March 15, 2010

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Apple Removing “Cookie Cutter” Apps from the App Store?

March 9, 2010 By Alex Jordan Leave a Comment

TechCruch has an interesting piece assimilating tidbits from App Store developers that suggests Apple is in the process of cracking down on applications that do little more than a web app could do. This comes just weeks after Apple began it’s purge of cheesy “adult” apps.

Between the developers I spoke to, the consensus was this: Apple doesn’t appear to be opposed to ‘app generators’ and templates per se, but in the last month or so it has started cracking down on basic applications that are little more than RSS feeds or glorified business cards. In short, Apple doesn’t want people using native applications for things that a basic web app could accomplish.

The report goes on to quote Medialets CEO Eric Litman who points out that Apple is in the process of ensuring that the iPhone applications offer higher-quality user experiences that set the iPhone apart from competing devices.

Apple wants iPhone apps to be superior to Web experiences because they are extremely sticky and drive people specifically to buy the iPhone over competing smartphone platforms. Apps that are too simple or largely indistinguishable from the Web, other apps or particularly other apps on other platforms send the message to end users that the iPhone app ecosystem might not be particularly special.

It appears Apple is narrowing their focus to app-building services that simply use basic app templates to build apps that present web content.

To me, Apple should have had this mentality in the first place, and not after they allowed this junk into the store. Because the App Store is a very public facet of the iPhone — that is to say it is a major selling point– Apple is trying to tie it in with it’s own (“premium”) image more closely than they ever have before to differentiate themselves from the sea of junk phones.

So why did Apple allow these in the App Store in the first place?  I think it was out of good faith, or more likely a side effect of pioneering a mobile software store. Another reason might have been to help buffer the app store numbers. I would wager these kinds of apps make up a significant number of the apps in the App Store. They’re easy to make, and thus any profit they see off of these is easy earned money.

Filed Under All News, Developers, Software, iPhone Apps

Apple Removing ‘Wi-Fi Scanner’ Apps from App Store

March 5, 2010 By Alex Jordan Leave a Comment

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has begun removing “Wi-Fi Scanner” (help you find Wi-Fi access) applications from the App Store. Apple claims they are removing these apps due to “minimum user fuctionality. ”

AppleInsider quotes Three Jacks Software, the publisher of “Wi-Fi Where” as saying the following about their app’s removal from the store:

“I find it quite ironic that Apple removes these very handy, very useful apps from the app store when there are so many useless gimick apps that just pollute the App Store pages,” the developer wrote. “I’m not going to list any names, but its not hard to see that this trend.”

The way I see this, is that Apple is just now coming to terms with the fact that most of the apps in the App Store are in fact, tacky, tasteless junk apps. Apple is in a curious situations. Leave all of the junk apps in (that they should have never admitted in the first place) and choke out all the outstanding apps that are made, or remove all of the junk apps from the store and look like control freaks. Either way looks like a misstep for Apple.

Filed Under All News, Developers, Software, iPhone, iPhone Apps

Apple Now Forbidding ‘Overtly Sexual’ Apps from the App Store

February 22, 2010 By Alex Jordan Leave a Comment

013638-166113_large.pngiPhone developers ChilliFresh posted that Apple had sent and email to inform them that their app, Wobble iBoobs, had been yanked from the App Store. The email stated that Apple had changed policy and were removing all “overtly sexual” content due to customer complaints.
Here is the email at length:

The App Store continues to evolve, and as such, we are constantly refining our guidelines. Your application, Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored), contains content that we had originally believed to be suitable for distribution. However, we have recently received numerous complaints from our customers about this type of content, and have changed our guidelines appropriately.

We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter. If you believe you can make the necessary changes so that Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored) complies with our recent changes, we encourage you to do so and resubmit for review.

Sincerely,
iPhone App Review

This seems like a ham-fisted attempt at further censorship by Apple. As of the time of this writing, 5000 (and counting) of the “adult” themed applications in the App Store have been removed, but not all. Playboy’s official app still remains. Which to me suggests Apple will always play nicer with “big money” corporations than with independent developers.

Filed Under All News, iPhone Apps

App Store Piracy Cost: $450 Million

January 13, 2010 By Alex Jordan Leave a Comment

PiratedAppStoreLogo copy.jpg24/7 Wall St. is reporting that App Store developers and Apple have lost some $450 million to app piracy since the App Store’s inception back in July of 2008. This number comes from a collection of estimates regarding the ratio of downloads that are paid applications, the piracy rate for paid applications, and the proportion of pirated app users who would have paid for the apps if pirated versions weren’t available.

There have been over 3 billion downloads since the inception of the App Store. Assuming the proportion of those that are paid apps falls in the middle of the Bernstein estimate, 17% or 510 million of these were paid applications. Based on our review of current information, paid applications have a piracy rate of around 75%. That supports the figure that for every paid download, there have been 3 pirated downloads. That puts the number of pirate downloads at 1.53 billion. If the average price of a paid application is $3, that is $4.59 billion dollars in losses split between Apple and the application developers. That is, of course, assuming that all of those pirates would have made purchases had the application not been available to them for free. This is almost certainly not the case. A fair estimate of the proportion of people who would have used the App Store if they did not use pirated applications is about 10%. This estimate yields about $459 million in lost revenue for Apple and application developers.

With Apple taking 30% of App Store profits as compensation for hosting developer’s apps, it still appears Apple is losing $140 million over the last 18 months, which is a significant amount of money considering Apple still reportedly rakes in $500-$700 million in App Store revenue.

It still appears that Apple has not moved to address this issue. The best explanation for this, is that the App Store exists solely to drive device sales. That means Apple is seeing this loss in revenue as an acceptable loss. Developers will just have to deal with it.

Filed Under All News, iPhone Apps

App Store Hits 3 Billion Downloads

January 5, 2010 By Alex Jordan Leave a Comment
091844-app_store_growth_jan10.png

Apple has announced that over three billion iPhone/iPod touch applications have been downloaded from the App Store since it’s official launch in on July 10th 2008.
Here is the customary Steve Jobs quote:

“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months — this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”

What makes these numbers so impressive, is the very rapid growth being seen. Just three months ago Apple reached the two billion download mark. This coupled with steady growth in iPhone and iPod touch sales, make this a combo to be reckoned with. The App Store is available in 77 countries and offers applications in 20 categories.

Chart Courtesy of MacRumors

Filed Under All News, iPhone Apps, iTunes

Review: Consume for iPhone

December 25, 2009 By Alex Jordan Leave a Comment

Design is what the iPhone is all about. You can argue otherwise, but elegance and substance is what Apple emphasizes in all of their products. Microsoft is utilitarian and “good-enough” for anyone who simply looks at their technology as an appliance to get things done.  I only mention these two clashing ideologies in the service of introducing a new iPhone app from bjango that manages to combine a little from both camps. That app’s name is Consume, and it allows you to monitor your cell network usage (to get every last bit out of your monthly service), in a graphical way that fits right at home amongst anything Apple would ever ship.

When first firing up the application you are greeted with a delicious looking welcome screen that takes you to the account setup.

From there you are taken to a straightforward settings screen. Here you can turn sounds on/off and other standard settings. Most importantly this is where you add your account.

Adding an account is effortless. First select your country, then your mobile phone provider in that country. I’m in the United States, and have an un-jailbroken iPhone so I’m stuck with AT&T.

Although I didn’t have the opportunity to test it, I take it that this app will monitor other people’s cell and internet usage (no internet providers are supported by Consume in the U.S. as of this writing) even if they aren’t on the iPhone or the same network. Impressive.

Once you have selected your service provider, you will be prompted to enter a display name(optional), username, password, and of course, your phone number. Worth noting, you may have to signup for online services from your service provider so Consume can access that data. Luckily, bjango has a how-to guide to help us set that up.

With setup completed, the rest is automatic for the user. Consume will display your minute and data usage in an elegant bar graph. This is the meat of the app. Showing you just how many megabits of data you’ve consumed, and how much more you’ve got (if there is a limit). Here in the States, or at least on AT&T, we don’t have to worry about data consumption, but we do have to watch the number of minutes we use, making this app indispensable.

The same would go for the broadband monitoring if it were available for the U.S. broadband providers. I don’t know of any broadband provider here in the U.S. that charges per MBit of data consumed. I’m sure there is, but I’ve never encountered it.

My point is, although it is helpful to know how much data you are consuming, it really doesn’t matter here in the States, because there are few situations were there is a data cap. That means this app is still helpful, but our European friends are going to get more out of it than Americans. I suspect bjango will add U.S. broadband providers in the future.

I still have to recommend this app to anyone wondering how much they are straining their provider’s network. It’s amazing to see how much data we consume without ever realizing it. Much like our caloric intake habits, but I digress.

The User Interface cannot be beat. The ease of use is excellent, and it falls right in line with bjango’s track record of making useful and elegant solutions to the minor technical difficulties we all face in our gadget driven lives.

In short, who would have thought that a utility could be this pretty?

You can check out bjango’s site here, and you can pick up a copy of Consume from the App Store for a very modest $1.99.

Filed Under Software Reviews, iPhone Apps Tagged With app, bjango, consume, iPhone, review

Apple Cracks Down on iPhone App Developer Accused of Defrauding the Review System

December 9, 2009 By Alex Jordan Leave a Comment

Screen shot 2009-12-08 at 7.43.55 PM.pngiPhoneography is reporting that Apple SVP Phil Schiller took action on a report by an App Store customer, who claimed that a specific developer was boosting their product’s ratings with fake reviews.

Please investigate for I have just looked at 44 of the reviewers who posted reviews for this Molinker Inc app “NightCam Pro” & EVERY Review except 2 of the 44+ are ALL FAKE 5 [star] reviews.

This is how things reportedly went down: A customer noticed that the majority of the reviews left for Moniker’s Apps were five star ratings. The customer suspected Moniker had given away their 50 allotted developer promotional codes to the masses in exchange for five star ratings in the App Store. The customer then emailed Phil Schiller and Moniker’s 1900+ apps were removed from the store.

This news suggests that Apple is listening to customer complaints, and they are actively trying to round out some of the rough edges. Lord knows, the App Store still has rough edges.

Filed Under All News, Developers, iPhone Apps, iTunes

Apple Hiring Engineers to Take the iPhone Maps App to ” the next level”

November 30, 2009 By Alex Jordan Leave a Comment

1315133960_5fc23d20f8.jpgMacRumors has found a job listing looking for a Software Engineer to work on the iPhone Maps team, where they plan to take the standard iPhone Maps app to “the next level.”

We want to take Maps to the next level, rethink how users use Maps and change the way people find things. We want to do this in a seamless, highly interactive and enjoyable way. We’ve only just started.

It’s worth remembering at this time, that Apple acquired Placebase, a mapping company known for differentiating itself form Google Maps, in July. The CEO of Placebase is now a member of the “Geo Team” at Apple, which may indicate Apple is preparing to drop Google Maps in favor for their in-house build solution.

Filed Under All News, iPhone Apps

Fledgeling Chinese App Store Begins to Take Flight

November 18, 2009 By Alex Jordan Leave a Comment
F826A502-A143-4AE5-A058-8D8A22A05C99.jpg

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Chinese version of the App Store is beginning to take off, even though it faces serious challenges. Many of these challenges have been mentioned before, such as the Chinese iPhone lacking Wi-Fi capabilities, a preexisting installed base of jailbroken iPhones, and software piracy. With all of that, and slow launch sales staked against them, Apple has still managed to expand the App Store, quickly in China.

The market for legitimate Chinese iPhone apps is small but surging. Mr. Shi’s company estimates about $1 million worth of legitimate iPhone apps have been sold so far this year, though the market could reach $6 million by next year. By comparison, mobile advertising firm AdMob says about $200 million in apps are sold overall through Apple’s store each month.

Yet another hurdle Apple has to jump in China, is the fact that Chinese consumers must have a Chinese bank issued credit card to make purchases on the App Store.

The WSJ goes on to mention the certain kinds of Apps popular in China, such as news and blogging applications to games like Command & Conquer.

“Localization is most important. Products should be as much in line with Chinese lifestyles as possible,” says Mr. Shi, who noted Texas Hold ‘Em games likely wouldn’t go over well.

Although no numbers are supplied, it might be safe to say that Apple may yet create a market foothold in China.

Image courtesy of iPhoneasia.com

Filed Under All News, iPhone, iPhone Apps

iTunes 9?

August 9, 2009 By Andre Bodnar 3 Comments

Boy Genius Report announced that they’ve recieved a tip “from a pretty reliable source” that we can expect iTunes 9 to have some pretty cool features, including Blu-Ray support and App organization.

The app organization feature would allow iTunes 9 users to visually organize the apps before they get transferred to their iPod Touches or iPhones. No more ‘wiggling’ and trying to move the apps from page-to-page on these devices. Besides being able to setup the home screen icons and general layout, the app organizaion feature may also include sorting by name, usage, etc. This concept video released on YouTube demos what the app organization feature could be like: iTunes 9 App Management Concept.

The iTunes 9 Blu-Ray support rumour would fit nicely with a recent report that Apple may include Blu-Ray into their new iMac models.

Last year Apple demoed iTunes 8 at their annual iTunes and iPod music event. With this year’s event quickly approaching in September, the timing for the release seems to fit.

Filed Under Rumors, iPhone Apps, iTunes Tagged With iTunes, rumours
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