Comments on: The iPhone App Store and Software Quality: A User’s Perspective

By: Apolitically Incorrect » Glass Houses and Stones

Apolitically Incorrect » Glass Houses and Stones — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:24:53 +0000

[...] readers of this blog might accuse me of having a deep seated resentment against iPhone, Mac OS X and Apple in general. The only problem, of course, is that resentment is the wrong [...]

By: Apolitically Incorrect » Trials and Travails of a Tack Snob

Apolitically Incorrect » Trials and Travails of a Tack Snob — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:25:54 +0000

[...] I like to have nice things and I enjoy browsing and shopping in tremendously stuffy stores. I want people to think about the overall experience and quality, and I have an extremely low tolerance for when they don’t. [...]

By: RobertSOakes

RobertSOakes — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:36:03 +0000

@David, I just finished taking a look at your posts. Thank you for publishing the information, I found it very interesting. While I may have spoken a little (too) strongly about the overall low quality of apps in the App Store, that does not mean that there aren't valuable apps available. I think that Apps like Beejive, Stanza, Things, Pandora, and Epocrates Rx are fantastic and clearly showcase the power of the platform. I briefly looked at your own apps, and thought that they looked very well done. But as you note in your posts, they are geared toward niche markets. It is important to note that even many of the quality Apps still have some shortcomings that seriously limit their usefulness. I think this is partly due to the youth of the platform, but I also think that the iPhone marketplace rewards premature release (the culture of the permanent beta alluded to in the post). In my own case, the lack of a Task Sync with anything other than the desktop version of OmniFocus made it all but unusable for me. This gave it a very short lifespan on my handhold. And I am not even considering the number of apps I purchased that turned out to be utter rubbish. If I were to outline a solution to the problem (at least from the developer's standpoint), it would need to look dramatically different than the listings tweak described in the Tap Tap Tap blog. First, I would like to see limited free trials enabled by Apple. Second, I would like to see the categories restructured and for rankings to separate "tools" from "toys." Last, it would be nice to see both "staff" reviews as well as consumer reviews. This last feature might incorporate content from sights like Macworld, TUAW, the Apple Blog, among others. I think that each of these changes would reward the solid apps over crap apps. I am also a sufficient realist to know that these changes will never happen. It is in Apple's best interest to require up front payment and generate massive buzz over a few throwaway applications. Big traffic and thousands of purchases mean more money for them. It also perpetuates the myth of "App Store = Easy Money." Whereas individual developers can't make it up on volume, Apple does not suffer from this same limitation. Anyway ... thanks for sharing your experience. It definitely makes for an interesting and illuminating read.

By: David

David — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:12:15 +0000

I agree with quite a few of your points, but not with your ultimate conclusions. There are a lot of developers, myself included, that are spending tons of time and money creating great apps, but it's just not as easy as it seems to swim upstream in the App Store. Here are a couple posts I've written about the situation:

http://appcubby.com/blog/files/app_store_pricing.html
http://appcubby.com/blog/files/financial_realities.html

And a post from James Thomson, developer of the amazing PCalc:

http://www.dragthing.com/blog/?p=30