iOS 6 App Store is a disaster for developers • Hacker News Board

Re: iOS 6 App Store is a disaster for developers

#61

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 27, 2012, 5:03 PM UTC

dpcan wrote: post #54

kolinko wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also use iPhone 4, but I'm glad the changes are here. First - it's been years since the "new releases" view benefitted the developers. Currently, with the amount of new apps for iPhone, the devs get quickly buried on that list, and the launch benefit is minimal. As for the single card view... It's not perfect, because you need to do more scrolling, but on the other hand - you no longer have to decide which app to p…

"In the past you'd have to tap every single one of them - nobody did that." Sure they did. On their first search for a topic at least. And it wasn't painful. It was nice and quick. The thing about search is, we go back and search for the same thing many times, usually to find apps related to our areas of interest, and Apple seems to have completely neglected this notion. They seem to think that our search is ALWAYS t…

[deleted]

Re: iOS 6 App Store is a disaster for developers

#62

Post by dangero » Thu, Sep 27, 2012, 5:49 PM UTC

kolinko wrote: post #41

dangero wrote: post #16

The iOS 6 app store is less dynamic than other prior app store iterations. Example being I have an app listed as number 19 under a particular search. I've been checking that search every day and we are always 19 on the list. No change whatsoever even though our downloads have fluctuated in that time. Why are we 19? No idea. Before it meant we had less downloads than the people before us. Now I have no idea. It remind…

The previous system was easier to gamble. You put up a new app, pay for ads/bots/whatever, get a plenty of downloads and start showing up on the top for all the search queries (even if your app is crap), this in turn causes even more sales. Also, in the previous system you could've positioned for a term completely unrelated to your app (e.g. you have a weight tracker, and you position for celebrity phrases because th…

As a developer, I had a path to improve my ranking which was to find a way to increase my downloads. I agree, the keywords model is somewhat of a fail in general because people can pick unrelated words, but this new version is actually worse than that.

Re: iOS 6 App Store is a disaster for developers

#63

Post by Argorak » Thu, Sep 27, 2012, 7:35 PM UTC

EchoAbstract wrote: post #49

Argorak wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heres the problem with marketing: Say, I am a really big software company and release an app for my biggest video hosting platform anyone knows: "youtube". Everyone knows the exact name of the application, goes to the store, enters "youtube". And guess whats first? Not "Youtube", but "Video Downloader Super Lite". What use is good marketing if it is so hard to find things by _exact name_ on the store where you market…

I'm not sure if they changed anything, but Youtube has been the first search result for me since I upgraded my iPhone. It's not in the search results for the iPad since Google hasn't released Youtube for the iPad yet (or at least last time I searched). I wonder if there's saved state in the app store that's modifying the search results.

It could also depend on which app store you are in, I am not from the US.

Re: iOS 6 App Store is a disaster for developers

#64

Post by geuis » Thu, Sep 27, 2012, 9:43 PM UTC

Argorak wrote: post #29

geuis wrote: post #19

How has anyone ever sold a product before? You market it. The App Store isn't the sole place you should be marketing your app. If you have ever counted on just releasing your app into the store and have it somehow gain traction with no other effort, you've always been doomed to failure. The App Store should be treated like a supermarket, after a fashion. You may get your product on the shelf, but simply relying on pe…

Heres the problem with marketing: Say, I am a really big software company and release an app for my biggest video hosting platform anyone knows: "youtube". Everyone knows the exact name of the application, goes to the store, enters "youtube". And guess whats first? Not "Youtube", but "Video Downloader Super Lite". What use is good marketing if it is so hard to find things by _exact name_ on the store where you market…

That's a good point. That is a problem with the App Store that needs to be changed asap. Accurate search is a mandatory must-have.