[cclogg]

"The decline soon after? That’s the Chomp search update followed by iOS 6 and the card app store layout. So sad."

Man, I do find that quite sad... the app store still has some major issues with regards to discoverability. It's funny because you'd think as the app store became more and more saturated, that they'd create more ways to deal with that, but many of the changes have actually made it worse lol :/

[emptybits]

Users buy Apple phones (++aapl_profit), they browse or search the app store, they find something, and they spend a few more bucks on an app (++aapl_profit). Users remain blissfully unaware of the full situation or lost potential. No major user complaints and we can only speculate about lost potential Apple profits.

Sadly, I think Apple serves most users best by simply ensuring the "top" choices during an app store browse or search are good enough that users don't ever have to search deeper and really feel the pain of the App Store situation. And the top choices are often quite good.

My conclusion is Apple just doesn't feel enough pain to solve the discoverability problem that hurts developers (especially new developers).

[clarky07]

Oh sure, and as long as devs aren't leaving (they aren't) apple is likely not doing anything "wrong".

They have unashamedly said their order of doing things is

1. Good for apple

2. Good for users

3. Good for devs (distant third too)

They have been nice lately though. I'm really excited about the App Store analytics and all that entails. It's really nice that they've finally added that for us.

[slayed0]

Why should they be ashamed of that order? How would you reorganize it? I would say that ordering is pretty much required given the fact that they are a publicly listed consumer technology/software company.

[clarky07]

I have no problems with it at all, and I think that is the order it should be. I know a lot of devs would prefer to be higher on the food chain though, or at least it seems that way sometimes.

[clarky07]

There is a lot of hate for the app store by developers, and i've dished out some of it, but frankly with over a million apps it's not an easy problem to solve.

I actually think the store is in a pretty decent state right now overall. You can't possibly make everything very visible. It's a pretty good deal to be on the shelves, now you just have to work harder on your own promotion.

[MBCook]

> ...but frankly with over a million apps it's not an easy problem to solve.

Maybe a perfect solution isn't easier, but it should be very easy to improve the mess that is the app store. Let's start with a very simple suggestion:

Searching for an app by name should return that app.

Yeah. It's much better than it used to be (today when I search for Tweetbot it pull up Tweetbot) but that hasn't always been the case. You still have the issue that they clearly have a CDN with a slow refresh so that when an app is first released you can find it via links online or features on the front of the app store but not by searching the name.

[nsxwolf]

This was very disheartening to me when I was in the app store. Without a direct App Store link it was difficult to get someone to download. You had to swipe a random number of cards, sometimes quite a lot, to find the apps after entering the exact name. The results were usually quite relevant - in that they were competitors with similar but more popular apps.

It seems like an unjust reward for already successful apps - they're given the right to steal search results for a competitor's app name.

[clarky07]

It's a balancing act. If you want to be found by searches for your title, you have to have a branded title (that if needed you could trademark). If you want to just use your top keyword as your name, it's going to be much harder to rank for it. I think the best path is to use a small subtitle - "Branded Name - Keyword Phrase"

That's a good way to be sure you can be found. If you type "Vima"[1] in the app store, I guarantee you find my apps :-)

[1] Vima is greek for "pace", which is how we came up with it. Full title is "Vima - GPS Run Tracker"

[teacup50]

> There is a lot of hate for the app store by developers, and i've dished out some of it, but frankly with over a million apps it's not an easy problem to solve.

Sure it is. Stop trying to funnel the entire marketplace through a single vendor-controlled retailer.