Anyone else notice that the free reviews are a lot worse than the paid ones? I'm not really sure what to do with this. With my paid app ($1), I have a single 1-star rating. The rest are 4's or 5's. With the free version, I have like 7 1-star reviews. It's almost at the point where I feel like it's hurting more than it's helping. The fact that I can't respond to the reviews also really sucks. The one guy said that the app crashed, but I don't see any crash logs so I can't follow up.
yes it is the way it is Yes seen it with two different applications make it free and you get smoked with 1 star reviews. I have implemented a rather simple policy to fix that issue, I will not release a application for free any longer. Free and no sales is exactly the same out come zero dollars.
yep, that is right. People are expecting too much for free. They should just be pleased that they have an iPhone/iPod Touch and have an app store full of cheap under-priced quality games. And what really gets on my tits is when people give lite versions bad reviews purely due to the lack of content. Well what else do they expect? A lite version is a free demo with limited content, so why do they moan that there isn't enough gameplay in there? When I review a game, I review it purely on the gameplay and quality of the game, not the content (if it is free).
LGB - totally agree. But in fact, lite versions is not good to make now if you are a developer.. imho.
I really just wish there was some way to follow up. The review makes my app look like crap when I feel that it's a pretty decent app. It's no million dollar app, but that's why I only charge $1 for it. This is my first free/lite release. I'll continue to do it in the future since I like getting my name out there. I just wish that people would be reasonable about things.
It's a sad phenomenon, really. It's because people will download something for free (most of the time, simply because it's free -- not because they want to actually test the product), play it for 10 seconds, decide it "sucks", delete it off their devices, and when prompted, give a 1-star rating. Because happy customers aren't as likely to delete the games (at least not right away), they do not get prompted to rate them. Instead, they have to go, of their own will, to the App Store to write a review. And even as happy as I am about some games, I haven't bothered to go and write reviews. I download lots of games. I don't always think to review every single one of them. It's such a pain in the ass to see good games go on sale for "free" and watch their average rating plummet. A while back, I saw someone post on here that he downloaded a free utility app (a leveler or something), but he didn't have a use for it, so he rated it 1 star. Like, WTF. Sorry, developers, but these are the types of people you are dealing with here. ETA: Ugh, and this! What about the reviews for LITE versions that are like, "Good, but needs more levels". UUUGGHH. Retarded.
Yeah but that's because people delete apps so quickly when they are free and apple kindly prompts a user-review pop-up rating system which everyone who is deleting the app in the first place didn't like it So it's doomed for 1-star reviews. Check out this picture from the number one free app in the store a little while ago: View attachment 4314 That's crazy....and it's ALL because of apple's dumb rating system when people delete apps
They really just need to get rid of this "feature". Let people who dislike apps go to the App Store and write a review as to WHY they dislike them. Believe me, when people have something to complain about, they'll find a way. But at least, you'll have A LOT LESS undeserved 1-star reviews added into the average.
You can check some previous #1 free apps here with their ratings http://appshopper.com/bestsellers/free Urinal Test and What is your sex appeal were #1 free apps , a better example are games like TTR.. it has 28 thousand 1 star ratings. Hopefully apple will change its rating system someday.
Simple solutions: #1 don't do Lites. Lite versions doesn't automatically mean that you will sell more, even the contrary in some cases. #2 charge more for your product (if it's worth more than $1, that is). Then "everyone" will not buy it anymore, but only the ones that actually want it in the first place. More satisfied customers, better rating, and more money for you too.
It does depend on the app and the price point to a large extent. If you rise the price too much and don't have a lite version available then people will be less inclined to buy the app and you won't get any reviews. Solves the review problem sure but has an obvious down side! If you don't have an established reputation or a lot of positive talk about your app then people would rather try before they buy at a higher price point, this is a good example of when you need a lite version. Anders is absolutely right on his second point; it is a well documented fact that selling your app at a low price/free will have every man and his dog buying it without even looking at what it is they're buying. Subsequently they'll give bad reviews when they learn that 'iBarbieFashionShow' is not a zombie shooter.
I would buy it in an instant! Back to topic, I really feel it is Apple's fault because the way the top #100 lists work (why on earth would an app rated 2 stars be on a top list?), and accordingly I hope they will fix it. (and I like Sheepish a lot by the way, bought the full version directly)
Certainly it is odd that a lowly rated app should be a bestseller. How have they duped so many people into buying it if it's not actually any good? It just goes to show how appealing a low price (or no price) is to the consumer. The question is, if you were Apple how would you implement the lists? Thank you muchly for your vote of confidence, it is greatly appreciated
Well, they could for instance take install time into account, base it on revenue instead of nbr of sales and also rating should be taken into account. Stuff like that.
This is how I feel about bestseller book lists too. There are so many books out there, sometimes the easiest way to find something new to read is to just look at the "New York Times Bestseller List". But if you buy a book and absolutely hate it, the NYT Bestseller List has no way of knowing that. They simply record your purchase and that's that. It's the same thing in the App Store, and especially on the free list, where there is literally zero risk involved in trying something that lots of other people are trying. One of my early gripes with the App Store is that you can only sort by "Release Date", "Most Popular", or "Name". WTF? I guess there is some value in seeing what is "most popular", but there really should be an option to sort by "Average Rating" - like Amazon. I know that this would come with it's own drawbacks, but having it available as an option would be much more useful than not.
Revenue is not a bad way to do it actually. The problem with install time is that some games just don't take that long to finish but that doesn't make them bad games, especially if they were only 99c to begin with. Similarly with rating, those apps that should be priced low will get some number of bad ratings that they don't necessarily deserve. You can see that there is no simple answer for Apple in this respect. But the more I think about your suggestion to use revenue the more I am sold (excuse pun) on the idea since this would also go some way to encouraging a higher price point. And I'm not being a greedy developer here, we all know that there are thousands of apps out there worth more than 99c.