iTunes AppStore Changes! NO UPDATES in NEW RELEASES!

[MacToddB]

I was browsing the Top 100 Entertainment, from my Mac but also from http://appstoreicons.com/entertainment (so it's not my cache that's the issue) and something weird is happening.

If you view the Top 20, on the left-hand side of the iTunes App Store, you see the usual suspects like Pocket Devil, Moron Test, Pocket God, etc. But click to see Top 100 and it's totally different. The #1 Entertainment app is a brand new glowstick app release Nov 3rd?

Anyone else seeing this?

 

[Pika]

I was browsing the Top 100 Entertainment, from my Mac but also from http://appstoreicons.com/entertainment (so it's not my cache that's the issue) and something weird is happening.

If you view the Top 20, on the left-hand side of the iTunes App Store, you see the usual suspects like Pocket Devil, Moron Test, Pocket God, etc. But click to see Top 100 and it's totally different. The #1 Entertainment app is a brand new glowstick app release Nov 3rd?

Anyone else seeing this?

Yes i can see it. LOL glowstick.

 

[MacToddB]

Yes i can see it. LOL glowstick.

Looks like they fixed it.

Funny thing is, that iGlowStickPro, released Nov 3rd (yesterday), version 1.0, with 6 reviews, is now #41 in the corrected rankings.

So, for the past two hours, while it was listed as #1, it sold enough to be in the Top 41 in Entertainment. Shows you the power of those rankings.

 

[MacToddB]

Looks like they fixed it.

Funny thing is, that iGlowStickPro, released Nov 3rd (yesterday), version 1.0, with 6 reviews, is now #41 in the corrected rankings.

So, for the past two hours, while it was listed as #1, it sold enough to be in the Top 41 in Entertainment. Shows you the power of those rankings.

The bugs are back. It's messed up again.

 

[return7]

Yea, finance section is hosed too.

 

[Fedorov]

Yup, one advantage though is I spotted Steve Davis Pool by I-Play, as I love their Ronnie O Sullivan Snooker I bought the Pool on sale at 59p, spotted in this buggy list!

 

[MacToddB]

Yup, one advantage though is I spotted Steve Davis Pool by I-Play, as I love their Ronnie O Sullivan Snooker I bought the Pool on sale at 59p, spotted in this buggy list!

Yeah... I've been talking to other developers. One is suddenly a Top 30 app, so she's happy! So she did a screengrab and can always say she made the top 30 in Entertainment! (of course my app, 100sounds, is now NOT showing in the Top 100. bummer.)

 

[ozzyman500]

I just saw this, the top paid 100 apps is filled with junk. What happened to more of the premium apps?

 

[herbs]

It's maybe fun for some customers but

It seems that some people here find the bug very funny. Just look at it from a developer's perspective...
A short quote from the apple-dev forum:

Apple: These types of bugs can KILL a "COMPANY" and our livelihood. How are you going to address/compensate us for this possible tremendous damage to our business?

 

[wooo]

I just saw this, the top paid 100 apps is filled with junk. What happened to more of the premium apps?

They're in last place... the bible says "the last shall be first and the first shall be last". Sucks when you're near the front

 

[wooo]

It seems that some people here find the bug very funny. Just look at it from a developer's perspective...
A short quote from the apple-dev forum:

I don't find it funny, just trying to make light of a sucky situation... this is about the 8th time I've been "screwed" by an apple mistake... but what can I do? I'm totally powerless. Until there's an app store dev. union or something, we just get to deal with the downs, in order to get the ups...

A couple hours of a bug won't ruin a business (a day or two can hurt it) but anyone who relies entirely on the app store rankings for sales is not likely to have a long term business model.

 

[MacToddB]

A couple hours of a bug won't ruin a business (a day or two can hurt it) but anyone who relies entirely on the app store rankings for sales is not likely to have a long term business model.

Sure, but some of us do a lot of focused marketing to get into those rankings.

Last night, before the bug, I sent my newsletter to thousands of my customers, promoting my newest app, AutoRingtone. While I will be happy to get a percent to convert, if the rankings don't reflect those sales, that would suck.


Looks like it's fixed... for now...

 

[MacToddB]

Got a reply from Apple re iTunes bugs

Well, they're at least aware of the issues...

Thank you for contacting the Apple Developer Connection regarding iTunes Connect and the App Store.

Please know the iTunes Connect team is aware of the issue and it will be resolved within 48 hours.

If you are still experiencing this issue after 48 hours has passed, please contact the iTunes Connect team directly for further assistance:

<iTunesConnect@apple.com>

Thank you for your participation in our programs.

 

[wooo]

Well, they're at least aware of the issues...

Yeah, that's nice that they're aware of the issue... (though they'd have to be completely 100% brain dead and stuck in a dark cave without internet access NOT to know). The problem (as I see it) is that a) there's nothing we can do other than send an email (which I of course did as soon as I noticed the problem, and I"m amazed you actually heard back.. typically I've not heard anything at all, or it's taken them weeks to respond to those!)

The only reason this is being fixed "fast" is because it's affecting Apple's bottom line (and certainly pissing off lots of their "prime" app store companies, EA, etc.) so they'll move fast to fix it. What sucks is that when it was just MY app which mysteriously stopped showing in the search results when all my competitors apps still were, that nothing changed for a full week, then they fixed it, then it happened again. And what's my recourse? Absolutely nothing at all, I'm one developer of one app, they wouldn't miss a beat if my app simply disappeared. That's the incredibly scary thing with the app store... but the payout is good for now so I keep playing the game, scared to death of what tomorrow brings!

Sorry if that was a downer... I'm glad things are (mostly) back to normal now... though rankings are now frozen to what they were 3 days ago... better than nothing though (for me at least)

P.S. Oh, and I didn't notice you were responding to me on that... I'm not trying to make light of the situation (or was I?) I agree it's a horrible terrible thing to have happen (unless you get to be one of the lucky ones that gets a couple hours in the top 100). I'm just saying, I'm doing as much as I can at this point to market outside of the app store because there's no transparency, accountability and predictability... The good thing about your campaign is that you're surely direct linking to the app so at least you'll have downloads while others based on rank alone don't. But yeah, who knows when the rankings will start to be updated again (and if all this period will be thrown out of the algorithm due to the biased sales from the original rankings messup... that would ultra suck for you and I can only imagine the frustration (well not only imagine since I've had similar problems...)

Whew... that's long

 

[MacToddB]

Reasons behind iTunes bugs... no more Updates in New Releases

It appears that iTunes has had a signficant programming change and perhaps that's why they've had the weird behavior lately.

From what I can see, the New Releases are truly brand new apps. All of them are 1.0 versions and I don't see any updates in the New Releases.

From the appstore / end user perspective, this is probably a good thing. Instead of searching through countless minor updates to find a truly new app, only new apps will be shown.

This could cut down on frivolous updates, where developers make minor changes just to show up as new.

However, developers may be more likely to create brand new apps and abandon updates, leaving customers in the lurch.

Perhaps the best approach would be separate 'New Apps' and 'Updated Apps' sections'.

Whatever they do, I hope they beta test things better before making such switches.

 

[Pring]

Isn't it great that we can now get app releases from the future too? /facepalm

They need to fix this. My guess is that it's people who set the release date in the future so they could delay the release and time it with marketing/etc. That used to mean your app didn't go live until that date was reached.

Thing is, now their app will be top of new release list until that date is reached!

 

[MacToddB]

Holy cow. Check out Reference. What a joke. My app just came out 11/7 but it's buried by 11/27 apps!

Isn't it great that we can now get app releases from the future too? /facepalm

They need to fix this. My guess is that it's people who set the release date in the future so they could delay the release and time it with marketing/etc. That used to mean your app didn't go live until that date was reached.

Thing is, now their app will be top of new release list until that date is reached!