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AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

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Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#71

Post by dsfasfasf »

niklas_a wrote: post #26

Regardless of if you are in the "It's Apple's store, they can do what they want" camp or the "Apple should not be allowed to have this level of control" camp I think we can all agree that it's not good when one single entity holds this amount of power over arguably one the world's most important computing platforms. Essentially, Apple can block any app they want for any reason they want. Even if you play by their rul…

Android exists. Samsung is on Apple's heels. Now that Steve is gone I'm seriously considering how long will Apple be able to keep it up so I would not worry too much. Tim Cook is just another business guy, no comparison to Steve Jobs the artist, visionary, distortion field inventor, (and yes an ass*hole too but that is OK because he gave us the iPhone,iPad,Mackbook,iPod). I don't envy Tim Cook, he took over Apple at its peek and without a strong vision he will probably rule over its decline (I hope I'm wrong).

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#72

Post by [deleted] »

credo wrote: post #16

Detailed post, but it doesn't seem to address two things. 1. The WSJ report noted that Apple was concerned that " AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure." Simon hasn't addressed this point. Do they make paid recommendations ? If they do make app-recommendations based on payments, it makes a lot of sense for Apple to ban them. As an iOS (an…

[deleted]

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#73

Post by lh7777 »

taude wrote: post #62
mmuro wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's only $2.99.

Throwing money away after crap apps sucks after awhile, especially when you try a few. My iPad is a graveyard of apps that I don't use anymore.

It also discourages developers from making high-quality apps. If I have to buy 5 different apps for $3 to find the one I like best, I've just given $12 to the developers of apps I'm never going to use again and the best app developer still only gets $3. So where's the incentive for anyone to improve the quality of their apps if they all get paid? This doesn't hold true in cases where there's one clear leader in a category, but I've definitely seen it in more specialized categories or ones with multiple popular titles.

I'd much rather get a free 1-day trial on each of those 5 apps and pay my whole $15 for the one I like best. The problem with this is that it'd kill all the mediocre to lousy app developers, but I just see that as a problem for those developers. It's a win for Apple and consumers, right?

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#74

Post by gavinlynch »

od2m wrote: post #50
kevingibbon wrote: post #38

I hate the idea of AppGratis and I'm glad its been removed. Who really benefits? The cheap user who will not normally pay for a high quality app? The app developer who spends $$ to get featured in AppGratis to then artificially climb the app store ranking? Dls are one of the worst vanity metrics out there. Devs should focus on building high quality products, monetize, then acquire quality users in a sustainable manne…

The problem is low quality software and no trials. I can't tell you how many times I've seen an app, paid $2.99 for it and then found out it was garbage.

"I can't tell you how many times I've seen an app, paid $2.99 for it and then found out it was garbage."

No offense, but if you can't take the time to Google around for reviews and screenshots of an App to filter out the garbage, you deserve what you get. Blind purchases are always going to be a gamble, and I don't get how you don't get that.

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#75

Post by niklas_a »

rimantas wrote: post #70
niklas_a wrote: post #26

Regardless of if you are in the "It's Apple's store, they can do what they want" camp or the "Apple should not be allowed to have this level of control" camp I think we can all agree that it's not good when one single entity holds this amount of power over arguably one the world's most important computing platforms. Essentially, Apple can block any app they want for any reason they want. Even if you play by their rul…

Go and innovate on Android, what's the problem. Or make your own platform and innovate there. Or use HTML5. What makes me sad is constant whining about stuff like this.

Well the problem is, as I mentioned in my comment that the owner of the world's biggest computing platform can shut down a 45 person company without even giving a hint of warning or telling them what needs to be changed. I think even you can agree that's not a good thing for us developers, no?

Also, if I build an Android only app I limit my audience. It's like saying I should create a website only for Firefox in 2005 when IE was dominating.

But to your point, I as a developer will absolutely shy away from the iOS platform after reading this and I hope others will until they change their policies.

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#76

Post by EGreg »

Although I do agree that this is nerve wracking, I think the situation will resolve itself.

The one question I have is ... why did they use push notifications to send a daily message, when they could have just scheduled them locally? Clearly Apple notices anomalous traffic for non-transactional notifications, such as one that's sent once a day to everyone, and that's probably what alerted some unrelated guys in the app store. I imagine the guy wanted to follow up and then, unable to reach the CEO, pulled the app.

I would say the company with so many employees should probably have other people to pick up the slack for the CEO when he is on a plane.

Of course, what do I know. We have a completely different structure, and are distributed around the world.

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#77

Post by tesmar2 »

brodney wrote: post #67
mdmarra wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is a violation of the OS X EULA. install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control that is already running the Apple Software, for purposes of: (a) software development; (b) testing during software development; (c) using OS X Server; or (d) personal, non-commercial use. http://www.apple.com…

The way that reads it seems valid to create a virtual instance of osx for development.

As long as you are already on Apple hardware running Apple software

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#78

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

gojomo wrote: post #31
credo wrote: post #16

Detailed post, but it doesn't seem to address two things. 1. The WSJ report noted that Apple was concerned that " AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure." Simon hasn't addressed this point. Do they make paid recommendations ? If they do make app-recommendations based on payments, it makes a lot of sense for Apple to ban them. As an iOS (an…

Re (1): Well-disclosed paid-promotion should be fine: Apple does it (iAds), Google does it (AdWords). If that's the issue it should be fixable. Re (2) If a notification that "today's [no-additional-cost] deal has arrived!" counts as "advertising, promotion, or direct marketing", then it seems every other push that aims to improve app usage, by announcing new content or features, would also be verboten. Is that what A…

That sounds exactly like direct advertising, promotion or direct marketing. Mentioning you have a new feature isn't any of those things. Advertising a daily offer? That's definitely one or all of them,

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#79

Post by k3n »

rimantas wrote: post #69
pi18n wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been recommending Android for a while, and here is another concrete reason why. Every time one of these stories appears I write the following: I develop for iPhone and I used to love OS X. The iPhone in entirety and OS X lately are aimed directly at people who don't know how to use computers even if it comes at the expense of those who do. Everyone do yourself a favor and switch to Linux on your computing platfo…

> are aimed directly at people who don't know how to use > computers What does it even mean? iPhone and OS X are aimed at people who want to use their computers, instead of getting CS degree. I've heard that majority of cars in US are with automatic transmissions and few people know how to drive "stick". Are there voices suggesting that auto manufacturers are aiming their products at people who don't know how to driv…

For the most part, yes, though it depends on your definition of "drive".

If you base your definition of "drive" as "being able to do the most basic of tasks", then sure, most everyone can drive a car. However, if you're an auto enthusiast, then to you being able to "drive" takes on a whole new definition; can you J-turn? How about drift? Can you jumpstart a car with a dead battery by push-starting? Can you correct your trajectory after losing control? To the hardcore drivers, these are the types of skills that will prove whether or not you can really "drive".

Re: AppGratis pulled from the App Store. Here’s the full story

#80

Post by ableal »

kevingibbon wrote: post #48
espadagroup wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pay for exposure already exists within the app store. Large companies pay around $10-$20K a day depending on the category on crap ad networks (won't name them) that incentivize the users to download the companies app in order to "get to the next level" or something like that. The downloads are incredibly cheap and you get thousands and thousands of them. The app store ranking is almost entirely based on download velo…

Lets say you need 20k DLs to get top 5 in a notable category. Lets say you get another 20k of real DLs from the app store ranking. Incentivised DLs are $0.35 each, but they are Dls and not real users. So $7k for 20k DLs. You usually want a LTV of 3:1. So your LTV would need to be $2.10 per user. These users are way worse than acquiring them from other channels because they only briefly see your logo and a brief descr…

> You usually want a LTV of 3:1. So your LTV would need to be [...]

Lifetime value of a customer ? ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifetime_value )

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