View Single Post
zerojay's Avatar
Posts: 2,669 | Thanked: 2,555 times | Joined on Apr 2007
#137
Originally Posted by Wes Doobner View Post
Point is, people who "poo poo" (pun intended?) Apple's app store by pretending all it is is fart apps are kind of missing the point. There are plenty of good apps in there; sure at first there was a largish collection of junk, and there still is; but as the app store evolves, we now have big companies putting serious effort into making apps and selling them, too...Navigon and Tom Tom are selling high priced navigation apps; there are plenty of well known gaming companies putting out PC-quality games. There are productivity apps, utilities, big news outlets putting out apps... I could go on but there really is no need. You get the point.

The interesting thing about the app store, and to a larger degree, those who denigrate the app store as being "too messy", or too full of fart apps... to me the app store is one of the most democratic, socially driven retail environments I have ever seen. Good apps bubble to the surface; they get word of mouth on blogs and in news reports. Bad apps - same thing. Reviews are right there for the taking. iPhone apps are talked about, shown off, and reported on every day all over the place. Yes some are farts and glow sticks. Most aren't.
Yes, there are good apps, no doubt about it and no arguments about that. As a developer for the iPhone though, I have to say that the "good apps bubble to the surface" isn't always the case, which is why there's so much hate tossed at fart apps and other apps of similar use/value taking up so many of the top spots.

The one and only way you make money in the app store (as of this moment anyways) is to get and stay in "New and Noteworthy" on the US store for a week or so, it seems. If you aren't there, no one's going to ever even see your app. It might as well not even exist.

And my real problem is that I'm just not sure how to really fix that. (And no, saying "make better apps and more people will use it" isn't really true here.)