Comments on: My beef with other people’s beefs with the App Store http://comments.deasil.com/2009/01/19/my-beef-with-other-peoples-beefs-with-the-app-store/ escape colon w q Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:30:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: My Love/Hate Relationship - Apple’s App Store http://comments.deasil.com/2009/01/19/my-beef-with-other-peoples-beefs-with-the-app-store/comment-page-1/#comment-14045 My Love/Hate Relationship - Apple’s App Store Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:22:08 +0000 http://comments.deasil.com/?p=2066#comment-14045 [...] which the store is lacking. You can read previous thoughts on the stores’ weaknesses here and here, I just want to cover some new ones - nitpicky little things (instead of the more overarching ones [...] [...] which the store is lacking. You can read previous thoughts on the stores’ weaknesses here and here, I just want to cover some new ones – nitpicky little things (instead of the more overarching ones [...]

]]> By: felix http://comments.deasil.com/2009/01/19/my-beef-with-other-peoples-beefs-with-the-app-store/comment-page-1/#comment-15169 felix Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:01:16 +0000 http://comments.deasil.com/?p=2066#comment-15169 You're right about doing something like the weight classes - it is a bit heavy handed. That's just an arbitrary selection - I was sort of thinking along the lines of other ecom sites which will let you search by price range - where they have pre-selected ranges. The ones I mentioned were just a couple ranges that seemed to stick out as reasonable price bands but maybe there are better bands or simply less ham fisted ways of improving visibility throughout the price spectrum. They need to do it fast, the App Store is adding 3k apps a month and accelerating so a big problem now is going to quickly turn into an untenable one. If I was Apple an iTunes store overhaul would be near the very top of my priority list.<br><br>Even better would be to provide a web based interface. I'm just saying. You're right about doing something like the weight classes – it is a bit heavy handed. That's just an arbitrary selection – I was sort of thinking along the lines of other ecom sites which will let you search by price range – where they have pre-selected ranges. The ones I mentioned were just a couple ranges that seemed to stick out as reasonable price bands but maybe there are better bands or simply less ham fisted ways of improving visibility throughout the price spectrum. They need to do it fast, the App Store is adding 3k apps a month and accelerating so a big problem now is going to quickly turn into an untenable one. If I was Apple an iTunes store overhaul would be near the very top of my priority list.

Even better would be to provide a web based interface. I'm just saying.

]]> By: Robin http://comments.deasil.com/2009/01/19/my-beef-with-other-peoples-beefs-with-the-app-store/comment-page-1/#comment-15170 Robin Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:14:51 +0000 http://comments.deasil.com/?p=2066#comment-15170 Yeah - I've posted about them needing a web based interface in the past -<br>then it was because google favors amazon heavily when searching for music<br>for obvious reasons. I totally agree about the overhaul, although I am<br>expecting tweaks rather than anything radical - it would be nice to be<br>surprised on this one.<br>In practice, I discover most apps through the web, and then buy the on the<br>device because I'm often mobile when I do, and I sync my phone with my<br>desktop machine rather than my laptop because that's where my music is.<br><br>So for me, the ideal would be a browser based store, with push notification<br>to the device to begin downloads.<br><br>To much to hope for? Yeah – I've posted about them needing a web based interface in the past -
then it was because google favors amazon heavily when searching for music
for obvious reasons. I totally agree about the overhaul, although I am
expecting tweaks rather than anything radical – it would be nice to be
surprised on this one.
In practice, I discover most apps through the web, and then buy the on the
device because I'm often mobile when I do, and I sync my phone with my
desktop machine rather than my laptop because that's where my music is.

So for me, the ideal would be a browser based store, with push notification
to the device to begin downloads.

To much to hope for?

]]> By: Robin http://comments.deasil.com/2009/01/19/my-beef-with-other-peoples-beefs-with-the-app-store/comment-page-1/#comment-15171 Robin Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:32:52 +0000 http://comments.deasil.com/?p=2066#comment-15171 Nice analysis. Totally agree with you. The key to what's happening on the app store is that placement on the 'first screen' of the store it self or any category results in conversions. That real-estate is very limited - a few hundred apps total out of > 15,000, so people are optimizing for placement rather than anything else.<br><br>The paradox of all the situation is that currently as you point out, Apple is not doing directly to fix price points, whereas if they started to pick arbitrary "weight classes", they actually would be. I'm not saying this wouldn't be better than the current state of affairs, but it would require oversight (to make sure the classes were working), and it would still discriminate against apps in the top band. It also risks wasting real estate on underperforming apps. <br><br>Like I say - I am not saying this wouldn't be an improvement, nor that I have a better alternative, however I can see why Apple would hesitate to interfere. Perhaps there is a more organic solution to the problem, perhaps the market will mature in some way, and maybe higher value apps simply take longer to prove themselves. Nice analysis. Totally agree with you. The key to what's happening on the app store is that placement on the 'first screen' of the store it self or any category results in conversions. That real-estate is very limited – a few hundred apps total out of > 15,000, so people are optimizing for placement rather than anything else.

The paradox of all the situation is that currently as you point out, Apple is not doing directly to fix price points, whereas if they started to pick arbitrary “weight classes”, they actually would be. I'm not saying this wouldn't be better than the current state of affairs, but it would require oversight (to make sure the classes were working), and it would still discriminate against apps in the top band. It also risks wasting real estate on underperforming apps.

Like I say – I am not saying this wouldn't be an improvement, nor that I have a better alternative, however I can see why Apple would hesitate to interfere. Perhaps there is a more organic solution to the problem, perhaps the market will mature in some way, and maybe higher value apps simply take longer to prove themselves.

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