Apple changes the way it handles AppStore updates, freaks out developers

Yesterday, a few of my updates to my existing applications were approved by Apple. I was excited to see the approval and made some changes to the date in iTunes Connect so that they show up in iTunes under their respective categories. To my surprise, they didn’t show up in iTunes. I gave it a day to see if it helps. Nope. Apple changed the way it handle updates and this is BIG blow to the iPhone developers.

Changed Behavior for Application Updates:

Previously when a developer updates an application, the updated app used to show up in the main category page in iTunes. This meant better visibility to the updated application which resulted in good spike in sales whenever an update is rolled out. These spikes in sales during the updates was the key motivation for developers to keep pushing out updates and to keep improving the apps.

With this new ‘upgrade’, newly updated applications don’t show up in iTunes category page. This means, when a developer updates an application, the update will be pushed directly to existing users and that’s pretty much it. There is no way for new users to know about those newly added features/improvements. Apple killed the key motivation for developers to improve apps, which I think is a BIG mistake.

When developers don’t have any motivation to improve existing apps, the quality of existing apps will suffer. Also, because new apps get good real-estate in AppStore, developers will focus on creating new apps rather than improving existing ones.

But, seriously, do we need more apps in AppStore? It currently has over 100K apps. Isn’t it time to focus on quality, rather than quantity? I talked about this earlier. Unfortunately, with this new move, AppStore will officially turn into a CrapStore very soon.

Developers Feedback?

As you can expect, iPhone developers are pissed. There are many threads in iPhone Dev Forums expressing concern on this new move. Here are few comments from developers.

All 99,000+ apps that are not on the top lists are now poo.

Way to go, Apple!

I agree…if updated apps are no longer listed under release date then this has to be the saddest day for the app store developer community.

If the whole thing is not just a temporary bug, I will stop iPhone development and go to Android and Symbian! For real!

There are lot more and we will see more developers yelling at Apple once they start noticing this change.

Not all is Negative

This is not all bad news for all developers. New applications will get better attention. Previously, new apps were hidden among a series of updates of existing apps. This will change now.

If Apple continues to keep this change, my guess is, apps in the Top 100 lists will prosper while all others apps will go down the drain.

What do you think? Do you think this is good/bad?

Photo Share: New iPhone App for sharing & uploading photos

After a series of updates, we just rolled out a new iphone application approved. Photo Share – An easier way to upload and share photos from your iPhone. The application is now approved by Apple and is currently available on AppStore for $2.99.

Here is some additional information about this application.

We are excited about this new application and we think it has great interface and very good and simple usability. The way you use the app is simple. To add a photo to the work area, use the ‘+’ button on the top. Once you have photos in the work area, the app supports multi-touch. This means you can move, rotate, zoom photos.

The application has options to upload photos to Flickr & Facebook. If you have another user in the same WiFi network with this application, you can also share photos with those users. Uploading or Sharing photos is very easy. Just select the target on the top and flick/push the photo towards the target to share/upload photos.

The best way to experience this application is by trying it. Photo Share is currently available on AppStore for $2.99. If you like the app, please drop a review. We look forward to your feedback.

In App Purchasing for Free Apps: Good move?

Apple finally rolled out In App purchases for free apps. When Apple restricted In-App purchases for paid apps only, I wondered what the thought process was behind the move. I thought there were two reasons they restricted this earlier.

1) If they open In App purchases in free apps, we will see a ton of free apps and in many cases with very limited functionality and developers will try to nickel and dime for every feature after the free app is installed. The number of installations a free app gets is few hundred times more than paid apps in some cases (based on my own experience).

2) Free app developers need not have some agreements signed with Apple (and hence no linking to their bank account etc) as there is no money involved. The process of offering apps on AppStore was straight forward for free apps. If In App purchase was introduced for free apps, there needs to be some changes to the agreements and involves some backend work.

These anyway were my own reasoning on why they didn’t introduce this in the first place. But now we have it available and I think it is a good move. I might change my opinion after I see how the market will turn out. I hate to see developers nickel and dime customers. Regarding my second point, Apple today made some changes to the agreement. While I didn’t see what has changed between the previous agreement, I am sure it has something to do with In App purchases for free apps. I think Apple is finally ready to offer this and I think this can benefit the AppStore.

Finally, as I said earlier, Apple has been focusing a lot of quantity of the apps rather than quality. Once the AppStore hits 100K app, I think it should start focusing on quality. If not, it’ll just turn out to be a CrapStore.

AppStore’s Top 200 is no more

When iTunes 9 launched, I mentioned that Apple showcased Top 200 apps instead of previous Top 100. My take on that was mixed as the display was very congested with no app getting any attention.

Well, looks like the numbers were out. Apple today reverted it back to Top 100. You’ll no longer see Top 200 in AppStore.

I think this is a good move. What do you think?

Changes to AppStore in iTunes 9

Apple launched iTunes 9 today. The first thing I did was to hunt for changes in AppStore. Here are the ones I found and my take on these changes.

First, The AppStore menu moved to the top. This is a very welcome move and can get more exposure to AppStore. Its good to see AppStore becoming a main category.

Where are Categories in AppStore?

When you go to AppStore, first thing you’ll miss is the list of categories. Importance was given to ‘New & Noteworthy’, ‘What’s Hot’ & ‘Staff Favorites’ sections. Between each of these sections there are some apps highlighted. I am not sure why. But Apple could have used this space to list the categories. Instead, Apple chose to move the Categories section to the top. You’ll have to move your mouse on to AppStore to view the drop down icon and then go to the category. This is not a great move. Ideally, the categories should be listed in AppStore home page. Currently AppStore home page looks like a dump of images.

The current design is great if an app is in Top 100 or if your apps i featured. If it you are not in there, I think it is tough to find an app in individual categories. Will have to compare the app sales to see what kind of impact this has.

Top 200 under ‘Top Paid Apps’

Apple now shows the top 200 apps in a category. This is great as most of the users purchase apps from the Top paid apps lists. But I think Apple tried to crunch all the apps in a single page and the page looks very very congested. I doubt if many apps will actually stand out in the clutter. I’d have ideally liked some clutter free space on the top paid software screen. It is tough for any app to really stand out.

There were no changes to the individual apps pages.

AppStore Genius

This is undoubtedly a great addition to AppStore. Apple now recommends apps based on your other apps. Sometimes it also includes apps you already purchased, but deleted on you phone. This is a great way to tempt users to purchase other apps from AppStore.

Apart from these, there are other minor changes to the AppStore. I’ll add them to this post as I discover them.

AppStore review process needs improvements

Many people in the industry felt that Apple shouldn’t be a gate keeper for apps on AppStore. I was never a fan of that model and I believe having a gate keeper is important to not allow junk apps.   But may be, Apple is taking it too far.

I never had many issues with AppStore review process. Many of my apps have been rejected several times for several reasons and I never had problems. Lately though, it is getting worse. Not the rejection process, but the approval process, both obviously are interlinked.

Time for Approval/Rejection

Earlier, some of the apps used to be approved in about 3 days. This also meant, apps were rejected in 3 days. This used to be good because we were able to fix the problem and re-submit the app to be approved all within the same week.  While some people debate the reasons for rejection, I never considered that as an issue as we can quickly fix whatever Apple asked us to fix and resubmit it again quickly. So Time is an important factor here.

Lately though,  an app is taking a month to be reviewed. This means, after I submit an update, it’ll take atleast a  month to know if it is approved/rejected. If it is rejected, we have to resubmit the build and cross our fingers for another month. Meanwhile, users are out of luck as they live with the issues in the app as fixes takes longer and longer due to slow approval process.

Solution: Improve Approval process by cutting approval times

App Rejection vs Content

Several of my apps were rejected for different reasons. I never had many complains. Lately, my ‘Flight Status‘ app was rejected because it has a keyword it shouldn’t have.  Well, I don’t disagree with Apple. But then, why reject an App instead of putting it on ‘Hold’? Apple can just request the developer to change the keywords instead of  rejecting the entire app and asking me to resubmit it again. Removing a keyword takes 5 seconds. For Apple to approve the re-submitted app, it takes a month. You see the problem, right? I hope Apple realizes the issue here.

Worst part is, I have other apps in ‘Review’ with similar keywords and I can’t do anything about this. They even disable the option to change the keywords after you submit them.

Solution: Apple needs to add an ’On Hold’ Status. Currently an App is either ‘In Review’, ‘Ready for Sale’ or ‘Rejected’. For issues related to content and others which may not be related to the core app, Apple should just place the approval on hold till the developer modifies the content or provides additional info requested by Apple. This way, they need not review the app again which will cut down the review time and is good for developer and also for Apple.

I hope Apple is listening to feedback. I think they are and I hope to see some positive changes to the approval process.

New Flight Tracking App for iPhone: Flights Pro

Our latest application has just been approved by – Flights Pro. It is now available on AppStore.

Flights pro lets you track the status of all flights worldwide. It integrates with TripIt to automatically download all your flight information. Apart from flight status information, the application also displays weather info, arrival & departure delays and contact information of airlines. Weather and Delay info is currently available for US airports only.

The application displays flight status information, delays, cancellations etc. It also displays terminal & gate information wherever available. The application gathers the data from FlightStats, a very reliable source for flight status related information. Maps of the application is powered by FlightView. Maps are displayed for worldwide flights. Status information of all flights is available for 2 days in advance.

We launched our Flights application focused on US only flights. Our Flights Pro app covers all flights worldwide including worldwide maps.  While this app uses the same design as our Flights app, the back end engine is completely different. It uses FlightStats for data and FlightView for maps, similar to our Flight Status app.

The app comes at a great price introductory price of $.2.99. Do grab our application while the deal exist.

We hope you’ll like this app. If so, drop us a review in AppStore.

Travel Guide in AppStore

Did you notice the new ‘Travel Guide’ option in AppStore? Apple seem to be adding/rotating that section often and this time (finally!) it is travel categories turn.

I like two things in this new ‘Travel Guide’ section.

First, Apple combines all content in iTunes in a single section. You’ll notice that this section not just includes apps from AppStore, but it also includes travel related podcasts, audio books, music, movies etc.  Hidden in these multiple sections is a good sign where Apple finally listed sections for ‘Translation’, ‘Learning’ etc. This is a good sign as Apple sees the need to separate these translation and learning apps from other categories as I noted earlier, these types of apps fill the AppStore.

Second, I am glad to see one of our app – Currency Exchange – listed in there. Our own currency converter application has been one of our successful apps and we are glad it is starting to get some attention from Apple. Our recent update has been received well and we are working on a new update which I think is going to make this app even better.

Next Flight in PC Mag

Our Next Flight app is listed in PC Mag among many other travel apps. Complete article here.

Next Flight ($2.99, www.touchmeme.com): Should you get bumped from a flight and need to find another one, this app is for you. It provides access to all the flights from all airlines and shows the next flight out to your destination.

Trips for iPhone launches with TripIt integration

We are very excited to announce the availability of 2.0 version of our Trips App.

This is a complete revamp of our Trips application. We built this version from scratch and added some real cool features along with a great new user interface.

This version integrates TripIt, an online travel itinerary and trip planner which helps you organize your trip. To add a trip to the Trips application, you can enter the details on the phone, on TripIt or simply forward your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and TripIt will automatically parse content from a wide range of vendors and prepare the itinerary automatically for you.

The app has many few features. The flights section now includes maps for En Route flights flying from/to US. We also included three new categories for Cruise, Train and Car. This makes it 9 categories in total and in fact, we download information from TripIt in all these nine categories.

We fixed several issues in the app. We also added many small features you requested.

While this update took much longer than expected, we certainly hope it is worth it. We can’t wait to hear your feedback.