I had a discussion with my team about this. In the last couple weeks they featured Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, and Fruit Ninja on their New and Noteworthy section. As many of you know these apps have sold millions of copies and just about every app store customer already knows about them. If they don't, well, just tap on the Top 25 Paid apps tab and there they are. Exposure for the aforementioned titles is not something they lack; however, for many other well designed apps, exposure is practically non-existent.
Possible they are in the top 25 because they whete featured? Hehe just kidding. Featuring is not only about featuring its also about earning money for apple. I know that fruit ninja got an bigger update and that may have triggered the feature. At the end even apples highlight section is a very crowded place with multiple subcategories etc. So what gives if there is some popular game in the spotlight. Apple even features crap games like a tic tac toe game or a simon clone so what? Its like the lotterie even a rich guy can win and if the promoted the halloween edition of angry birds the money is going to rovio directly so more power to them!
Apple likes to promote what makes them the most. I guess that week they didn't see anything all that appealing
The massive sales figures of the top games brings great exposure to Apple and the App Store. They would be mad not to help push up those numbers.
I always assumed that the feature spots were a way for Apple to "stir things up" and help newer apps that might otherwise be overlooked overcome the momentum that comes from objective rankings in the top lists. So I find this puzzling. The top 25 games already have massive visibility. What possible motivation is there for Apple to advertise these same apps under New and Noteworthy? Will this really drive more sales of those apps? I can't imagine that it will give them much more visibility than they already have. Maybe it's just an experiment on their part. Apple's done a lot of odd things with their feature spots in the past.
New people are coming to the iOS family all the time. Many of these titles have little recognition outside the App Store. Apple are helping to make sure they make some good purchases early on, so that they become repeat customers. They are noteworthy, hence their inclusion. This and my last post were looking at it from Apple's point of view. As an indie developer I wish they would give more slots to interesting but overlooked titles. There are good games falling by the wayside because of too little exposure, not because of lack of quality. But we all know that here.
earning your stripes All the games you see on the top slots , where once just dreamers like you and me . But over time and a little luck , they made it to the top. Once you make it there , Apple rewards you by promoting your brand. Its hard for the little guys like us to accept , but its the truth.
Frustrating ain't it? Apple will also promote apps that use their systems like iAds, In-App, and Gamecenter. So we can play along or go without their help Fruit Ninja does a good job using Gamecenter and ..there's no point talking about Angry Birds or Cut the rope. It seems to me that Android is padding their store with any apps they can get to get their numbers up as well. Different issue but same line of thought. They're businesses!
I can understand why Apple would want to keep promoting the popular titles in certain features. But putting games that aren't new in the New and Noteworthy section seems a little wrong.
Note the "and Noteworthy" in the section name. The word '"and" doesn't always mean "&&", for example "ladies and gentlemen". But it would be nice if there was a section exclusively for new apps.
Both those games got an "update" as in new skin or something similar. Also consider the fact that apple takes their cut. Would you not also bet on the safe horse for guaranteed money, or would you focus on the uncertain apps? But indeed as moonjump wrote: its also about exposure. I can also imagine that they want high sales numbers (any way possible) in order to look good compared to the traditional dedicated handhels etc.
Or it would also be nice if there is a section for random selection base on review, rating or staff pick or whatever the criteria.
There are staff picks.. Game of the week app of the week etc.. There is actualy so much promotion going on from apple that it is so much that one might think it would be less effective than in the old days
Sure, I agree, that's why I said that I can see why Apple continues to promote popular titles. The new and noteworthy could be taken either way; just for things that are both new *and* noteworthy, or either. It's ambiguous. I only mentioned it as up until these recent best sellers re-appearing there, I've never seen a game that wasn't new in this section. Or more specifically, a game that had done it's time in this section, moved on, then returned again. Maybe I just didn't notice some though. Of course though, Apple can do whatever they like with their features. If it's not exclusively for new games anymore (or if it never was), so be it. I agree though it would be nice to keep a section exclusively for the best new titles.
I noticed older titles in there a long time ago (time in App Store terms, it is easy to forget how new it still is).
Probably there's a category for Featured Indie App to help us out. It's not that easy competing against mobile development company with millions on their budget.
Might not quite be easy, but it's possible: Since friday "Penguin X Run" gets featured in ~166 Appstores on the iTunes FrontPage. Lite version gets featured too in about 80 Stores. This came totally out of the blue for our Team ( I'm the coder of the game). The game itself was available since 20. October already, but Lite version just got released a few days ago. So maybe Apple decided there's is a small chance to earn some share money with the game and the Lite triggered the decision to really push it... Nevertheless i'm really proud and happy about that expose, even if i do not see a dollar from it ( this was contract work). If things go well there will be updates, additional features and hence more contractwork for me to do and thats totally positive If you guys are interested to test the Lite version or buy full, here are the links... Lite Version http://itunes.apple.com/app/id=401118084 Full Version ( $1.99 / 1.59 ) http://itunes.apple.com/app/id=397760189
