Three easy ways to fix the App Store. And one really, really hard way.

"And there's no way to kill review and retain that trust."

I don't think most users trust the app store because they know every app has been vetted. I think they trust it mainly because we haven't seen large number of users getting burned - and not because Apple is vetting each app but rather because it is in the developer's interest not to burn their customers.

I find it interesting that we keep acting like Apple somehow invented the App Store. These are issues we've been dealing with for a LONG time, in a variety of different ways. Handango, for instance, has been functioning as an on-device app store for getting close to a decade.

It's interesting, then, to look at their product and see how they never really solved these issues particularly well either.

The BIGGEST issue for Apple isn't really touched on in the article. It's about proper discoverability. The problem with app-stores in general is that they have a lot of trouble allowing the best apps to filter to the top. The more apps that clutter the store, the more difficult it becomes to differentiate between them. If there is a password manager that everyone universally loves, then how do you grant exposure to a new password manager that may be better, but doesn't have the user recommendations (yet) to match it.

It's that problem that plagues these stores. Handango (and others) tried a number of approaches. The "what's new category" isn't enough really. The exposure length is to short. Staff picks are nice, but that becomes an exercise in political maneuvering as opposed to app quality.

It's this issue that really mandates a review process. The review process at least serves as a rudimentary filter that keeps the REALLY bad apps from competeing for mindshare with the quality new ones (thus increasing exposure, even if it is for an already to brief period).

Ultimately the app store lives and dies with it's ability to put the best applications for a purpose into the hands of customers looking to solve problems. Apple is starting to deal with the problems of scale, and that is where it should be focused.

-----------------------

Oh, and for the love of god give me some ability to get a refund for an app. Read reviews and count the number of times folks have essentially gotten ripped off by a product that barely functions (or sometimes doesn't function at all). Eventually we all are no longer enamored with the novelty of iPhone applications and we want some accountability behind our purchases.

I'm very wary with paid apps at this point for that reason alone.

The problem is that they are going way beyond just protecting users from the "malicious or malformed" to dictating what content their users are allowed to access. Since when does a rejection for "limited user functionality" protect anyone from malice? How about a dictionary with the word fuck? And they are doing it in an inconsistent manner.

You don't need to be root to rm -rf ~/