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Problem with App Store Today?
- Thread starter gswilder
- Start date
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It seems Apple have pulled the three application lists:
... Offline, to presumably fix this emerging problem.
R-Fly
- All iPhone Applications
- All Free Applications
- All iPod touch Applications
... Offline, to presumably fix this emerging problem.
R-Fly
No, that's not how the computer business works. The technicians don't go home on weekends, when most sales are made
It's 24/7. What has happened is that they have removed the "See All Apps" option. You now have to search by categories.No, that's not how the computer business works. The technicians don't go home on weekends, when most sales are made
They likely have 'keep it up and running' technicians on call. They won't have the actual engineers who implemented the store working weekends though. If it really is an unintended side effect of the update they made to stop people reviewing apps they didn't purchase then they will quite likely have to wait for the actual engineers to come back.
It makes no sense for them to have removed the option to view only Free apps. It'll come back once they've ironed out the issue.
I worked for Dyson Electronics in Cupertino, and if they had to wait more than 15 minutes for me to come back, I was out of a job.
*shrug* I work for a company that supplies telecoms equipment to most of the big telecom companies. We have tier 2 support staff on call at the weekend whose job it is to attempt to get things back on track but there's often things that they cannot fix. R&D Engineers are rarely on call at weekends and sure as hell won't come in unless paid overtime. As long as there's a workaround, as there is in this case, then I daresay they wouldn't call in the R&D people to fix it.
Another problem is that in the categories there used to be a "Free Apps" section but that is gone. So now there is no way to check for new free apps. Very annoying. Apple is making the Apps store less useful.
Hi, Google...
Hi, Google...
I find this truly amazing. The itunes app store has been dysfunctional around the world since Thursday evening EST. Based on past earnings, this probably cost Apple around $600,000, but their R&D engineers were not on call. If I even remotely believed this was conceivable, I would sell my Apple stock as soon as the market opened tomorrow morning.
I work for a very large international chemical company and anybody that has anything to do with keeping the business running is always available if there are any problems. There aren't many companys anymore that have 9-5 Monday Through Friday only hours anymore.
Apple's Lame Response
I logged a ticket with Apple regarding the missing apps and here is the response I received....instead of hiring people to provide this type of frustrating customer service they should use the $'s to get someone in to fix the problem. I really hope I receive a survey on this one!!!!
------
Dear xxxxx,
I understand that when you searched the free applications on the iTunes Store previously, there were more pages of applications than there are now. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. My name is Jayne and I would be happy to assist you with this issue.
As an iTunes Store Customer Support representative, I handle issues related to billing, downloading, customer accounts, and the items available on the iTunes Store. The question you asked falls outside of my area of specialty, but Apple does offer some resources that should help you.
Here is an article I found in Apple's knowledge base for you:
iTunes Store
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/
I tried to anticipate other questions you might have, so I'm including some frequently asked questions and additional resources for you.
Q. Where can I find answers to general questions about iTunes?
A wide variety of helpful tutorials, troubleshooting tips, and support information can be found on the iTunes support website:
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww
To find answers to general questions about iTunes, open iTunes and choose "iTunes Help" from the Help menu.
Q. Do other iTunes users experience the same issues that I do?
To post questions and read answers provided by other iTunes users, you can participate in iTunes discussions at our Discussions forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=149
Q. How do I get technical assistance and service information for my iPod?
Visit: http://www.apple.com/support/ipod
Q. Can I speak to someone for more in-depth assistance?
If you require more in-depth assistance, you may wish to call our AppleCare technical support team. A representative will be able to tell you about Apple's complimentary and fee-based support options and can help you determine which option might be most helpful in this case. To find the appropriate phone number, please visit:
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/phone_contacts.html
I hope this has been helpful! If you need further assistance, please feel free to reply to this e-mail, as I would be more than happy to help! Have a great day.
Sincerely,
Jayne
iTunes Store Customer Support
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you. You may receive an AppleCare survey email; any feedback you provide would be greatly appreciated.
I logged a ticket with Apple regarding the missing apps and here is the response I received....instead of hiring people to provide this type of frustrating customer service they should use the $'s to get someone in to fix the problem. I really hope I receive a survey on this one!!!!
------
Dear xxxxx,
I understand that when you searched the free applications on the iTunes Store previously, there were more pages of applications than there are now. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. My name is Jayne and I would be happy to assist you with this issue.
As an iTunes Store Customer Support representative, I handle issues related to billing, downloading, customer accounts, and the items available on the iTunes Store. The question you asked falls outside of my area of specialty, but Apple does offer some resources that should help you.
Here is an article I found in Apple's knowledge base for you:
iTunes Store
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/
I tried to anticipate other questions you might have, so I'm including some frequently asked questions and additional resources for you.
Q. Where can I find answers to general questions about iTunes?
A wide variety of helpful tutorials, troubleshooting tips, and support information can be found on the iTunes support website:
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww
To find answers to general questions about iTunes, open iTunes and choose "iTunes Help" from the Help menu.
Q. Do other iTunes users experience the same issues that I do?
To post questions and read answers provided by other iTunes users, you can participate in iTunes discussions at our Discussions forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=149
Q. How do I get technical assistance and service information for my iPod?
Visit: http://www.apple.com/support/ipod
Q. Can I speak to someone for more in-depth assistance?
If you require more in-depth assistance, you may wish to call our AppleCare technical support team. A representative will be able to tell you about Apple's complimentary and fee-based support options and can help you determine which option might be most helpful in this case. To find the appropriate phone number, please visit:
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/phone_contacts.html
I hope this has been helpful! If you need further assistance, please feel free to reply to this e-mail, as I would be more than happy to help! Have a great day.
Sincerely,
Jayne
iTunes Store Customer Support
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you. You may receive an AppleCare survey email; any feedback you provide would be greatly appreciated.
Some revenue may be lost by the All iPhone Apps and All Touch Apps being down, but if you were trying to search the free apps, you hadn't planned on spending any money, anyway. And I would assume that most people who pay for apps have an idea of what they want before they pay for it. So they can find that in the categories.
Entry Point to Purchase
On the surface your comment regarding "free apps" is a valid generalization, but many apps I've purchased (and I'm sure others too) have started as a free app - the lite version to ensure I like it first.
So, the extent of the true loss of revenue is unknown, but I'm sure having an engineer come fix the problem is much less than what will be the final tally of the loss.
Also it would have been nice if Apple would have posted something regarding the outage rather than pretending nothing is wrong. Since they were able to remove 3 links without a problem. Regardless of the revenue aspect.
On the surface your comment regarding "free apps" is a valid generalization, but many apps I've purchased (and I'm sure others too) have started as a free app - the lite version to ensure I like it first.
So, the extent of the true loss of revenue is unknown, but I'm sure having an engineer come fix the problem is much less than what will be the final tally of the loss.
Also it would have been nice if Apple would have posted something regarding the outage rather than pretending nothing is wrong. Since they were able to remove 3 links without a problem. Regardless of the revenue aspect.
Well at least you can still access the Top 100 free apps on the right in iTunes. More alarming is the fact they removed the "All iPhone Applications" link from the left column. Now you need to browse through EVERY SINGLE category one at a time every day to see if anything new appeared
I know there are third party RSS feeds, but it was fun to fire up iTunes and flip through the newest apps with my morning coffee...
I know there are third party RSS feeds, but it was fun to fire up iTunes and flip through the newest apps with my morning coffee...
my thought as well...........though i am surprised that they couldn't resolve it within the past 3 days when the problem first came to light
What I meant by this is not that Apple couldn't run into a glitch while changing their format from the "See All Apps" to categories (after all, it isn't really practical to browse 190 pages and up) of apps. What I found howlingly funny is that Apple's R&D engineers weren't available because they don't work on Sundays
Actually, the more I think about it they probably got rid of the "All Free Applications" link on purpose. It's mere presence was eliminating the possibility of sales for lots of developers with good apps that actually cost money (*shudder*) . Now that they force you to browse the individual categories with free and paid intermixed, paid app devs get more exposure. It will make my morning app browsing more time consuming, but as a developer I think I'll benefit from it in the long term.
Of course it must also be said that Apple does not make any money on free apps, and they lose money due to hosting and bandwidth. The whole app store was being pressured in a pricetag race towards zero, and this is their first step in preventing that.
. Now that they force you to browse the individual categories with free and paid intermixed, paid app devs get more exposure. It will make my morning app browsing more time consuming, but as a developer I think I'll benefit from it in the long term.Of course it must also be said that Apple does not make any money on free apps, and they lose money due to hosting and bandwidth. The whole app store was being pressured in a pricetag race towards zero, and this is their first step in preventing that.
Aaaah, that is annoying, I really enjoyed and found it very practical the "All free iPhone apps" filter. I hope they will put it back soon.
please sell it, ive been hoping for a few weeks that it would go below 100 so i can buy some
Just spread the rumors that their R&D engineers don't work on Sundays or religious holidays and this may well happen