Apple Cracking Down on "Cookie Cutter" App Store Applications?

[*LTD*]

People have been complaining about all the "junk" apps and the overall quality vs. quantity (which in their opinion wasn't skewing toward "quality.")

Apple is now doing something about it.

There is no cause for complaint. If anything, this make more room for developers to differentiate themselves.

 

[diabolic]

As a developer, it's pretty obvious what sort of things I should avoid investing my time in, and what products are perfectly safe from being banned. The rules are clear, I don't have much sympathy for the whiners.

I agree. I can't see a big problem with Apple deciding what apps they allow in their store, even if it's sometimes arbitrary.

A completely open policy is a recipe for disaster. Those who claim it's better in principle aren't looking at the practical implications. So far, Google's open policy seems to be a negative for its Android app store as far as ease of use goes.

Again with Apple, it's about user experience. The less crap you have to sift through, the better in my opinion.

 

[TheSpaz]

I was getting sick of the meaningless apps myself. Some apps just show a picture. A lot of apps I've noticed are $0.99 that wanna trick you into buying it so that they can just show a couple pictures of a girl or something. I think the app store is more like the Crap Store. There's only a few hundred quality apps in there.

 

[c0ff]

For those who haven't read it yet, I think Paul Graham's essay "Apple's mistake" is a must-read on the topic:

http://www.paulgraham.com/apple.html

Censorship and no competition are never a good thing, no matter how much you guys love Apple.

Nice reading, thanks a lot.
Graham has a point, as always.

Hopefully: The problem is not Apple's products but their policies. Fortunately policies are software; Apple can change them instantly if they want to. Handy that, isn't it?

 

[mrgreen4242]

well, if its mimicing a web apps functionality, but offline, I don't see the problem. If it is doing it while still requiring a data connection, its less of a problem.

on the other hand, what about apps like iReddit? Its functionality could be mostly miniced via an iPhone customized version of the page, but reddit doesn't offer that, so this 3rd party tool fills the gap.

it's all a little arbitrary and I would rather Apple provide better categories and subgrouping system to filter out the chaff rather than blocking it outright.

 

[Xavier]

Out with the junk

 

[LagunaSol]

That news is just another reason not to write software for Apple's iGadgets.

Good. Let the app spam and its lazy/clueless creators migrate to Android. The quality developers will still write for Apple devices.

People have been complaining about all the "junk" apps and the overall quality vs. quantity (which in their opinion wasn't skewing toward "quality.")

Some people complain about both the amount of crap apps on one hand and Apple's "heavy handed" approval process on the other. Working to solve one side will only amplify their criticism of the other.

Bottom line: some people will always complain.

 

[VenusianSky]

That is a definite no-no. I have two apps which don't sell tons, but trickle along at a few a day. There is no way in hell I'd want Apple to remove them. People are buying it, so it's all good for me, albheit slowly.

That is why I said they should review them, but not necessarily remove them. After review, they could either remove it or move it to a separate section of apps that are categorized and ranked separate from the more commercial applications.

 

[iPhD]

Alas! From where will I get my fart apps?

 

[Friscohoya]

That makes sense to me. I would rather have 100k high quality apps than 200k bs ones. Now they gotta get better organized so I can find what I want. Or even better so it can find me.

 

[jo0]

of course it will be nice to have apps of higher quality, but lets face it. kids with ipod touches and iphone like the cheap free quirky apps. the market for 'cookie cutter' apps exists.

 

[iDarbert]

This bears a shocking resemblance to the whole Fart Apps debacle.
Fart apps are not allowed -> Apple has too much control over content
Fart apps are allowed -> The App Store is becoming a joke, 50,000 apps and 80% of them are fart apps etc.

 

[IBradMac]

Will be good if they are trying to raise the bar on quality a bit.

Definitely, I get tired of searching through the app store and seeing useless apps.

 

[SteveSparks]

Keeping the User Experience to a certain standard is good news.

Yes. This is Good news. I see people paying $99 online for an APP to be built that is nothing more than a business card. If you want content then maybe your app needs to provide some type of reason to be used other than a phone number and map to a location.

 

[SteveSparks]

Alas! From where will I get my fart apps?

Pull Grandpa's finger...

 

[skellener]

Instead of Apple banning apps, why not concentrate on making the App Store a better experience? Bookmarks for apps you'd like to buy, friends lists of apps they would recommend, apps by ratings rather than just how much money they made, the ability to turn off certain groups of apps (like someone who is NOT into sports can turn off all the sports apps to unclutter their search), search by keywords and tags that both publishers and users can create.

 

[aristotle]

That news is just another reason not to write software for Apple's iGadgets.

For those who haven't read it yet, I think Paul Graham's essay "Apple's mistake" is a must-read on the topic:

http://www.paulgraham.com/apple.html


Censorship and no competition are never a good thing, no matter how much you guys love Apple.

What's wrong? Did your "yet another fart app" get rejected? Buy a book and learn to code properly and work on your creativity.

 

[*LTD*]

Instead of Apple banning apps, why not concentrate on making the App Store a better experience? Bookmarks for apps you'd like to buy, friends lists of apps they would recommend, apps by ratings rather than just how much money they made, the ability to turn off certain groups of apps (like someone who is NOT into sports can turn off all the sports apps to unclutter their search), search by keywords and tags that both publishers and users can create.

It's not Facestore.

Clutter.

What's wrong? Did your "yet another fart app" get rejected? Buy a book and learn to code properly and work on your creativity.

Not likely, I'm afraid.

I think one of prerequisites for learning what it takes to code for Apple devices is understanding that Apple didn't steal FreeBSD code. LOL

 

[thejakill]

wouldn't even notice this happened if there wasn't an article about it.

 

[kas23]

Bout time. They should've done this 2 years ago.

 

[Superdrive]

I'm looking at you Wells Fargo [Web] App.

 

[cmaier]

First, censorship is a good thing in a lot of situations. Second, there is plenty of competition in the various markets related to the iPhone.



So is lack of control.

Not commenting on the apple thing (what they are doing is not censorship since it's based not on content but on presentation), but censorship is never a good thing. We live in a marketplace of ideas, and the best ideas will survive and the crappiest will perish, without any need for the government or powers-that-be to "protect" us from them via censorship.

 

[candan9019]

Developers are getting way too focused on native apps. Web apps are still completely adequate for most of the apps that are getting rejected and Apple has no control over that. Google voice is a good example.

There are plenty of other things to gripe about (one being the stupid 20Mb cap on podcasts over 3G) but the crack down on useless apps isn't one.

 

[bretm]

That news is just another reason not to write software for Apple's iGadgets.

For those who haven't read it yet, I think Paul Graham's essay "Apple's mistake" is a must-read on the topic:

http://www.paulgraham.com/apple.html


Censorship and no competition are never a good thing, no matter how much you guys love Apple.

Gotta agree with you. As much as I hate the clutter, and as much as Apple may legally have the right to be the ONLY store and the ONLY say on what's in the store, it's a slippery slope. Feds may not allow that forever. It's a grey area. Kinda like building an apartment building and saying "only white people allowed." Yeah, they built the apartment. They own the apartment. They run the apartment. But they don't have the right to discriminate. Sure it's not Apples to Apples. The but idea is similar. They've created a market that takes away a certain percentage of the potential whole. For example, if the iPhone ended up being 99% of the cellphone/smart phone market, would it then be ok that Apple controls all decisions? What if Apple had decided to ONLY leave the clutter and little nonsense apps because they wanted to develop the big expensive useful apps and sell them themselves? I'll bet people here wouldn't be defending Apple's right to do so.

 

[Vulpinemac]

If you ask me, Apple's finally realized that the Publishing industry, even when it comes to publishing software one way or another, is a serious business where you have to separate the wheat from the chaff.

As much as I hate to admit it, being a writer who's only had one short story published years ago, publishing is a matter of looking through thousands of manuscripts to find one that really catches your eye. Up to now, Apple has let pretty much anything go into the app store, but I'll tell you something, most of those apps, especially the 'rude noise' type or the 'digital business card' type rarely last beyond the first few days.

However, this has given them a database of app styles and types that now lets them look at download statistics to see what people are really willing to buy, if even for a short time. Because they're publishing digitally, they don't have the cost of producing a physical object that eventually may need to be merely tossed/recycled, but they do have the cost of maintaining the library and honestly, keeping a file of something that only 'sold' for two or three days and now languishes in ignoble obscurity is not worth the disk space it occupies. What with the announcement of the iPad, Apple has likely realized that if Apple wants to be more than 'just another app store,' they need to ensure that the apps they approve are quality products, whether they're games, tools, shops or merely entertainment.

What with the many different types of apps they already have, they now need to categorize, analyze and effectively edit the listings to present the cream of the crop. They need to do as the managing editor of any publishing house must do and try to ensure that what they publish is what their customers really want. Just as I wouldn't want to go down to the bookstore and pay $10 for something created by just any grade-school child, I don't want to go into the App Store and crawl through a pile of garbage to find that true gem of an app--the one that could let me use the iPad the way I want to use the device.

Publishing is a difficult business, no matter if it's books, movies, television or software. We've all read horrendous reviews of products in every medium and we wonder how those products ever made it to the market at all. Well, Apple appears to be trying to make sure its market has products that truly do what they say they will.