Apple: The App Store is not for discovery | Hacker News Reader

Apple: The App Store is not for discovery

robbieallen.com

11 pointsRobbieStats5 comments

Well, yes. You still have to market your app. Apple won't do that for you. They do give you some keywords that you can use to help searches, though.

And I can't begin to describe how much I loathe seeing page upon page of apps that are largely made from the same boilerplate. Its a waste of space and largely gets in the way of finding something useful.

Very true. His complaints on how the functionally infinite artboard space of a computer fixes the problem of “clutter” is sheer madness.

That’s not to say that Apple’s completely justified in this case. Even though the different apps are pulling data from the same source, there’s enough functional difference to the fans of a team that the clutter would be justified.

On the other hand, Apple is correct in that this is why in-app purchases exist.

> I can't begin to describe how much I loathe seeing page upon page of apps

Did you miss Steve's memo : teh app store is not for discovery. You should only ever see ONE app, the ONE you already knew about and came to download.

/sarcasm

Of course we still have to market our apps, but you completely failed to see my point. But that's ok.

Waste of what space?? It's not like more apps take up a scarce resource. They need a better search interface (or you need better searching skills) if you see a bunch of results that aren't relevant.

Imagine if Google took this approach?

Only so many apps are shown per page. You want 345 apps in the App Store. Thats a good 300+ other companies/people right there that are affected by this[1][2]. You seem to have forgotten that people can (and do) view apps by release date.

Are you saying that your business is more important and has the right to demand as much space as it wants, to the detriment of others? Every time you want to submit an update or fix a bug?

1. Assuming some people have multiple, unique apps in the category.

2. Ignoring all the folks who are looking for something other than your app.

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