Apple's Review Policy
They would be exceedingly rare rather than almost the norm as they are now.
Unfortunately, Apple's policy decision leads to a lot of really useless reviews- and many of 'reviewers' are pillaging any app that isn't free. Virtually every paid app has negative reviews saying "this should be free!" That's especially ironic considering iTunes sells songs for $0.99, but somehow $0.99 is too much for an app.
I don't see this changing unless Apple changes their policy and actually requires people to download and install an app before writing a review. That would eliminate 95% of the garbage reviews. That isn't likely unless enough people complain to the head honchos. I suggest every developer encountering this problem contact the senior people at the App Store/iTunes to complain about this problem- that would certainly get it on their radar. I think these contacts could help:
- Eddy Cue, VP of iTunes
- Elizabeth d'Errico, Head of App Store Merchandising
- Max Mueller, Head of App Store Engineering
If they hear the same complaint about bogus 'non-reviews' from dozens of different developers, maybe they'll listen and change the review policy to require people to download an app before writing a review.