What will change with the new App Store?

September 10th, 2009

With the introduction of iTunes 9, Apple also presented a new version of the App Store.
A lot of people complained, for a long time, about the App Store structure, and how it was driving the developers to price their applications as low as possible in order to appear in the top 100 lists, which is the only way to be easily discovered in the store.

I’m uncertain whether or not this change will help solve that specific problem, but Apple added a new chart in the home page, “Top Grossing.” This chart shows pricey apps that did well and cheap apps that did extremely well. Aside from that, the number of apps featured in the App Store’s home page is still the same, and the application categories are relegated in a drop menu – a menu that I didn’t even realize was there until after 10 minutes. My guess is that with this change, the number of visits in the category pages will slightly decrease in favor of the Top 100s from the home page.
Another disparity is that only the apps in the home page top charts can take advantage of the sharing feature to post a link on Facebook and Twitter, while the others are still stuck with only the e-mail sharing feature.

On a positive note, Apple increased the top 100 for each category to top 200, giving visibility to a few more apps (and I’m glad to see that some of my apps may take advantage of that).

The “genius” feature on the iPhone version of the App Store is an interesting concept, but except for gaming, I don’t see a great use for it. It probably will take a while before it will collect enough data to be reliable (for me, it’s suggesting to use Grocery iQ based on Qik and Xbox Achievements based on DukeMobile). Also, it often offers you replacements for apps you already have; what’s the point of suggesting another to-do list? To help me find a better substitute for what I already have? And how are they going to pretend to do that, by offering me apps with a lower average rating than the app I already have?

Do you want the secret to be successful in the store now? Market outside the store, and if you happen to end up in the home page charts, you’ll bank even more than before.

What’s your opinion on the new App Store?

Tags: App Store, Apple, iPhone application, iTunes, Marketing

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 10:09 am and is filed under Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Davide Di Cillo