AppFlow

Oh App Store, how we love thee!  Your Apps populate our mobile devices that we download and buy with ease.  Your developers give us innovative and exciting apps to use.  Your shiny blue icon appears on our mobile devices, so why am I so annoyed with you?

The truth is, I’m not.  I have no problem with the App Store itself.  What I do have a problem with, is the App Store users!  The people that review these apps and give their amateur, shallow viewed thoughts on a brilliant piece of software engineering – they annoy me!

The Problem:

The problem as I see it, is that there are far too many people posting a ‘review’ to an App, without giving it a good look.  People seem to be glassing over the actual app description, in many cases getting the wrong idea about what the App actually does, and posting a review.  In many cases, these reviews actually go as far as to say “Don’t buy it”, “Waste of money” or request said lacking feature from the developer.

Call First Witness:

Flipboard is an awesome app.  I’m in the process of putting together a review, but basically it takes shortened URLs out of a twitter feed and displays them in a cool, magazine like, format.  What’s more, it’s free.

How, therefore, can this App be given a mere 2.5 stars!?  This app offers an amazing UI, a unique selling point and an amazing price tag.  Why, therefore, is it given such a hard time by the App Store reviewers?

Before we progress, let’s hear from the Flipboard Description:

“Your Flipboard is a fast, beautiful way to flip through news, photos and updates your friends are sharing on Facebook and Twitter. And it’s an incredible place to discover fresh content from around the Twittersphere.”

Sounds good, no?  But wait, there’s a catch!  Because Flipboard is so amazing at viewing feeds from Facebook and Twitter, there isn’t the option to post to twitter, mainly because the developers wanted it to be a “Social Magazine”, rather than a “Social Media Client”.  If you read the description, no ability to post to Twitter/Facebook is either stated or implied.

But, even with this understandable feature lack, the 1-Star reviews roll in:

This is a typical Flipboard review it seems; a basic denial of any ignorance towards the App description – it must be the developer’s fault.

One review goes even further:

This annoys me as a Flipboard user!  I’d hate to think how the developers are feeling!

What’s the effect of all this bad publicity?  People won’t download the App!  I value my time and, when browsing the App Store, didn’t used to download Apps with bad consumer reviews.  It was only when I realised the ignorance in some of the comments that I started to question the reliability of these reviews and ratings.

Further problems:

A further problem seems to be the complete lack of any moderation on App Store reviews, meaning that so called ‘users’ can ‘review’.  The only thing between your casual spam reviewer and the posting of a spam review appears to be purchasing the app, some protection that free apps don’t have, meaning that they are all the more victim to this terrible injustice.

Call Second Witness:

Tap Tap Radiation has a somewhat different case.  Now, I’m pretty boring when it comes to my iPad, and the ‘games’ content on there is somewhat low!  I did, however, look into Tap Tap Radiation when a Tap Tap Revenge-ing friend of mine asked if there was an iPad version.

Just like Flipboard, this App is given 2.5 stars on the App Store?  Why?  I’ve played it and, while it’s not my cup of tea, it’s far from a bad game!  In fact, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would!

Once again, let’s have a look at an excerpt from Tap Tap Radiation’s Description:

**iPhone/iPod touch users: PLEASE DON’T rate this app 1-star just because it doesn’t run on your device. We worked very hard to build this iPad app and will try to make it work on iPhone/iPod touch in the future!**

Wow, they actually put that with an asterisks to draw attention to that comment!  But fair enough, they’re working on it, so in the meantime, wait iPod/iPhone users! Let the iPad users play!

But wait, if you have a look at the reviews, you get ones such as these:

What is this?  Despite a request from the developer of the App themselves, this person has gone ahead and posted a damaging, 1-star review for no good reason whatsoever.  You don’t complain to a Windows application company that their software doesn’t run on a Mac, in the same way that you don’t complain that the mattress advertised for your bed doesn’t fit on the back seat of your car!

These reviews keep coming but I’ve selected one other of my favourites:

I’m sorry, but if you’re a ‘Loyal Tap Tap downloader’, why on earth are you giving their latest App a 1-Star review?

Developers:

Developers are amazing people.  Working for AppFlow, I have the pleasure of e-mailing all kinds of developers, from huge Mac App corporations with a suite of 20 apps, to small developers who have written an App for the App Store.

All developers, however, work their socks off to produce the amazing diversity we see across the App Store and Mac platforms.  We’re not windows users!  Our Mac and iOS apps are reasonably priced, practical and look awesome!  That doesn’t come without a price.  Behind that App that’s given a 1-star review, there is a developer.  Maybe 10, maybe 1, whichever, that developer definitely deserves the courtesy of thought-before-review.

In case you hadn’t guessed by now, developers are people I have great respect for.  I’ve had a go at coding an iPhone App and, if you haven’t tried it I can report that it’s not as easy as you may think it is!  There is work in each App we use and, sometimes, I think we take this work for granted.

A Final Thought:

I’m sure the majority of readers will have come into contact with the App Store in one way or another and will, hopefully, know what I’m on about!  If you are one of these people that regularly leaves a 1-star review because an App didn’t do what you expected it to, or isn’t available on your platform, spare a thought to the developer next time!

I’d be interested to hear your comments on this.  Agree?  Disagree?  Maybe you’re a developer who can offer your insight on this issue.