Two apps with same name? Also, another poor review

[TimothyB]

Pyramid Solitaire by Cliff Maier:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=283189656&mt=8

Pyramid Solitaire by Seahorse Software
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=287361972&mt=8

They both came out Aug 10th, and literally show up side by side in the App Store. Did they miss this or something?

Oh, and you got to love the first review on Maier's version;

"""""Two Stars:
I'm First LOL""""

What the hell is that, does this guy think reviews are a forum to spam? And he should rate an app so low for no reason?

 

[ayasin]

Wow that's worse than the pre-teen who rated iNeedStuff down because it's exactly like notes without reading the description or even looking at the screenshot lol. Oh and how do I know she's a pre-teen? She also reviewed the Jonas Brother's new album (giving it 5 stars and wrote a fan letter to them...in the review). At this point I completely ignore the star rating on any app and read the actual reviews. You can usually tell which ones are from users that actually used the app. If it says "LOL why do people pay for apps?" then it's pretty obviously not an actual user. Although I have to say that the second funniest headline I read for a review was from a non-purchaser. The app was handyrandy and the review started "The developer should be boiled in oil". The funniest review ever was from a guy that rated his own app and gave it one star (India news). Then, just to make sure there was no confusion the title was "This is a (one) star application". I still can't think about that review without falling over laughing.

 

[firewood]

duplicate names

I've been working on a (free educational) app for the last several months with a weird name that I thought would be meaningful but quite unique, but the app isn't finished enough to upload to the store yet. Since it was going to be a free app, I didn't bother to trademark the name.

Just last week someone else's app appeared in the store that same weird name. Guess I'll have to go back to the drawing board and find another name for my app before I upload it.

 

[TimothyB]

Sorry about losing your name. I know it can be a pain to come up with something. At least it's not as bad as say trying to get an AIM username, where everything under the sun is taken.

I looked at the $4.99 Pyramid and someone gave it 2 stars because there's a the 0.99 cent Pyramid app.

Sheesh, did the guy take notice how the more expensive one has a cool Egyptian theme, large easy to read numbers, landscape play with double pyramid mode, and other features. While the cheaper $1 app is pretty basic as it can get. And the cards look very hard to read which a buyer confirmed and feels that it's not worth even a $1.

So don't these people consider what's under the hood of a more expensive app? I'd be pissed if my app got a poor review just because some other guy did less than half the work on a cheaper version with almost no features and needs updating to be readable.

Heck, why didn't that damn reviewer consider the same company has a Lite version for free and probably better than that dollar app.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=287362574&mt=8

 

[SeahorseSeaEO]

Apple does not have anything in place to prevent multiple programs with the same name (take all of the sudoku games for example). I think all that needs to happen is that each app has it's own unique internal identifier.

I must say I was surprised also to another Pyramid Solitaire application show up on the exact same day as ours (the Seahorse Software) did. I am kind of wondering if that was intentional.

In regards to the $0.99 review ... well, from what I have seen, all developers are going to have to grow some thick skin, since Apple allows anyone (whether they purchased/downloaded the app or not) to post a review. It can be frustrating at times, but I think over time the legitimate reviews will bubble up. The best that can be done is marking reviews helpful or not.

Thanks for the compliments on the game... we are very pleased with the outcome, and hope to continue to add features to differentiate it from the rest of the pack.

-James
Seahorse Software

 

[Galley]

Seahorse Software is great Palm developer, and I'm glad to see them develop for the iPhone.