Apple’s iTunes App Store “now requires that users purchase or download an application before they able to post a review of that particular application,” Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider.
“Users attempting to post a review of application that they haven’t downloaded are now met with a dialog box stating: ‘In order to write a Custom Review for this item you must have purchased or downloaded it,'” Oliver reports.
“Apple hopes this move will mitigate the number of bogus, or agenda-driven reviews that have been used to raise or lower an applications overall rating, sometimes at the hands of developers themselves,” Oliver reports.
Full article, which also covers changes to the way applications appear on the App Store after receiving a minor update, here.
App download should have been required before a review could be submitted at the store’s inception. Basic stuff, really. Without it, the reviews definitely suffered. Oh, well, better late than never, Apple.
As Eric Roberts in the movie, Runaway Train, says, “Makes sense.”
and why does the “all free apps” and “all iphone apps” only show through September 15? Or at least it did over the weekend? What happened there?
I always thought it was odd that some fantastic apps had all 5 star reviews and then there would be 1 or 2 with one stars.
Looks like a great move on Apple – this should have been implemented from day 1 on itunes for songs and movie reviews too!
Apple should restrict 1 review per app per itunes account.
This would stop people changing their ‘name’ in the review header and hence multiple reviews from the same person under a different ‘name’.
Yeh, theres a few trolls, that give low ratings because the app isn’t free