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Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

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Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#41

Post by ehnto »

bb88 wrote: post #24
sandworm101 wrote: post #13

I guess the free market has spoken and what is wants is no more free markets. Apple is shooting itself in the foot with this. More choice in products is always better than less.

I disagree. What's worse than trying to pick between 10 different apps that do the exact same thing? Trying to pick between 11 different apps.

I have to assume you just haven't thought very hard about this problem yet, as that is a very trivial reason to give up on a free market. I would also like to point out that the ecosystem that gets you ten apps doing the same thing is the reason you get any apps at all. If people thought they were competing for one or two slots in a rigged marketplace then the incentives to participate go way down, they would take their skills elsewhere.

The music industry might be a good parallel. The record labels thought they were the gatekeepers, but the majority of the music industry is happening outside big record labels now. If you want the big corporate to choose what you listen to, you get boring manufactured trite. If you want innovation, competence and craftsmanship, look anywhere else.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#42

Post by i_like_apis »

sandworm101 wrote: post #30
bb88 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. What's worse than trying to pick between 10 different apps that do the exact same thing? Trying to pick between 11 different apps.

I face the same problem every time I buy mustard at the supermarket. Dozens of flavors to choose from and only so much money. The tyranny of choice is a small price to pay.

But the supermarket is a walled garden too. They choose what to put on the shelf based on quality and shelf space.

Buying mustard on Amazon is closer to the issue, or products where many imitators compete like meal prep Tupperware or water bottles.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#44

Post by yarcob »

I published an app on the App Store, which did quite well in its niche. Soon, a bunch of very similar apps popped up. One app cloned everything about my app -- even the icon.

But Apple didn't care. They don't give a shit when people clone apps and try to mislead customers by making apps that have almost the same name as another app.

Apple should focus on getting rid of scam apps and blatant rip-offs.

Who cares if there are 100s of horoscope apps on the store? It's not like shelf space is limited. As long as an app doesn't harm or mislead customers, I don't see why Apple should reject it.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#45

Post by swiley »

bb88 wrote: post #24
sandworm101 wrote: post #13

I guess the free market has spoken and what is wants is no more free markets. Apple is shooting itself in the foot with this. More choice in products is always better than less.

I disagree. What's worse than trying to pick between 10 different apps that do the exact same thing? Trying to pick between 11 different apps.

If you don't like too many choices then just stop looking. Why does everyone else on the platform have to suffer for you?

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#46

Post by unraveller »

herpderperator wrote: post #23

> Also avoid piling on to a category that is already saturated; the App Store has enough fart, burp, flashlight, fortune telling, dating, drinking games, and Kama Sutra apps, etc. already. I had to double-take to see if this was really a statement from Apple... It was.

And apple calls itself an innovative company. They say no more lightbulb apps forgetting it took Edison 5000 filaments to find the best one.

Naturally if you trust one dev for one job, and not to ruin the app, you will likely trust them for another, category saturation be damned. I don't see much benefit for users when the manufacturer dictates what developers are not to build for users based on some archaic first in best dressed system from 2008.

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#48

Post by dehrmann »

DantesKite wrote: post #39
rgoulter wrote: post #9

The developer has some screenshots on Twitter https://twitter.com/nightcatprod/status/1439773812753637378 Seems like it's got humorous horoscopes. Given that the screenshots are all of just text on a screen, and the development took about a year, I wonder if the rejection is more about the app being 'low quality' rather than about it being just another horoscope app. Regardless, it seems weird to reject an app becaus…

Getting into the App Store requires a bit of politics and negotiation. Nearly everybody I know gets rejected the first time, unless you have a clearly high quality app. I got mine accepted by submitting screenshots of people saying they were excited about it.

8+ years ago, I made an etch-a-sketch clone and had no problem getting it approved. Not sure if things were easier back then or the app was reasonable enough to approve.

https://vimeo.com/81687638

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#49

Post by wintermutestwin »

FireFox has "recommended" extensions that meet their "standards for security and performance." Looking through the current "crapstore" for quality is a huge PITA. Apple could easily make their walled garden actually good by grading the apps in their store.

(and yeah yeah - I should be able to sideload whatever I want, but this is a slightly different topic here)

Re: Apple rejects developer's horoscope app, says App Store has enough

#50

Post by dehrmann »

makeitdouble wrote: post #31
bb88 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. What's worse than trying to pick between 10 different apps that do the exact same thing? Trying to pick between 11 different apps.

The fun begins when 9 of these apps are left to rot and the remaining one moves to a subscription model. There’s a ton of single use, very simple apps that only have super crappy alternatives left because Apple didn’t want to bother improving the Store app ratings and search functionalities. All the more after Apple in its infinite wisdom started banning apps that were “too simple” (like one single screen). There’s a…

> The fun begins when 9 of these apps are left to rot and the remaining one moves to a subscription model.

Sounds like a solid business model if you control all 10 apps.

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