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The Apple Reaper

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Re: The Apple Reaper

#51

Post by psychotik »

airlocksoftware wrote: post #44
psychotik wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Well, I am just glad that Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 store apps don't have this stupid restriction if you don't use their payment systems." The Android Developer TOS says that any other in-app payment system isn't legal, and grounds for your app being removed from the app store. I haven't studied it, but I suspect Microsoft's ToS will say something similar too. Edit: Android's DDA section 3.3 and 4.5 disal…

Do you have a link to or a quote of that section of the TOS? I just looked through it and couldn't find anything like that.

http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.h...

Sections 3.3 and 4.5

Re: The Apple Reaper

#52

Post by seunosewa »

spaghetti wrote: post #35

Honest question: why hasn't Apple fixed this fucking stupid review process? They have the resources to pay cheap reviewers who are probably better than this guy. I'm sure college kids with no job prospects would jump to "work at Apple" even if it's making $10/hour reviewing apps. Why not allow all apps into the store as long as they pass some security checks done by Apple (no downloading executables etc)? The current…

Apple's review process is unreasonably strict because it hurts them more to approve a bad app than to disapprove a good app. Apple takes responsibility for every user's iOS experience; people will blame them if an app ruins it.

Re: The Apple Reaper

#53

Post by spaghetti »

stevewilhelm wrote: post #46
spaghetti wrote: post #35

Honest question: why hasn't Apple fixed this fucking stupid review process? They have the resources to pay cheap reviewers who are probably better than this guy. I'm sure college kids with no job prospects would jump to "work at Apple" even if it's making $10/hour reviewing apps. Why not allow all apps into the store as long as they pass some security checks done by Apple (no downloading executables etc)? The current…

Because for Apple and it's customers the app review process is not broken. It's only frustrating for of app developers. Looking over the App store, if anything there is an over abundance of app developers.

I agree there's an over abundance of app developers. I wonder if the costs to Apple in terms of hosting all the free apps, paying reviewers, dealing with refunds and dealing with rejection appeals just isn't worth it?

However in a way the review process is broken for customers. Say I have a free app with 100 reviews and a 5-star average. The app has been downloaded on average 90 times per day for a year and the monthly average has been slowly growing (except for the initial release spike). Also the analytics show retention and daily usage going up. IMO it's safe to say that users like this app. Therefore users suffer when an update to the app is rejected or the app is pulled for superfluous reasons.

Re: The Apple Reaper

#54

Post by larrik »

My guide app was recently rejected for being "simply a book." Seriously. There's actually a "Books" section of the App Store (it's the first one, no less!).

My only recourse? Publish it on iBooks, which requires an ISBN. Also, I've never met anyone who's ever even opened the iBooks store.

Re: The Apple Reaper

#55

Post by dlokshin »

Wait, so if I build something on Android and iPhone, I don't have to use Apple's in app purchase? I can use Stripe directly? Am I understanding this correctly?

Re: The Apple Reaper

#56

Post by ghshephard »

spaghetti wrote: post #35

Honest question: why hasn't Apple fixed this fucking stupid review process? They have the resources to pay cheap reviewers who are probably better than this guy. I'm sure college kids with no job prospects would jump to "work at Apple" even if it's making $10/hour reviewing apps. Why not allow all apps into the store as long as they pass some security checks done by Apple (no downloading executables etc)? The current…

Easy answer, spaghetti; Apple didn't build their review process for developers first, they built it for their users and Apple Inc (not necessarily in that order).

As a developer, I want free and easy access to the App store to upload my apps.

As a user, I want a selection of the safest, highest quality, predictable and elegantly design applications.

Apple Inc, as a for profitable organization, wants to ensure that they maintain control over the various revenue lines (and ensuing profit).

It's the only rational profit-maximizing-response for an organization that has their market dominance.

Re: The Apple Reaper

#57

Post by w1ntermute »

cooldeal wrote: post #33

Well, I am just glad that Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 store apps don't have this stupid restriction if you don't use their payment systems. Walled garden and 30% forced cut of app sales is one thing, but a forced 30% cut of every in-app sale is like erecting a toll booth on all apps. Gruber's explanation of "Apple does it because it can, and the people complaining are just jealous that Apple can and they can…

> Gruber's explanation of "Apple does it because it can, and the people complaining are just jealous that Apple can and they cannot" doesn't really fly.

Well, Gruber's job is to come up with rebuttals to any criticisms of Apple, no matter how lame they may be. Otherwise, he wouldn't continue to get fed insider information from his Apple sources.

Re: The Apple Reaper

#58

Post by spaghetti »

seunosewa wrote: post #52
spaghetti wrote: post #35

Honest question: why hasn't Apple fixed this fucking stupid review process? They have the resources to pay cheap reviewers who are probably better than this guy. I'm sure college kids with no job prospects would jump to "work at Apple" even if it's making $10/hour reviewing apps. Why not allow all apps into the store as long as they pass some security checks done by Apple (no downloading executables etc)? The current…

Apple's review process is unreasonably strict because it hurts them more to approve a bad app than to disapprove a good app. Apple takes responsibility for every user's iOS experience; people will blame them if an app ruins it.

I'm not sure if approving a bad app hurts Apple. If the app is truly awful customers can get a refund. Also the app store has some sort of collaborative filtering in place. Namely apps that are highly rated and/or downloaded a lot and/or some other reasons bubble up to the top. So apps that stink will just float to the bottom.

Is Google hurt when a bad webpage makes it into the search index? Not really. In general it just floats to the bottom.

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