App Stores & Integrity
Dear Apple, it’s time to close the integrity gap.
Take a minute and think about all of the ecosystems we are apart of today. While there are a lot of them, the app ecosystem is one that has revolutionized the way we all use our smartphones. That ecosystem is comprised of developers finding innovative ideas and then implementing and testing them. Mobile operating systems set the requirements, developers *hopefully* adhere to them, they launch their product, and users… well consume that product. If they like it enough hopefully they write a positive review. If you get enough good reviews your app will hopefully get more exposure. Most consumers don’t think about the journey that it took for that app to get on their phone. Most of the time, they just look for what’s free and has decent rating (regardless of if it has in app purchases). Consumers might not think about a fake scam app that paid for all of its reviews to game the system. That’s why Kosta Eleftheriou’s story struck a cord for me.
“It’s surprising more people don’t know about this. The extent to which this has been going on and is currently going on is absolutely mind-blowing.. In particular now with the App Store, which is my main concern, the problem has grown to such an extent that having the rating and review system is making it worse. It gives consumers a false sense of security and a false idea that the app is great as you’re entering it through a glowing App Store page with raving reviews.” — Kosta Eleftheriou via The Verge
The problem that Kosta points out in his tweets, is that scam iOS apps are able to game the system while hardworking developers are stuck not getting the promotion they deserve. The most alarming thing is that Apple doesn’t actively police these fake apps that have fake reviews unless it’s an issue that gains attention. This is really a question of integrity in which Apple, a company that claims to be morally right and fair to developers, fails to protect the vital ecosystem that has made them so popular.
If I, an app developer, decide to leave the apple app store it’s mostly just going to hurt me since I will be missing out on a chunk of my target market. I think the time is right for the developers to realize that they are important part of the ecosystem and we have more power than we think. I think it’s time for Apple to close their integrity gap between what they say and what they do. To be fair, Apple took down the apps that Kosta pointed out as obviously fake scams, but is it his job to police the app store and raise a storm if something is wrong? Why are the policies that Apple says they enforce, not being enforced?
At the end of the day, us developers are vital to the app ecosystem, and I wish Apple would start recognizing that in a meaningful way. I’m glad that developers like Kosta are standing up and making problems like this known.
P.S. Don’t think this is just Apple, fake apps are a perpetual problem in the industry.
