After the short, happy life of an App Store Developer

Published by Ewan Spence at 18:15 UTC, October 21st 2009

A lot of people hold up Apple's iPhone App Store as the perfect solution to app distribution, but that's not always the case. Long term app developer Gedeon Maheux of Iconfactory (behind apps such as Twitterific) has a detailed post on why he believes the store has failed him. It's worth a read not just because it illustrates the problems behind an app store, but also because other app stores are likely to have exactly the same problems.

 

The App Store is broken. I know from the outside glancing in, it may not look that way but it is. It also doesn’t seem like it’s broken from Apple’s point of view since the store and its tens of thousands of software titles have helped place the iPhone firmly at the head of the smart phone industry. But speaking as a small developer who’s been releasing Mac software for over a decade, the App Store is broken. The ironic part is that if you had asked me this a few months ago I would have denied it with my dying breath

Of course the problems are something Nokia would love to have around the Ovi Store, but should Nokia be reaching out to these dissatisfied developers and ensure they come over to Symbian? Yes is my opinion - pop a device in the post, the relevant SDK's on DVD with some printed guides, a few hours tech support on Forum Nokia and you have a leading developer on your platform. You know it makes sense...

The full post can be found on Gedeon's Blog.


 

Filed: Home > News > After the short, happy life of an App Store Developer

Platforms: General

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News Discussion

Jaggz
But Ramp Champ really isn't that great. Just a pinch of sour grapes perhaps?

My TV isn't broken just because I'm watching Flash Forward... Sure it looks pretty, but it isn't much fun.
Jan Ole Suhr
I think part of the problem is that Apple can live well from thousands of $.99c apps because they get their 30% share of all of 'em.

The individual developers can't live from their 1-3 apps, though.

As long as new apps are coming in, this won't change.
Hih
lol.
Unregistered
I don't know what the blog said because it wouldn't appear on the page (some browser compatibility issue) but:
Loads of new apps every week, loads of them all doing the same thing, all getting lost in the mire. Big dev teams moving in, and supply of new innovative ideas exhausted.

If you were in at the start then it was lucrative, but it's not worth the one man bands investing a lot of time any more.

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