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apps still generally dissapointing
- Thread starter needthephone
- Start date
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Hi,
I'm a developer and these days I had the same thoughts.
But I think that the real problem is that useful apps are hard to find.
I've three apps in the store now. A shopping list with many advanced features, a Contacts replacement that fills the gaps of the built-in app and a game, initially developed as an experiment
Take for example the address book app. It has received A LOT of good reviews for an average of 4,5 stars. Lot of users asking for more features. But still I feel that this app is unknown to many interested users. This is caused by the way the app store works.
First, the categories are simply too few. The utilities, for example, contains 14 pages of apps. There are MANY identical apps. I know that there are a few shopping list apps (mine was the first to be published, BTW) but they all have their unique features. But do we need all that flashlight apps ?
I think that there should be more filtering on what enters the store because as a developer I feel my hard work is not reaching all the potential users.
The app visibility is also limited since if the app is not in the first 25 or 50, it can be easily found only for a few days after upgrades...
That said, YES, I've also made a stupid app
P.S.
These are my apps if interested.
I agree with most of what you're saying (with the exception of being the first shopping list on the store...I think you, iNeedStuff and SplashShopper all came out at store open). I think a lot of the blame lies with developers (myself included) though in this regard. We need to stop relying on the app store to advertise our apps buy some ad space in various places. This will naturally mean priceing apps to compensate for ad costs, but I think that's going to happen anyway. You can't sustain a business by selling something for less than the cost of making and supporting it (just ask every dot com company that went bust in 2000). I think in a year from now we'll see the people who priced their apps appropriately still around and those that didn't will just go away or become hobbyists.
I suppose its early days and the big software companies are developing these wonderous apps as we speak.
I love the little guy having a go and giving us these spirit levels but in the end we need the big boys to come on board and give us the staples we and the iphone REALLY need
I love the little guy having a go and giving us these spirit levels but in the end we need the big boys to come on board and give us the staples we and the iphone REALLY need
True, but mine had an earlier release date
I think that, with current app prices, developers CAN'T afford advertising.
The power of the App store is that talented developers can sell their products at reasonable prices in all the world. Unfortunately even untalented developers can do the same...
Not sure what category I am
I've actually purchased a few apps that I would not consider disappointing at all. I am just having trouble which of three apps to keep:
1. Things
2. ToDo
3. OmniFocus
I love OmniFocus the most because it keeps both of my iPhones synced with the same things using MobileMe. ToDo can keep both phones synced as well but it's not perfect. Sometimes it duplicates my folders.
Ebay was a pretty worthwhile app while I was selling some things, it's now off my phones.
Games. Why oh why do I feel the need to buy them just to play them 2-3 times and lose interest. All games removed.
All radio apps also removed except AOL Radio and Last.FM.
Shopping app of choice is Pick & Choose.
Those are my must have apps, the rest I've tried and removed from my phones out of a total of 42 apps.
1. Things
2. ToDo
3. OmniFocus
I love OmniFocus the most because it keeps both of my iPhones synced with the same things using MobileMe. ToDo can keep both phones synced as well but it's not perfect. Sometimes it duplicates my folders.
Ebay was a pretty worthwhile app while I was selling some things, it's now off my phones.
Games. Why oh why do I feel the need to buy them just to play them 2-3 times and lose interest. All games removed.
All radio apps also removed except AOL Radio and Last.FM.
Shopping app of choice is Pick & Choose.
Those are my must have apps, the rest I've tried and removed from my phones out of a total of 42 apps.
That's pretty much my point. In order for this to be a sustainable marketplace the prices are going to have to go up and consumers are going to have to accept that good software costs money. How many people are demanding a full fledged office suite? Now how many of those people do you think will start complaining if it costs $30? I think a lot of these $1 novelty apps have done a real disservice to both the development community and the consumers by setting expectations that all apps should be $1-$10. I think in a year or so that we'll see if people are really willing to support this economy or if it just becomes inundated with 3 billion flashlight programs because no one is willing to spend the kind of time necessary to develop great things for the limited reward available.
The problem is that this is the level Apple set when they launched the SDK. Steve himself announced that they (Apple) expected that most apps would fall in this range...
I think what is hurting some of the paid apps is:
When I am looking for something in particular and then hit the review button on that app, it usually shows only 1 screen. I don't want to take the chance and buy this when the rest of the screens are not what I want.
If the developers shows the buyers all what they will be getting, then I think you would see a huge difference in sells. Until then, I have to rely on peoples reviews in this forum, because theres is no way in hell am I trusting the reviews in that apps review section.
When I am looking for something in particular and then hit the review button on that app, it usually shows only 1 screen. I don't want to take the chance and buy this when the rest of the screens are not what I want.
If the developers shows the buyers all what they will be getting, then I think you would see a huge difference in sells. Until then, I have to rely on peoples reviews in this forum, because theres is no way in hell am I trusting the reviews in that apps review section.
I agree with you here. Luckily, if you use iTunes to browse apps, most apps have a link to the developer's site where you can see more. I think any developer who is proud of their app should have a very thorough page setup, including video of the app in motion.
That's just laziness on the part of the developers (or maybe the mobile app store is not showing everything). When you upload an app you can submit additional screenshots (4 or 5 I think). I would also expect the app developer to have a webpage that explains the app, showing all the features, screens etc...
For me the problem is another.
My apps are 0.99$, 1.99$ and 3.99$ (going to 4.99$ with the next update). I think they are reasonable prices and when I decided the prices I took into consideration the amount of work I've spent developing and making support documents (guide, screenshots, videos, ...).
When I release a new version, people found my app at the top of the list and I sell for a few days a number of apps that make me happy and let me think that the prices are ok and that there are many users interested in what my app does.
But after a few days, the problems of the App Store we already discussed makes my sell number lower and lower every day.
This is the real problem for me.
The selling numbers should depend on good price, nice features and support quality. Now they only depend on release date
or on being lucky and get advertised on the store Actually, wasn't there an article a while ago with a quote from Apple stating that turn-by-turn GPS WASN'T banned?
https://www.macrumors.com/2008/08/15/turn-by-turn-gps-for-iphone-coming/
Well, it's not a definite, definite, definite answer...but it's something.
Well most apps I've seen show multiple screenshots unless you're looking exclusively from your phone in which case you only see the primary shot (that's the app store's design...nothing devs can do here). The real thing that would help sales is for Apple to allow DEMO VERSIONS OF APPS TO BE APPROVED. Every other platform has demo versions of apps...I'm not sure why Apple is being retarded on this point.
The problem is that the SDK license wording is quite clear that it's not allowed. This article is about TomTom (a company with deep pockets) taking a totally speculative risk and making their software run on the iPhone. They are probably big enough to negotiate something with Apple separate from the SDK agreement the rest of us have to abide by.
The one aspect of the price you're missing is advertising/marketing. You must have this or you'll be drowned out by the noise of rubbish in the store. I agree that in an ideal world quality would always win over anything else, but that's just not the case here.
I have several apps that I have paid more than $9 for. However, I always hold my breath when I open them to see how they actually work and feel. To really make the app store more successful, this is what I would like to see.
1. No reviews allowed if you haven't tested the app.
2. No reviews by the devs or their buddies. (the infomercials and talking points are maddening.)
3. DEMOS! Even if for only one day or a few hours. I buy and try a lot of mac software. If I can't try it, most of the time I won't buy it. Now maybe if the devs gave money back guarantees...
4. Better searching in iTunes. Gawd, it's impossible. When I am searching for an app, I don't want to see songs or podcasts or movies or sheesh!
5. Better categories. Again to improve searching.
6. Allow link to the devs website from the iPhone. Why should I have to use my lap or desktop for this?
7. Let me filter for what is new on the iPhone. Again, this is something you can filter for on iTunes. On the iPhone we are stuck with whatever Apple wants us to see. And it is different than what is new on iTunes.....
8. Let me see more than one screen shot on the iPhone.
9. Show the review dates on the reviews. And put them in order! I want to know if the reviews come after an update or before.
10. Be faster about posting updates. It gets tiring having the devs posting that they have been waiting a week for apple to post the update when it has already been submitted. Especially when it is a much needed update. Especially on the non free apps!
These are just a few. I have wasted a lot of money so far looking for apps I want. Quite honestly, it gets frustrating and has recently reduced my use of the app store.
I believe that if you could try more of this software, you would weed out a lot of the apps pretty quickly. Then it would be easier to see if someone was charging too much, not charging enough, if ratings are in line or out of line, etc.
1. No reviews allowed if you haven't tested the app.
2. No reviews by the devs or their buddies. (the infomercials and talking points are maddening.)
3. DEMOS! Even if for only one day or a few hours. I buy and try a lot of mac software. If I can't try it, most of the time I won't buy it. Now maybe if the devs gave money back guarantees...
4. Better searching in iTunes. Gawd, it's impossible. When I am searching for an app, I don't want to see songs or podcasts or movies or sheesh!
5. Better categories. Again to improve searching.
6. Allow link to the devs website from the iPhone. Why should I have to use my lap or desktop for this?
7. Let me filter for what is new on the iPhone. Again, this is something you can filter for on iTunes. On the iPhone we are stuck with whatever Apple wants us to see. And it is different than what is new on iTunes.....
8. Let me see more than one screen shot on the iPhone.
9. Show the review dates on the reviews. And put them in order! I want to know if the reviews come after an update or before.
10. Be faster about posting updates. It gets tiring having the devs posting that they have been waiting a week for apple to post the update when it has already been submitted. Especially when it is a much needed update. Especially on the non free apps!
These are just a few. I have wasted a lot of money so far looking for apps I want. Quite honestly, it gets frustrating and has recently reduced my use of the app store.
I believe that if you could try more of this software, you would weed out a lot of the apps pretty quickly. Then it would be easier to see if someone was charging too much, not charging enough, if ratings are in line or out of line, etc.