App Store visibility

[LinQsta]

And so...a whole week later, Little Licence finally appears among new apps in the entertainment section! It used to be same day, but things really have changed for the worst.

[DistantJ]

The visibility pretty much sucks for new apps these days, but there's so much crap submitted that it'd look bad for Apple if they just showed everything new. We gotta get our downloads elsewhere now, and get enough to get featured in the new sections.

Windows 8 currently gives developers the advantage of having all of the newest games show up under New Releases, I've been tempted to start some Win8 ports to take advantage of that.

[outqube]

I agree the current layout is not as great as before, just makes it harder for indie dev's to get noticed.

[BulletDev]

I agree, the new iOS 6 App Store interface is a bit maddening.

what would make the listings really awesome though? Even in the previous search interfaces, it's rather static.

[Reza]

I agree. There is so much crap submitted that I wouldn't even want my game listed along side them. I can imagine how apples feels having them displayed on their store.

I wish it was harder to get into the developers program. Have some sort of test/exam on iOS Human Interface Guidelines or if your apps don't live up to a certain standard, you're out. I feel like the trash in the App Store has conditioned many users not to even bother with apps/games anymore.

[igalic]

I agree, but you can't make everyone happy. Apple has been flamed a lot for not being 'open' enough already. Users would have probably benefitted if there was more strict quality control (a la consoles) in that they could be more confident when buying something; on the other hand that would have kept the prices much higher, which is not for their benefit.

From developers' perspective, more strict rules would mean higher prices, less competition and much more visibility which is good, on the other hand such testing would almost certainly mean they'd need to charge for it, and so most indie developers wouldn't be able to even get on the platform (again, take a look at consoles). Moreover, for small developers it would be even riskier to try develop something for the platform, because you wouldn't know if you'd be allowed to sell it or not in the end.

From Apple's side, they probably wish they could control the store more; I'm sure they feel all these crappy apps are tainting the experience they so carefully crafted. But then again, if it weren't for small developers Apple wouldn't have the ecosystem it has today and would by now probably be completely marginalized by other handset manufacturers and platforms.

I know I'm playing the devil's advocate here, but having been with the platform since the beginning I see these complaints and there's just no way to fix everything. The 'new releases' list has been one of the most hated features since the beginning, with everyone complaining how you get buried, lost, etc. And now that it's gone, everyone's complaining they can't do without it.

As the platform matures, it's going to be more and more friendly to the big guys with big budgets (and let's face it - higher quality and production values) and more and more difficult for small guys. That's the way things work, and indies will always need to move from one channel to another by definition.

[Devcade]

What's the point of creating apps anymore if people can't find them?
Can't find it -> no downloads -> no sales.

[igalic]

If you can't find another way to get visibility, there isn't. But it's not like the 'new releases' list was ever the only way to get visibility. This is now more like the web actually - how do you get your website found? There's certainly no new websites list anywhere.
Granted, Apple's store search isn't nearly as good as Google and people don't (yet) behave in the same way on the AppStore as when searching the web, but I guess that's where they're heading with this.

[magmedia]

LinQsta, it is definitely frustrating with the new App Store redesign but more competition means we need to get more ingenious as indie developers trying to compete with the big boys. One thing that is clear is that in the new App Store, App Store Optimization (App Store SEO) is going to become more and more important. This is because it’s now relatively easier to access the search functions due to the search button being more in place. Also, Apple bought out Chomp recently and they’re refining their algorithms.

One way to try and stick out would be App Store Optimization. This is great for optimizing apps in the Productivity category but you can also optimize apps which are entertainment apps and games to a lesser extent.

Another option is to look for other avenues such as cross promotion between app developers in order to drive traffic. There’s a new service called Tap for Tap that does that or you can just reach out individually to drive traffic. MarkJ of Markj.net has an excellent case study on his site showcasing how he used cross promotion to drive massive traffic and to rank in the charts. Here's a link to his case study.

http://www.markj.net/launching-hit-t...to-the-charts/


David