In a brief preview, Forbes speculated Apple would bring a "mundane" yet "important" fix for iPhone and iPod touch users: a new-and-improved App Store.
Now that that App Store is filled with 65,000 applications, the next step will be to make all those applications easier to find," the report said. "Apple said during its last investor call that it is working on the problem. September would seem to be a fine time to introduce Apple’s solution."
I wasn ‘t expecting much iPhone related news at tomorrow ‘s Apple / iPod event, unless of course the mythical tablet/s do get announced and run the iPhone OS. So the above line from an Apple Insider article that touches on some of the latest speculation surrounding the event, caught my eye.
New. Improved. App Store. Let me see YES please.
So now I ‘m starting to think a little more on what new and improved might mean, and what I ‘d wish it to mean.
Sure, making apps easier to find sounds like a good thing “ but how does that work? The only recent suggested possibility I recall hearing get much steam on the rumor mill was the idea of a ‘Premium Store ‘ or store section, where it would be much easier to find all the big-name, bigger price tag apps “ so EA and other luminaries, and Apple, can rake up a little more income on $10 apps.
I think nearly all of us would like to see ways to more easily find ‘good apps ‘ and not see so many ‘crap apps ‘ “ but that doesn ‘t seem easy to accomplish at all “ especially since one man ‘s crap app is another man ‘s hidden gem. And I don ‘t particularly agree that apps are automatically somehow better just because they are priced from $4.99 “ 9.99 (and upwards).
Here ‘s some changes I do not necessarily expect to see announced, but that I would really like to see:
‘Novelty ‘ Section: I ‘d like to see a new Novelty (or similarly titled) section. This would be a place for apps that really have little or no purpose, and do not really justify being in entertainment or other sections. I think this might help a little in terms of being able to find more good apps more easily.
More Reviewers: Lots and lots and lots more reviewers. Those numbers Apple revealed to the FCC recently “ 8,500 review items per week, and 40 full-time reviewers “ are horrific. Those strike me as an instant recipe for failure “ that shows up in poor handling of updates, in botched rejections, in botched approvals, and across the board. The App Store is big business, big volume, and a huge key to the iPhone ‘s success “ treat it right, give it some resources.
Learn How To Spell ‘Consistent ‘: If one Wikipedia app is given a 17+ rating and warning popup, can we please apply that to all Wikipedia apps? If one dictionary app uses the same set of swear words as another, could we possibly have them both treated on pretty much equal terms? I ‘m sure you can all name 101 other examples of stupid and inconsistent decisions of this kind.
Scrap The Honor System: Can we remove the ‘rate your own app ‘ nonsense now. It ‘s pretty clear that quite a few developers are just not going to do the decent thing and rate their own apps appropriately, and some even seem to laugh at what Apple is letting slip by. This only exacerbates the whole ‘inconsistent ‘ issue.
Ban Unsupported Apps: Instead of launching yet another blitzkrieg assault against icons that look too much like chat bubbles, or iPhones, or unicorns and rainbows, how about putting some focus on, and cracking down on, apps that appear to be entirely unsupported. It ‘s bad enough when you grab a free app, have issues with it, and get little or no support. But when you pay for an app only to discover that it is nigh-on impossible to contact the developers and that even when you do, there is zero response “ that ‘s unacceptable. I ‘ve seen more than one paid app where the web and support links in the App Store lead you nowhere, make it very difficult to establish contact, and where the devs provide no support at all. This is the sort of shite that should be getting rooted out of the store “ not icons gone bad.
Do Something, Anything About Home Screens & App Organizing: Please. This is way overdue and top of lots of people ‘s list I think. Let us manage things via iTunes, give us much more clever ways to organize and manage on the iPhone itself, borrow some great jailbreak ideas like Stacks or Categories. Something, anything here “ throw us a bone.
Give Us International Promo Codes: As ‘other ‘ App Stores grow everywhere outside the US, can we please pretend just for a bit that any of those places and people matter too, and maybe could enjoy “ and buy “ more apps if they had the same access to promo codes that we do in the States.
I ‘m sure I ‘m leaving out lots of big ones, but those would do nicely for me, for starters.
How about for you all? What ‘s your current wish list for a new and improved App Store?
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