Decay of the iTunes App store, the user’s fault?

Decay of the iTunes App store, the user’s fault?

No one can deny it, the App Store is full of junk and this junk is even flourishing.

In many blogposts and articles Apple has been blamed. In its turn Apple blames the developers for making junk and dismisses a few as an example. But nothing ever happens and the apps just filled with pictures, fart apps and single function apps keep multiplying. So who started it and who can fix it? The user.

People visit the App Store check the 2 front pages and download anything that has a flashy icon and some nice screenshots, without reading anything or without caring about the reviews. The first 2 pages are usually filled with new apps, which features 60% junk from developers that have thousands of useless apps for 99 cents. Then they find out half of it is useless and they remove it. Should it end there? No, users should write a review or give at least a rating for every app they download.

Does it mean you have to be hypercritical when reviewing each app?

Certainly not, many apps give added value to the App Store or bring competition, so be mild with these. It are the fart apps, the completely malfunctioning apps, the picture or sound collections and the travel guides that deserve a 1/5 rating. A functional app that does as it is supposed to do should get at least 2 or 3 points. If you follow these simple rules you degrade the junk and give extra momentum to the decent apps.

So why is the huge collection of junk a problem? As you know one of the only chances for an iPhone app to get some extra popularity or become known to the public is the “Release Date”-listing. This release date listing is always crammed with junk and the decent apps don’t benefit from this anymore. When a developer is releasing a decent app, the app is in the listing for about five minutes before being replaced by 200 apps from the same developer with names as “Rome Traveling Guide”, “Athens Traveling Guide”, … or “Cat Wallpapers”, “Puppy Wallpapers”, and so on.

The problem also is that the top apps in this listing are most of the time the 1-function apps so in this way a “Picture Grayscale”-app of 1,99$ will get downloaded and a 0.99$ full functional photo editing tool for the iphone with multiple filters which is only updated once every few months will not be downloaded at all.

So as the users behave now, the App Store only gives benefits to people who make bulk applications of low quality. Hundreds of good working functional apps are in the back of the popularity listing and hundreds of junk apps are in the middle.

Maybe this is partially the fault of Apple, they should review apps at some times and place these in a front page listing or while they are reviewing an app for listing in the App Store, just give a small review as well and if this is positive place them on the front page in a listing, hence filtering all junk. Just to the right of the window where I’m writing this I see a 0.99$ app on the top of the photography listing just providing “Animal Wallpapers”, is this an image editor or camera app where the photography section is ment for?

So to Apple:

Filter out the junk apps and add flood control to developer’s accounts.

To the people:

Review apps each time and wisely, trash junk apps and think twice when reviewing a functional app. Suggest things to developers before reviewing and search further than just at the front of the listings, many amazing bargains are in the back.

No one can deny it, the App Store is full of junk and this junk is even flourishing.

In many blogposts and articles Apple has been blamed. In its turn Apple blames the developers for making junk and dismisses a few as an example. But nothing ever happens and the apps just filled with pictures, fart apps and single function apps keep multiplying. So who started it and who can fix it? The user.

People visit the App Store check the 2 front pages and download anything that has a flashy icon and some nice screenshots, without reading anything or without caring about the reviews. The first 2 pages are usually filled with new apps, which features 60% junk from developers that have thousands of useless apps for 99 cents. Then they find out half of it is useless and they remove it. Should it end there? No, users should write a review or give at least a rating for every app they download.

Does it mean you have to be hypercritical when reviewing each app?

Certainly not, many apps give added value to the App Store or bring competition, so be mild with these. It are the fart apps, the completely malfunctioning apps, the picture or sound collections and the travel guides that deserve a 1/5 rating. A functional app that does as it is supposed to do should get at least 2 or 3 points. If you follow these simple rules you degrade the junk and give extra momentum to the decent apps.

So why is the huge collection of junk a problem? As you know one of the only chances for an iPhone app to get some extra popularity or become known to the public is the “Release Date”-listing. This release date listing is always crammed with junk and the decent apps don’t benefit from this anymore. When a developer is releasing a decent app, the app is in the listing for about five minutes before being replaced by 200 apps from the same developer with names as “Rome Traveling Guide”, “Athens Traveling Guide”, … or “Cat Wallpapers”, “Puppy Wallpapers”, and so on.

The problem also is that the top apps in this listing are most of the time the 1-function apps so in this way a “Picture Grayscale”-app of 1,99$ will get downloaded and a 0.99$ full functional photo editing tool for the iphone with multiple filters which is only updated once every few months will not be downloaded at all.

So as the users behave now, the App Store only gives benefits to people who make bulk applications of low quality. Hundreds of good working functional apps are in the back of the popularity listing and hundreds of junk apps are in the middle.

Maybe this is partially the fault of Apple, they should review apps at some times and place these in a front page listing or while they are reviewing an app for listing in the App Store, just give a small review as well and if this is positive place them on the front page in a listing, hence filtering all junk. Just to the right of the window where I’m writing this I see a 0.99$ app on the top of the photography listing just providing “Animal Wallpapers”, is this an image editor or camera app where the photography section is ment for?

So to Apple:
Filter out the junk apps and add flood control to developer’s accounts.

To the people:
Review apps each time and wisely, trash junk apps and think twice when reviewing a functional app. Suggest things to developers before reviewing and search further than just at the front of the listings, many amazing bargains are in the back.