21–30 of 77 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
From http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html : If you submit a link to a video or pdf, please warn us by appending [video] or [pdf] to the title.
Yeah, I know the "rules". Point is, everything at big think is a video. Funny how I had 21 karma points before I posted that comment, which got 4 down votes and another comment got 3 upvotes, but now I have 15 karma points. How does 21 - 4 + 3 = 15?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
From http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html : If you submit a link to a video or pdf, please warn us by appending [video] or [pdf] to the title.
Yeah, I know the "rules". Point is, everything at big think is a video. Funny how I had 21 karma points before I posted that comment, which got 4 down votes and another comment got 3 upvotes, but now I have 15 karma points. How does 21 - 4 + 3 = 15?
Here's a tip though - you can't cash it in for prizes, don't worry about it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
From http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html : If you submit a link to a video or pdf, please warn us by appending [video] or [pdf] to the title.
Yeah, I know the "rules". Point is, everything at big think is a video. Funny how I had 21 karma points before I posted that comment, which got 4 down votes and another comment got 3 upvotes, but now I have 15 karma points. How does 21 - 4 + 3 = 15?
The Appstore is full of crap because apple won't pre-approve things, so no one will risk doing "big" things as they're afraid of rejection. If you spend 200k of your company's money then Apple rejects you and refuses to publish your app, then you lose your job in most companies. I have this conversation with large large companies over and over.
You're right that fear of rejection deters bigger, riskier apps from being made, but that has nothing to do with the App Store being full of crap. Bigger, riskier apps that are not crap would make up a tiny percentage of apps in the store, and Sturgeon's Law would still apply.
I broadly agree with DHH, but the "warehouse of shit" argument is a bad one, and has been whenever anyone has tried to make it. The argument basically goes like this: - Apple restricts what languages can be used to increase the quality of apps in the App Store. - But the App Store is full of crap. - Therefore, the restriction does no good, and should be abandoned. The problem is that the conclusion doesn't follow fro…
To misuse DHH's statement: to use the word "fascist" when describing an app store is sign of being backed into a corner. Otherwise, you'd be more elaborate.
I've heard the Android store has even more crap and way less restrictions. If that is true, it certainly doesn't help DHH's argument that abandoning the restrictions will help quality.
The Appstore is full of crap because apple won't pre-approve things, so no one will risk doing "big" things as they're afraid of rejection. If you spend 200k of your company's money then Apple rejects you and refuses to publish your app, then you lose your job in most companies. I have this conversation with large large companies over and over.
Apple may be keeping some garbage out, but they're losing many good apps that probably would have been accepted, if the client had a hard and fast guidelines list to check against. They're also losing developer mindset. They are, in effect, FUDing their own developer base. It's a remarkable strategy, and I can't see how it's anything other than highly damaging.
I'm going through the App Review gauntlet now. My concerns at the end of the development, when doing the last checks against the few official things Apple will say regarding review (and against the web horror stories) were not "What would make a better app". They were:
- Will I get rejected for this icon? I think it's clear, but Apple might squint then claim it's too similar to their XYZ icon. I better change it to this other one, which is less good but at least entirely different
- As I fetch data from the Internet, and someone might post an offensive image before the moderators nuke it, I best set the Age Rating to 17+ (even though I've see an offensive image once in the system, and it lasted 5 minutes).
- I did say "Open in Safari" in my browser invoking popups, which my iPhone addicted users will find clearest. However, Apple randomly reject you for using their trademarks, so I better make it the less clear "Open in Browser"
and a dozen other quality reducing changes that are forced on me by the huge uncertainly about what's "allowed" and what will be understood by their team. In the three days it took me to change my "high quality" app (well, I think so :), I don't doubt the App Store admitted another 10 flashlights and 5 Fart apps.
I love the iPhone and iPad as a consumer. I like the technology as a developer (though I would prefer not to be 100% tied to Objective C). The "business" person and ethnical geek in me hates it with a passion. It's creating a horrible cognitive dissonance that I'm currently tempted to correct by going Android as soon as they have an a decent iPad clone.
I broadly agree with DHH, but the "warehouse of shit" argument is a bad one, and has been whenever anyone has tried to make it. The argument basically goes like this: - Apple restricts what languages can be used to increase the quality of apps in the App Store. - But the App Store is full of crap. - Therefore, the restriction does no good, and should be abandoned. The problem is that the conclusion doesn't follow fro…
- Apple claims that the language restriction is intended to increase the quality
of apps in the App Store.
- But the App Store is full of crap.
- Apple knows this but still repeats their quality defense.
- Therefore, Apple is being disingenuous and in fact has another motive for their
restrictions on developers.
The Appstore is full of crap because apple won't pre-approve things, so no one will risk doing "big" things as they're afraid of rejection. If you spend 200k of your company's money then Apple rejects you and refuses to publish your app, then you lose your job in most companies. I have this conversation with large large companies over and over.
Your point is very valid, and I would imagine that prevents really high-quality and groundbreaking applications to be built. However that would not explain why a majority of applications are sub-par quality. If I was a developer and wanted to make a lot of money, I would either go ahead and build a perfect, innovative app and market it well, or basically churn out app-after-app, which is cheap, redundant and has very…
In all seriousness, the experience of iOS developers who play by the rules, and even those who just push them a little bit, is Apple allows pretty much anything, even if it's low quality. There were some blunders at first, but they're pretty settled now. The last mis-step was the banning of 'widget apps' on the iPad (http://www.macworld.com/article/151680/2010/06/myframe_rejec...), and that was quickly reversed. (it's available on the App Store, go check)
Philosophically, the idea that I have to bend over for Apple's approval is a problem, but in practice all they're really doing nowadays is making sure you're app isn't crashy, and doesn't link heavily against private APIs – hell, most of the time they'll let you use private API. Even that isn't an issue to me, because their private API is private for a reason – it's not done yet, and is subject to further revision that could break compatibility in future OS revisions, so if you're using it you're essentially screwing your customer. Your customer isn't smart enough to know you're are a lazy idiot, they'll just assume it's Apple's problem – Apple sold them the device, and the app, and made the OS upgrade. If they can exercise their power in small ways like this so they don't end up wasting engineering cycles like Microsoft (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html), disassembling apps and writing special cases into the OS to fit apps that insist on breaking the contract of private API being private.
The quality issue is separate from the approval issue. The quality issue stems from the fact that everything appears on the same 'shelf', essentially. Apple can't censor what's appearing in the 'newly released' section in each category, but they can and do feature apps that are good top and center in the editorialized sections of the App Store. There's plenty of people doing great work, making great apps, and making amazing money. iTeleport (interviewed on 37signals here: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2421-bootstrapped-profitable-...), has cleared over $1 million selling VNC software which isn't even probably the most 'popular' on the store. OmniGroup sold over $1 million worth of OmniFocus for iPhone copies some time ago (I can't find a link), and must really like what they're seeing because they've spent the last 6 months working around the clock on apps for the iPad (OmniGraffle, OmniGraphSketcher, and OmniFocus). tap tap tap earned ~$150k on Convert in it's first month almost a year ago, and they have a wide portfolio of similar quality utility apps. I have no idea, but they're probably clearing at least $250k/month with the expansion in the number of iOS devices and their portfolio over the last year. For every 100 apps that some crapware developer is pushing out, there is 1 absolute gem available.
Another problem is, if you're not a talented developer, it's much easier to dump piece of crap after piece of crap on the store and just hope someone dumb enough to search for random stuff on the store and buys it. Personally, this isn't fulfilling to me, so after releasing 3 relatively simple apps in 6 months, about a year ago I started heavily investing my time in writing software that allows iOS devices to act as networked point of sale machines for restaurants. It's been a rough 9 months since I only have my income from the App Store and working as a waiter to go on, and my income from the App Store dropped off the map after I stopped investing time in working on my old apps. However, when I'm done with this, there's a possibility to make tons of money given the poor state and technology of the point of sale industry, and even if I don't make it, an app selling 2-3 copies a week for $20 a pop makes me a hell of a lot better off than trying to make money selling crapware at $0.99.