not. It's a lot less likely someone is going to download a $100 app just to trash talk it as compared to a free or $0.99 app.

* As has been pointed out, version numbers and dates of posting aren't indicated in reviews. So as a potential buyer, unless I have been closely watching a particular app, I have no idea whether or not a crashing issue was a iPhone 2.0 system issue or an app-specific issue.

That said, I have noticed lots of negative or nonsensical reviews. I'm assuming Apple doesn't have the manpower or desire to just delete all the spam reviews, so I guess the purchase/download to review requirement might be the best compromise.

[Doctor Q]

* Developers of free apps will be a lot more likely to have unwarranted negative reviews. All I have to do is download a free app, and then I can say anything I want about it, whether or not I use the app or not. It's a lot less likely someone is going to download a $100 app just to trash talk it as compared to a free or $0.99 app.An unhappy customer who spent $100 instead of $1 may be much more likely to vent their frustration.

[avigalante]

A welcome addition indeed - it sure is about time.

Hopefully this will put an end to the 'TOO EXPENSIVE', 1-star reviews.

[ajwchin]

* Developers of free apps will be a lot more likely to have unwarranted negative reviews. All I have to do is download a free app, and then I can say anything I want about it, whether or not I use the app or not. It's a lot less likely someone is going to download a $100 app just to trash talk it as compared to a free or $0.99 app.

Perhaps, but it will definitely help. Others might be different but I'm not going to download a free app I definitely know I'm not going to use just to post a negative review about it, and I definitely won't pay a dollar.

[TheSlush]

Anyone who writes a review for something they've never used is a moron, plain and simple. (And that goes for the morons doing it on the iTunes Music Store and Amazon, too!)

[Darkroom]

How can you see someones purchase history on iTunes? I didn't think that was possible. I click on their name in a review and it doesn't show what they have bought.

not with iTunes... on MacUpdate you can see what people have downloaded... and people on MacUpdate will actually take the time to write nasty, inaccurate statements about someone's work when they haven't even downloaded/used it...

it's easy to act like a fool and be a hater anonymously... "i had a bad day, 1 STAR!!!"... seems as if the folks at Apple decided to hire a few of those *valuable* MacUpdate "reviewers" as their App Store evangelists...

[evilgEEk]

This is great news! I hope this helps the review process. If you've purchased the application and still hate it then by all means tell us how you wasted your money. :)

[Kwill]

This is good but the iTunes Store should also include the version number of the app reviewed (based on purchase) and provide separate ratings based on such... you know like... what's that place?... oh, VersionTracker (http://www.versiontracker.com/).

[gcmexico]

it should have been like this from the get go:cool:

[donga]

now people who don't pay can only one star the songs of the week (free), unless they cough up the dough. good job

[rockosmodurnlif]

Having read a lot of the comments here I can only say, won't this bias the reviews to be in favor of the apps?

I've seen a few reviews that point to free versions or cheaper versions of software you might have paid for. I thought those reviews were extremely useful.

[NAG]

What kind of a maroon would take the time to review an app they've never used or bought anyway? :confused: Get a life, will ya? :rolleyes:

They weren't reviews. They just used the review space to complain about the app not being free because they could jail break their phone and get lollipops and puppies bursting out of the screen.

[Delirium39]

Not that difficult:


Yes, I think we all can agree that database code is easy to write. :) I was including the rest of the process in my statement. The code for removing the Popularity download count, which has been zero forever now, would be fairly trivial too, but they're not fixing that for some reason either.

[megfilmworks]

Smart move, this will help eliminate the trolls and shills.

[TimothyB]

Having read a lot of the comments here I can only say, won't this bias the reviews to be in favor of the apps?

I've seen a few reviews that point to free versions or cheaper versions of software you might have paid for. I thought those reviews were extremely useful.

How legitimate can advice be from someone that points to other free or cheaper apps if the person never used the app in question to begin with. How do they know the extra cost isn't worth it, even if features are missing.

Many times I've noticed people don't even bother to read an app's description before jumping the gun and giving it 1 star because there are free or cheaper alternatives. Often the app they put down for costing as little as $1 actually has more features, making the free other app they suggest no better than a demo in comparison.

Not saying there isn't good info now and then. Maybe if they had a separate section for people to discuss an application, like a suggestion area that has no ratings.

[StingerT125]

This should help going forward. I'm glad it's there and it should lead to being better able to use the reviews to make a decisions to buy o not.

[lamina]

I don't know why they didn't require this before. It's kind of ridiculous to think that you can review something you don't own.

[TimothyB]

I don't know why they didn't require this before. It's kind of ridiculous to think that you can review something you don't own.

Many seemed to not even view it as a review system, but some casual forum to ask questions or shout their opinions as if they everything they said was important.

It was so open that half the stuff posted were not even close to reviews. And since every one had to give a rating this resulted in some pretty idiotic ratings. As some actually posted questions with urgent response requests, or others curious and interested in buying the app soon. And what do those people do that were actually interested in the app, they give it 1 star. How stupid is that, it's like they don't know it effects the overall score, or they thought they shouldn't give it higher until they actually try it, who knows. I guess Apple didn't expect such a bad user base.

[MJFlash]

Not that difficult:
delete from reviews
where not exists (
select * from orders
where orders.itemid = reviews.itemid
and orders.userid = reviews.userid
and orders.price > 0.00
);
commit;

There. All done!Let's see. Apple's been tracking upgrades as purchases, too. So, some 300M records later... ;)

[MJFlash]

Hi, Mr. Zorg!

Hmm. I'm not a SQL guy, so I might be misunderstanding your code, but I believe that you just blew away every single review of every free app that was ever posted! :eek: If you were working for Apple, you were just fired, and they've got a hellacious mess to clean up after.

There are indeed some very good reasons why systems like this require a lot of thought and time to develop!

Cheers!
Mark

[rockosmodurnlif]

How legitimate can advice be from someone that points to other free or cheaper apps if the person never used the app in question to begin with. How do they know the extra cost isn't worth it, even if features are missing.

Many times I've noticed people don't even bother to read an app's description before jumping the gun and giving it 1 star because there are free or cheaper alternatives. Often the app they put down for costing as little as $1 actually has more features, making the free other app they suggest no better than a demo in comparison.

Not saying there isn't good info now and then. Maybe if they had a separate section for people to discuss an application, like a suggestion area that has no ratings.
Good points. But pointing to free apps gives you an option before you plunk down money.

But still, I think the reviews are now going to swing the other way, with overly favorable ratings and reviews. There are garbage 1 star reviews but there are also garbage 5 star reviews.

[nickXedge]

Fantastic news! It was only a matter of time. I haven't read all of the posts here, but I assume at least a few say something like "This is what Apple has been working on? Where's the new MBs and MBPs and Copy/Paste?!" So we can all laugh silently to ourselves.

[Mr. Zorg]

Hi, Mr. Zorg!

Hmm. I'm not a SQL guy, so I might be misunderstanding your code, but I believe that you just blew away every single review of every free app that was ever posted! :eek: If you were working for Apple, you were just fired, and they've got a hellacious mess to clean up after.

There are indeed some very good reasons why systems like this require a lot of thought and time to develop!

Cheers!
Mark
True that. But it was a joke after all. I didn't spend any time making sure it was 100% right. ;)

[Amt]

It's about time.

[shoelessone]

This is a surprising move from Apple. I've noticed over the past few years that Apple is much more responsive to their customer needs/wants, and they are faster in implementation. App Store is out only 2 months and a few days, and BOOM a great change like this one. Good job Apple, I commend you.

I feel like maybe I'm in rant mode today or something, but just to put this poster and any total apple fanboys in check, this is ridiculous.

This was a HUGE oversight on Apple's part, and should have never happened to start with. It's almost funny really - to see so many "I don't see why this App exists, I wouldn't buy it - 1 Star" reviews on such a large companies website is honestly ridiculous. This should have been fixed long ago, and there has already been significant damage done IMO.

At least Apple fixed the problem though, but they are certainly not to be commended!

[orangetrumpeter]

They REALLY need to do this for all of the music on the iTunes Music Store too. There are far too many people out there that listen to the 30 second samples and write reviews.

[Daremo]

Very nice. This should help stop most of the Douche Baggery that plagues the reviews. Now all they need to do is implement a "Craptastic" section for 90% of the garbage in there, and we're all set! :D

[sunfast]

Can only be a good thing

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

It should be possible to remove old reviews. Each review is tied to a user in that database and those users are also linked to the purchases on their account. It is just a simple matter of writing a program that processes each entry and executes the database queries.

But I can respect an interest on their part to reflect carefully on these things.

[MacinDoc]

I feel like maybe I'm in rant mode today or something, but just to put this poster and any total apple fanboys in check, this is ridiculous.

This was a HUGE oversight on Apple's part, and should have never happened to start with. It's almost funny really - to see so many "I don't see why this App exists, I wouldn't buy it - 1 Star" reviews on such a large companies website is honestly ridiculous. This should have been fixed long ago, and there has already been significant damage done IMO.

At least Apple fixed the problem though, but they are certainly not to be commended!
OK, I'll bite. Name one other on-line retail service that requires a purchase to be made before someone can submit a review of a product.

[dual64bit]

Good, this was needed. I'll want to read the reviews now that I know they are legit.

[sanPietro98]

this is really a win-win for both buyers and developers. Good move, Apple.

[diesel]

are reviews even working now? i tried posting a review yesterday for a purchased app and it still has not appeared in the app store

[MadGoat]

It's broken, there's an up I own and I want to review. but it says i don't own it... if I try to download it , it says I already purchased it and can get it again.

still can't review it.

[Stargaze]

Haha, ya like when they gave $100 credit to all those agree early iPhone buyers (me included, just not angry :P).

Anyway, this is great!

http://img.skitch.com/20080927-a2qqkg475cm8wrq9h3ewrgy1q.jpg

it's about time should have been that way from the begining

[Porco]

Whilst it's probably the lesser of two evils to get rid of nonsense reviews, it concerns me that it's yet another example of Apple deciding who can and can't do or say things related to the iPhone and iPod Touch, neither of which I own yet, so I guess I'm not allowed an opinion right?! :p

[cg165]

Whilst it's probably the lesser of two evils to get rid of nonsense reviews, it concerns me that it's yet another example of Apple deciding who can and can't do or say things related to the iPhone and iPod Touch, neither of which I own yet, so I guess I'm not allowed an opinion right?! :p

I think you're missing the point of this. This is only meant to restrict people who have NEVER used the application from writing a review about their experience. So, no, you aren't allowed to voice your opinion about something you never tried when people are reading these reviews to figure out if the application is actually good or worth it.

[SydneyDev]

They should do this for movies too. There are a lot of comments that aren't even about the movie in question, but just complaints about the prices. But I suppose it's tougher since people could have seen it in the Theatre.

[Pooshka]

two more things to consider: app version & date

[WindowsDivorcer]

As well as the cynical or freetards, also prevents disreputable developers from slagging off their direct competition,- unless they want to buy.

I wish some intelligent moderation (ideas?) could be done with movies and song reviews as well (harder as reviewers could have experienced the product in another medium -cinema/radio - whilst most apps are only available through the appstore)

The last one I saw was whinging about only a music video being available; before the song officially was released. Videos are almost always released first for TV airplay to generate interest before charting, so the guy was actually complaining that he could get a product early (albeit in one medium), which in the old days (high street shops only) would not have been available at all until much later!

[stagi]

Finally! I can't stand reading reviews from people who don't even have the app, why would you even write a review without reviewing it???

[Excellerator]

Finally! I can't stand reading reviews from people who don't even have the app, why would you even write a review without reviewing it???


I agree with this myself, except sometimes those complaining about prices have made the developer take notice and lower the price. For example, Frogger which was $9.99 until people complained.

[diesel]

I agree with this myself, except sometimes those complaining about prices have made the developer take notice and lower the price. For example, Frogger which was $9.99 until people complained.


less likely the price was reduced from complaints from non buyers and more likely it was reduced in price due to lower than expected sales. law of suppy and demand........demand was simply not there at the original price point

[pkagel]

Overstock.com does this and I find it super helpful when ordering something.

Are there other sites that do this? I read online reviews of electronics, books, and other products all the time and wonder how unusual Apple's restriction to purchasers is.

Yeah, better to save that for separate forum sites! ;)

[domness]

I've been desperetly waiting for this to happen ever since I started reading the reviews in the app store.

I'm sure the first review I read probably said something like: "This costs 2 much. I'm nt goin 2 by this until dey chnge the price down."

I now don't have to rake through all that stupid reviews :)

[Pring]

My favorite review for Escape Pod (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=289940983&mt=8) was one in which the reviewer said I was going to hell for encouraging people to break one of the 10 Commandments and saying it would soon lead to Murder Alibi applications! :)

[RonD69]

I'd also like to see the star rating normalized for how helpful a review is. eg if someone gave a 0 star review but has "0 out of 5 people find this review helpful" then it wouldn't contribute to the star rating.

A weighted review based on how helpful it is to the customer who ultimately buy the app is a great idea.

[madfresh]

Hopefully there will be no more faulty reviews. Sadly people can still "purchase" free apps and I'm sure they will be able to review them without even opening them.

[razorianfly]

My most favorite (pointless) review award has to goto this fella:

“I don’t have this app but looks pointless. I only wrote cos I am first to reveiw”

Heh? - Just Wow. He gave it 2 Stars. :rolleyes:

You'll find it's still on the store today, on the application 'Wallpaper Search'.

[Edit] - http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=288685374&mt=8

R-Fly

[msimplicity]

This is fantastic news! Our app has been plagued by 1-star "Should be free" reviews from the get go. Hopefully Apple will purge the bogus reviews so that the star rating will actually reflect an application's value.

Also, I agree that seeing the app version reviewed would be great. As a developer, some reviews of old versions of our app no longer apply to would-be buyers because some of those issues have been resolved with updates.

All in all, I think this adds value to the App Store as a whole. Both for developers and consumers alike.

[BikeRanger]

This change has already made a positive difference in the app store.

Plus now I won't be tempted to write "Well your Mom cost $10 but she should be free too" in response to the whiners.

[papiti]

I couldn't believe it until I saw the pop up for myself. Great job Apple! Now, please also remove past reviews posted by people who did not purchase the application. If you don't want to remove, then at least mark them with an "*" and recalculate the 5-star rating based only on people who purchased the app. This should also reduce the number of fake 5-star reviews from the few developers who engage in this practice.

One more request. Please provide the date of the review, the app version the person purchased, and the price they originally paid. Give me the option to only see reviews (and a 5-star rating) from people who actually paid $ for the app. If you don't want to reset the download counter for the free-to-paid apps, at least let me quickly find out how many reviewers paid for the app.

:mad:So based on your comment, and that suddenly a pop-up window appears, it seems to me that you and the others who are suddenly getting the pop-up window to buy the app before commenting, ARE THE ONES THAT DON'T BUY THE APPS AND THEN GIVE NEGATIVE COMMENTS ON IT!!!! SHAME ON YOU.:mad:

Apple, finally get these app crushers out of here. And, remove non buyers from previous comments. This should put on the real rating for the good Apps and the bad Apps. We, the true belivers, deserve the TRUTH!!!!:D

[moopf]

:mad:So based on your comment, and that suddenly a pop-up window appears, it seems to me that you and the others who are suddenly getting the pop-up window to buy the app before commenting, ARE THE ONES THAT DON'T BUY THE APPS AND THEN GIVE NEGATIVE COMMENTS ON IT!!!! SHAME ON YOU.:mad:

No, I think you might have just read their post incorrectly. Sounds like they were just testing it to confirm as I suspect many people would have done (I know I have to see if it had rolled out to the UK store as well). If you had read macmacey's post properly you'd realise that they thought it was a good idea and also wanted older reviews from people who didn't purchase taken from the star value.

Not really the attitude of somebody who does what you're accusing them of, is it. :rolleyes:

[BuzzLightyear]

IMHO, this change is not entirely positive.

A better solution would have been to allow non-purchasers to still post comments but NOT be able to select a star rating... and then have an option to hide these "zero star" reviews.

There are many times when people reference another app that is better, or a free web app that works just as well in their "reviews" (a great example is the $2 "What's On" app... a bookmark to http://iphone.television.aol.com works just as well, if not better!). That helpful insight will now be minimized, potentially causing unnecessary purchases. :cool:

[bluelondon]

good!

i've acually seen idiots asking questions in the reviews and just giving a 2 star or something for the hell of it. very selfish and dumb, and bad for developers.

[SoSII]

IMHO, this change is not entirely positive.

A better solution would have been to allow non-purchasers to still post comments but NOT be able to select a star rating... and then have an option to hide these "zero star" reviews.

There are many times when people reference another app that is better, or a free web app that works just as well in their "reviews" (a great example is the $2 "What's On" app... a bookmark to http://iphone.television.aol.com works just as well, if not better!). That helpful insight will now be minimized, potentially causing unnecessary purchases. :cool:

Absolutely!!!

[happydude]

well, makes tons of sense now, huh