Polar Bear Farm

Thank you Apple!

Finally we’re starting to see some more ‘radical’ changes in the App Store. With the introduction of iTunes 9 today, came the most dramatic makeover of the App Store we’ve seen.

Perhaps the most important change is the addition of the “Top Grossing Apps” list. Something which I, and many others, have been pushing for for many, many months now. Even at these early stages, this new list is showing promise, helping to bring worthy apps out from the hidden back shelves of the store, and into some prime position. This list will only improve as developers make the decision of either playing in the compete-on-price bargain bin of the “Top Paid Apps” or, alternatively, focus on optimising their strategies for the “Top Grossing Apps”. I know where we want to be. I’m looking forward to this new list reaching its equilibrium over the next few weeks. It will take time for this to happen, as developers choose weather to adjust their pricing strategies, for this new radically different option. This addition alone is enough for me to consider this update a considerable leap forward.

A second, more subtle change, is that the price is no longer displayed on these lists. I see this as a good move, it’s going to help in breaking down the already well established price expectations and filters that a lot of App Store shoppers have developed.

There are some interesting new social networking additions for spreading the word about apps, with Facebook and Twitter integration, and a raft of changes with reorganisation of menus, and placements on the front page.

Despite all these changes for the better, it wouldn’t be the App Store without some special touches. It seems that this update is again rushed, and seems unfinished right now. The “Music” category has disappeared, as have the game subcategories for now. The category pages themselves don’t appear to have been considered at all in this update beyond the fact they now show the top 200 apps instead of the top 100 in the rankings. It’d be nice to see a “Top Grossing Apps” list in each category too.

Of course the App Store still requires a multitude of other features and fixes, and the whole process of getting iPhone apps onto the store desperately needs overhauling. But Apple have almost crossed the single biggest issue of my list with this update, and that’s progress. Hopefully they’ve got a flurry of other changes ready to go!

Layton Duncan