App discovery, search capabilities, layout, user interface, categories, etc. – what needs help and what is Apple doing well?
What would you change, fix, add and/or remove to make the iTunes App Store – the desktop and/or the mobile version – better?
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I agree with all about the impossible to find something/anything. I have to admit, sometimes I just go to the app store to buy something/anything… just impulse buy. but I rarely buy anything because I find nothing.
categorization could be something to improve for sure.
what about this; does the 3Gs have a screen recorder? can you record what you’re doing on screen? that should be a feature if it’s not. that would allow developers a better preview of their apps than 5 still captures.
Yeah, the search sucks right now, and the amount of information about the app once found is not very complete. The categories need expanding. Once on the iPhone/touch, the management interface, while improved, is still cumbersome. Trial usage for paid apps, please- even half an hour might be enough. I will not pay for something, even 99¢, if I can’t preview it in some way. Some way to ‘store’ apps visited or considered, especially since so many apps are so similar. All in all, it’s an issue dealing with the sheer size of the Store now.
There’s too many similar apps. Some free some for pay but all the same idea. Too many of the same thing
i think it would be awesome if review sites like toucharcade could keep their formal reviews on itunes, so you could go to itunes and read the toucharcade review (in a toucharcade section of the store) and make your decision there. that way, any web site that wanted to set up a review process could do so (and of course take a referral fee).
in this way apple doesn’t have to guess what people want – if someone starts a successful review website for some specialty (say medical applications or fart apps) then it becomes an authority.
im not really doing a good job of explaining my idea – but it’s dinner time and the cat needs a wash and the car needs to be put to bed, etc.
MW: changes (ha!)
App previews would be awsome. To be able to we what the app looks like before you buy it. Just like you can for click wheel games. That would be great. And also app refunds. So if u buy an app by accident, (which I’ve done before) u could refund it after a certain amount of time. Those are my top requests.
More categories and better search.
Time magazine missed the App Store in its search for the top ten failures of 2009. The App Store has become an organizational design disaster of histrionic proportion. The store doesn’t have enough order to avoid the definition of chaos.
There is no more obvious need for improvement anywhere in the Apple universe than that of the App Store. 2010 will not become the year of the tablet computer with this sort of access to content. Maybe Apple needs to employ an anthropological approach before we become all hysterical over this matter. Well, maybe it’s not that funny yet.
Could it be that Apple is simply waiting to show us what is about to come in 2010? I think maybe something is about to give here, something very big. Apple can’t be as confused as the App Store now appears to be. I believe they have something planned for us.
I say, bring it on!
At least the Amazon Jungle has a river running through it. That river is navigable to an extent, too.
Reasonable people don’t often go into the Amazon Jungle. They wait for the Livingstons to reemerge and then listen to the specifics of advice about what is possiblly of value within that jungle. In other words, it is best to read the blogs and to follow specific links into the jungle of the App Store. It sure does feel good when you click on a link to escape from within a self-created morass by trying to navigate without specific advice within that App Store jungle.
The reward is getting out of the App Store alive. I’m not sure yet if the apps obtained that way are worth the fright of getting to them, of getting out with them.
Where to go in the App Store is not clear. It is no wonder why there are no roads to follow there since people don’t really know what’s out there for them. This is the individual’s dilemma, and there are any number of us with differing ideas about what we might expect to find in the App Store.
There is a questionable number of things (functions) that you can do with applications. There should be a list available of most of those things (and there is a reasonable limit to this list). As exceptions to this list may occur, they will tend make legitimate headlines.
If I can find something in this list I might want to consider for use with my iPhone, then show me what’s available for me to choose from in accomplishing this thing. Ranking what’s available by the likelihood of value will be helpful in navigating through the morass of possible trivia to be discovered within the App Store.
I can turn this around somewhat and ask, what would you expect me to do with this iPhone of mine?
Within the App Store, we haven’t yet reached the standards of the wild west.
I love the genius feature on my music in iTunes. Have a genius feature on my apps.
Ringtone simplicity. Don’t make me buy a song & then find out I can’t convert it to a R T. & get some selections for an older generation – big band, show tunes, et al.
I’m just waiting for the day when I can buy movies and content based on my interests – as opposed to the country where I happen to work and live. It’s so beyond me why, in times of total globalization, I can’t use my German account, and purchase a Japanese movie with, say, english subtitles. Also, why isn’t it possible to select your preferred GUI language? I mean, I hardly speak German, yet I’m forced to use a German GUI. WTF? And Why isn’t it possible to send iTunes gifts to people outside your country?
@Greg Thurman: I don’t know where you came up with $9.87 billion in gross revenue for Apple in FY 2009, but you’re low by a factor of nearly FOUR. Apple’s revenue was nearly $37 billion that year. A handy chart showing revenue and profits can be found at:
MDN word: results. Appropriate for us apple investors, that’s for sure.
The App Store would be greatly improved if it allowed iPhone/iPod Touch users to control the display font size on the fly (similar to the Appleinsider app does).