> The problem is fundamentally that doing a thorough review of every app is unreasonably expensive and as a consequence, that will not happen.
Well they do take a 30% cut. There's no way 500 reviewers cost more than a drop in that bucket.
Well they do take a 30% cut. There's no way 500 reviewers cost more than a drop in that bucket.
That it's 30% is also the problem. 30% is plenty to review a paid app in the top 1% of downloads, but >94% of iOS apps are free. Not least because Apple takes 30%, which puts a lot of paid developers out of business. But 30% of nothing pays for nothing.
They get a $100/year from every developer on top of cuts of all app revenue.
The issue isn't the lack of money, it's that Apple doesn't want to cut into their own margins with pesky things like quality control.
The first mobile app I ever installed in 2015 was for-pay. I believe it was actually $14.95. It was worth every penny, because I'd used that website every day for years already. I was extremely eager to get the mobile app. It was a serialized podcast of sorts, and so having the app meant that I would have offline access to the podcast at the times of day (multiple) when I needed to use it.
I've purchased probably 3 or 4 apps, average price $10. And I was always happy to pay for the ones where I did, especially a fitness app where I gained little functionality but was able to support an indie programmer who'd made a really great offline-capable app.
In a few cases, I downloaded some free games, which I made sure interoperated with iOS so that my friend could play competitively. These games were sleazy, nasty, ad-infested, and probably Mafia owned or something. I needed a shower every time I played those games because, gosh, the things we did to earn coins were unspeakable. I happily uninstalled those games and I've never gamed again on mobile.
The apps I haven't paid for come in a few categories: indispensable utilities (password manager), preloaded brand apps (Android/Google properties), and paid services (my bank, my transportation, etc.)
So I don't really dabble much in free apps at all, because "free" means "ad-supported" or "freemium" or "spammers" and I just have no truck with that. You get what you pay for, and my phone doesn't have the space to be given over to fly-by-nights.
Oh yes. Games is the category that got hit the hardest by the race to the bottom.