One thing that everyone seems to overlook amidst all the discussion about Apple’s App Store being open or closed, being walled within iTunes or freely open via the internet, or being with or without an approval process is that 99% of the applications currently approved and running wild in the App Store are absolute and total garbage.
Don’t believe me? Subscribe to AppShopper’s feed for a single day and read every app that comes through the gates of iTunes. You want a great example of the vast majority of the over 65,000 apps in the App Store? Check out a search for Supafan on AppShopper. 742 and counting “ONE STOP” apps to “get everything related to _________” (fill in blank with celebrity of your choice). Why not make it one app and have it where you buy celebrities to stalk as additional packs to add on to the main app? That would be much better than polluting the App Store with 742 pieces of garbage.
This is the real problem of the App Store. You cannot find anything good unless it is highlighted in the featured section in iTunes (and many of those recommendations even are iffy) or if it’s reviewed well somewhere else. Even then, many of the seemingly useful and well-heralded on arrival apps, like GPush, are praised even when they’re not quite ready for prime time just because they are pieces of shining gold in comparison to the masses of useless, poorly designed apps on the App Store.
//rant off
*Note: If you are one of the good iPhone developers with a really great product that you’re having trouble getting noticed, feel free to contact me about doing a review.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Apple should be embarrassed by all of these developers that submit cookie cutter apps hundreds of times.
I have been following Pinch Media’s RSS feed of new apps since the App Store opened and I agree that almost all are crap.
I wonder just how many man hours those 60,000 iPhone applications took, granted many I’m sure are built with templates and scripts. The time it took to write the scripts should be added. ;p
99% LOL this is so true.
they are of course affordable, but nevertheless, crap at the same time.