Developing Perspective

00:00:00 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to Developing Perspective. Developing Perspective is a podcast discussing

00:00:04 ◼   ► news of known tonight's development, Apple and the like. I'm your host, David Smith.

00:00:08 ◼   ► I'm an independent iOS developer based in Herna, Virginia. This is show number 175.

00:00:12 ◼   ► And today is Thursday, February 27th. Developing Perspective is never longer than 15 minutes.

00:00:17 ◼   ► So let's get started. All right, today I'm going to start a series, I suppose, is probably the best

00:00:22 ◼   ► way to describe it. I originally had sat down to plan out and record today's episode. And kind of

00:00:29 ◼   ► had thought that this would all fit into one episode

00:00:31 ◼   ► and quickly discovered that there's

00:00:33 ◼   ► no way that this topic could fit into 15 minutes.

00:00:36 ◼   ► And that topic is trying to unpack

00:00:39 ◼   ► what would be involved in making a better app store, making

00:00:43 ◼   ► a sort of the ideal app store.

00:00:46 ◼   ► What would that look like, practically?

00:00:49 ◼   ► It's something that I know myself included,

00:00:51 ◼   ► developers, we love to complain about,

00:00:53 ◼   ► that there are all these problems and challenges

00:00:55 ◼   ► and things in the app store that we really don't like.

00:00:58 ◼   ► There are ways in which that we think it falls down,

00:01:01 ◼   ► ways in which that it doesn't serve us greatly,

00:01:04 ◼   ► that it doesn't serve our customers wonderfully.

00:01:06 ◼   ► There's a lot of things that we kind of tend to complain about.

00:01:08 ◼   ► But something that I was kind of calling myself on

00:01:11 ◼   ► is that I was heading to complain

00:01:14 ◼   ► without offering constructive criticism,

00:01:17 ◼   ► without thinking about practically, well,

00:01:19 ◼   ► what would that actually look like?

00:01:20 ◼   ► What would that mean?

00:01:21 ◼   ► What would a better app store be?

00:01:24 ◼   ► And unless I can answer that question,

00:01:27 ◼   ► it's entirely kind of unreasonable for me

00:01:30 ◼   ► to complain about it or to make observations that

00:01:32 ◼   ► are negative about it because it's like simply complaining

00:01:36 ◼   ► without really offering any type of practical, constructive

00:01:40 ◼   ► solutions is only sort of productive.

00:01:43 ◼   ► I'd rather be thoughtful and think

00:01:45 ◼   ► about, based on the experience I've had,

00:01:47 ◼   ► how would the apps world be better?

00:01:49 ◼   ► How could what we have now move into something that was better?

00:01:53 ◼   ► And honestly, this also got started

00:01:55 ◼   ► from what I've started to be thinking about,

00:01:57 ◼   ► maybe I'll build that.

00:01:58 ◼   ► Maybe I'll build a better app store.

00:02:00 ◼   ► Maybe I'll make a web app that is a better app store

00:02:02 ◼   ► industry, a better app catalog, and see where that goes.

00:02:06 ◼   ► See how hard this problem actually is.

00:02:08 ◼   ► And if anything, just to build some solidarity with the App

00:02:12 ◼   ► Store team, to understand the challenges and the problems

00:02:14 ◼   ► and the things that they're facing,

00:02:15 ◼   ► to realize how difficult that is-- because I'm sure it is

00:02:18 ◼   ► incredibly difficult to manage a million apps that are

00:02:21 ◼   ► constantly being updated, that are constantly

00:02:24 ◼   ► having new things thrown at it every day.

00:02:26 ◼   ► And as much as I feel like I understand the industry,

00:02:28 ◼   ► I doubt I even sort of--

00:02:31 ◼   ► I'm probably barely even breaking

00:02:32 ◼   ► the surface of how hard that is and how difficult a problem

00:02:34 ◼   ► this is.

00:02:35 ◼   ► And that's not necessary to announce something

00:02:36 ◼   ► that I'm going to be building.

00:02:37 ◼   ► It's just a thought that I've been thinking

00:02:39 ◼   ► about that drives to this point, to the series

00:02:42 ◼   ► that I was going to do.

00:02:44 ◼   ► I'm not really sure yet how many episodes it's going to be.

00:02:47 ◼   ► It'll certainly be more than probably two or three.

00:02:50 ◼   ► Essentially, what I'm going to try and do today

00:02:52 ◼   ► is to set up the goal, the problem, why I think

00:02:55 ◼   ► that we need a better app store.

00:02:57 ◼   ► And then I have a whole list of different areas

00:02:59 ◼   ► that I'll get to at the end of the show

00:03:01 ◼   ► that I hope to unpack specific recommendations,

00:03:03 ◼   ► specific areas that I think it could be better, ways

00:03:06 ◼   ► that I think the app store could be a better place,

00:03:09 ◼   ► to be a place where I feel like it lives up to its possibility,

00:03:15 ◼   ► maybe is the right way to say it.

00:03:17 ◼   ► So let's just sort of dive in.

00:03:19 ◼   ► So first, it's a little bit probably glib and kind

00:03:23 ◼   ► of arrogant to assume that the App Store needs fixing.

00:03:27 ◼   ► I'm sort of starting from that position,

00:03:29 ◼   ► but I understand completely that at the same time,

00:03:31 ◼   ► the App Store is probably the most successful marketplace

00:03:34 ◼   ► for selling software in history.

00:03:37 ◼   ► I guess the Google Play Store is probably

00:03:39 ◼   ► sort of either the neck and neck competitor to that.

00:03:42 ◼   ► But either way, these mobile app stores

00:03:47 ◼   ► have been tremendously successful.

00:03:49 ◼   ► And it's hard to keep track of the exact numbers,

00:03:51 ◼   ► but it seems like the iOS app store has probably

00:03:53 ◼   ► been 10 billion applications downloaded.

00:03:56 ◼   ► And that's a big number when you think

00:03:57 ◼   ► about the number of people that are on Earth.

00:04:00 ◼   ► It's kind of a crazy thing to imagine

00:04:02 ◼   ► how much they've been able to reduce friction and hassle

00:04:06 ◼   ► and encourage user trust and even just familiarity

00:04:11 ◼   ► that customers feel happy and encouraged and safe

00:04:17 ◼   ► when they go to the app store, they get an app,

00:04:19 ◼   ► and they put it on their phone.

00:04:21 ◼   ► It's a very different experience than I

00:04:23 ◼   ► think they would have had with software 10 years ago, where

00:04:26 ◼   ► it was perhaps a bit more of a scary thing.

00:04:28 ◼   ► It was much more fiddly.

00:04:30 ◼   ► It was much more risky.

00:04:31 ◼   ► The number of times they downloaded something

00:04:33 ◼   ► from the internet and things went horribly, horribly wrong,

00:04:37 ◼   ► this is a very different experience that they're now

00:04:39 ◼   ► comfortable with.

00:04:40 ◼   ► The number of people from young children to older folks who are now completely comfortable

00:04:47 ◼   ► going to the app store and just downloading an app and using it.

00:04:50 ◼   ► And they don't like it, they delete it.

00:04:51 ◼   ► And that experience is completely kind of revolutionary as an app developer, as someone

00:04:56 ◼   ► who makes software that now I have this huge customer base of people who I'm selling to.

00:05:03 ◼   ► And that's awesome.

00:05:04 ◼   ► I don't want to sort of underplay how amazing and impressive that is.

00:05:10 ◼   ► You know, when I say that I think the App Store could be better,

00:05:12 ◼   ► it's like the App Store is already doing kind of amazing things.

00:05:15 ◼   ► And it's important to kind of keep that in the back of our minds

00:05:18 ◼   ► as we think about how we could make it better.

00:05:20 ◼   ► Because what we wouldn't want to do is to take things that, you know,

00:05:26 ◼   ► things that have actually helped get it to where it is now

00:05:29 ◼   ► and remove them and in the process sort of kill the golden goose.

00:05:33 ◼   ► goose. You know, that's not what we want to do. The goal is to make it better, to take it from here

00:05:38 ◼   ► and to evolve it forward, not necessarily to kind of start from scratch or to be revolutionary in

00:05:44 ◼   ► that way. You know, it's a great thing that we have. And I just personally think it could be

00:05:49 ◼   ► better. And it's funny because in the App Store is something that I have a tremendous amount of

00:05:55 ◼   ► sort of genuine personal affection for. It is it is allowed me personally to do something that I

00:06:00 ◼   ► I wanted to do for a long time and never necessarily thought

00:06:04 ◼   ► was possible-- to be an independent app developer,

00:06:06 ◼   ► to make software just for myself,

00:06:10 ◼   ► to be that person who's sitting down in Xcode making an app

00:06:16 ◼   ► and putting it out into the world,

00:06:17 ◼   ► and being able to do that, and to be

00:06:19 ◼   ► able to make a sustainable living from that.

00:06:20 ◼   ► I mean, it's kind of remarkable.

00:06:23 ◼   ► But I think the App Store could be an even more special place.

00:06:27 ◼   ► And there's something I wrote a couple of weeks ago talking

00:06:30 ◼   ► about this was back with the whole app review prompt dialogues thing, but it was something

00:06:35 ◼   ► that I wrote that I want to quote again, which is a little funny quoting yourself, but this

00:06:39 ◼   ► is what I said. "I want to believe that the App Store is a special place. I want for it

00:06:43 ◼   ► to be the singularly best venues for customers to come and find innovative, well-designed

00:06:49 ◼   ► quality software, software that pushes the boundaries of what is possible and continually

00:06:53 ◼   ► amazes and delights its customers. I want for there to be an aspirational pull upwards

00:06:58 ◼   ► on my own development, I want to feel like I need to work extra hard to make sure my

00:07:01 ◼   ► apps meet the high standards my customers have been trained to expect."

00:07:06 ◼   ► And that paragraph that I wrote a couple weeks ago I think captures why the motivation behind

00:07:11 ◼   ► this, the series that I'm going to be unpacking over the next few weeks.

00:07:15 ◼   ► Because I think the App Store is so, it's like it's so close, but it's just not quite

00:07:20 ◼   ► there.

00:07:21 ◼   ► There's a lot of things that it does that, you know, kind of are counter to that goal,

00:07:25 ◼   ► for wanting the App Store to be a special place, for wanting it to be a place that is

00:07:28 ◼   ► training customers to expect high quality software, that is pulling, raising the bar

00:07:34 ◼   ► in terms of what developers need to do in order to shine in that marketplace.

00:07:39 ◼   ► And it's very hard to do.

00:07:41 ◼   ► It's not something that I think is straightforward or easy for Apple to do, but I think it's

00:07:46 ◼   ► possible.

00:07:47 ◼   ► And if I didn't think it was possible, this whole thing would be kind of pointless.

00:07:49 ◼   ► But I think it is possible.

00:07:50 ◼   ► And I think there's like just, you know, there's five or six areas that making relatively small

00:07:55 ◼   ► changes could really turn that around in a very impactful way and just provide that kind

00:08:02 ◼   ► of aspirational pull on developers and you know, that in the flip side, improving what

00:08:07 ◼   ► customers expectations are of their software.

00:08:10 ◼   ► And then same way I kind of think about how, you know, other industries where like, customers

00:08:16 ◼   ► You have a certain expectation for--

00:08:18 ◼   ► if you go to a blockbuster movie,

00:08:21 ◼   ► you have a certain expectation for how it's edited,

00:08:23 ◼   ► for how it's put together, for how you'd expect something

00:08:27 ◼   ► that's professionally done to be,

00:08:30 ◼   ► to have that level of quality.

00:08:31 ◼   ► You're not expected to have weird jump cuts

00:08:33 ◼   ► and strange edits or out of sync dialogue

00:08:37 ◼   ► or these types of things that would be kind of you're like,

00:08:40 ◼   ► what is this?

00:08:41 ◼   ► I paid $14 to go see this movie.

00:08:43 ◼   ► I expect it to be better.

00:08:45 ◼   ► And I want I'd love for there to be that same type of expectation about software for it

00:08:49 ◼   ► to be, you know, a professional art in that way.

00:08:53 ◼   ► And so we'll see.

00:08:56 ◼   ► So taking us to the next step logically sort of from that of kind of saying that I think

00:09:01 ◼   ► the App Store could be better.

00:09:03 ◼   ► And then I then I kind of thought started thinking, well, I need to have a goal, I need

00:09:06 ◼   ► to have a target with which to aim the rest of my analysis with which to aim the rest

00:09:11 ◼   ► of my kind of recommendations.

00:09:13 ◼   ► And I tried to boil it down as best I could.

00:09:15 ◼   ► And I hope this will kind of evolve over time

00:09:18 ◼   ► as I kind of work through this process.

00:09:19 ◼   ► But right now, the best definition

00:09:21 ◼   ► I have for what I mean when I say a better app store

00:09:24 ◼   ► is I want an app store that helps customers find quality

00:09:28 ◼   ► apps to fill their current need as quickly as possible.

00:09:32 ◼   ► And there's a couple of different parts to that.

00:09:34 ◼   ► I want to help people, help customers find quality apps.

00:09:37 ◼   ► So what does quality mean?

00:09:39 ◼   ► I want to help them fill their current need,

00:09:42 ◼   ► whatever that is, and as quickly as possible.

00:09:45 ◼   ► But generally speaking, this seems to kind of work.

00:09:47 ◼   ► What I'm trying to do is to say that I

00:09:49 ◼   ► want to help a customer to find the highest quality

00:09:52 ◼   ► app that fills whatever the reason they're

00:09:54 ◼   ► going to the app store is, whether that's

00:09:56 ◼   ► specific or general.

00:09:57 ◼   ► It could be that they have a very specific thing in mind.

00:10:01 ◼   ► They're looking for an app for an event.

00:10:03 ◼   ► They're looking to find the weather in a place

00:10:05 ◼   ► somewhere far away.

00:10:06 ◼   ► They're looking to keep a list of things

00:10:09 ◼   ► they need to buy at a grocery store.

00:10:11 ◼   ► They want to listen to an audio book.

00:10:12 ◼   ► They want to listen to a podcast.

00:10:13 ◼   ► They could have a very specific thing in mind,

00:10:16 ◼   ► or it could be general.

00:10:17 ◼   ► Their need, the reason they're going to the App Store,

00:10:20 ◼   ► it could just be that they're bored.

00:10:21 ◼   ► I do this myself.

00:10:22 ◼   ► I go to the App Store sometimes just because I'm bored,

00:10:25 ◼   ► and I want to find something to do.

00:10:27 ◼   ► Are there interesting apps that have come out recently?

00:10:30 ◼   ► What are my friends talking about?

00:10:31 ◼   ► What are, just in general, hey, I

00:10:34 ◼   ► have this cool smartphone that can have apps.

00:10:37 ◼   ► What apps should I put on there?

00:10:39 ◼   ► So whether that need is specific or general,

00:10:43 ◼   ► the goal of the App Store should be

00:10:45 ◼   ► to take that customer from when they launch the App Store

00:10:48 ◼   ► to when they feel satisfied with their experience

00:10:51 ◼   ► and compress that down as quickly as to as short a time

00:10:54 ◼   ► as possible so that they're not disappointed, confused,

00:10:58 ◼   ► they don't have any regret about the decisions they've made,

00:11:00 ◼   ► that they go to the App Store with a need, specific or

00:11:04 ◼   ► general, and very quickly find something

00:11:08 ◼   ► that meets or exceeds that need or that expectation.

00:11:12 ◼   ► So that's kind of at a high level,

00:11:15 ◼   ► kind of what I'm thinking.

00:11:16 ◼   ► That's the goal that I'm trying to drive towards.

00:11:18 ◼   ► And generally speaking, I think if the App Store were improved

00:11:21 ◼   ► in ways that accomplish that, it would

00:11:24 ◼   ► be a big boon to developers.

00:11:26 ◼   ► One thing that I did want to kind of address,

00:11:28 ◼   ► though, is that I think a lot of these discussions

00:11:30 ◼   ► about the App Store and making it better,

00:11:32 ◼   ► there's often this theoretical divide between good developers

00:11:36 ◼   ► and bad developers.

00:11:37 ◼   ► And I know that I've fallen into that stereotyping trap before.

00:11:41 ◼   ► But the more I think about it, that is likely not really

00:11:45 ◼   ► particularly constructive to try and somehow say that there's

00:11:49 ◼   ► this one group of developers-- of course,

00:11:51 ◼   ► the one that you're in-- who are the good developers, who

00:11:54 ◼   ► are the people that everyone should aspire towards and be.

00:11:57 ◼   ► And then this other group, oh no, we don't want to be them.

00:12:00 ◼   ► And that's not to say there aren't things

00:12:02 ◼   ► that I think are likely categorically undesirable,

00:12:04 ◼   ► things like copyright infringement or deceptive marketing or kind of very things that break

00:12:09 ◼   ► the law.

00:12:10 ◼   ► Like there are things that are obviously not what we want in the App Store, but it's very

00:12:15 ◼   ► hard I think to objectively define what a good app is and who a good developer is.

00:12:21 ◼   ► It's not something that I think we can drive towards from that angle.

00:12:26 ◼   ► The goal isn't necessarily to go into the flock and separate out the good sheep from

00:12:30 ◼   ► the bad sheep.

00:12:31 ◼   ► We're not-- that kind of an exercise to try and work on making the App Store better, I

00:12:36 ◼   ► don't think would be productive.

00:12:37 ◼   ► The goal is to look at the output, to look at what these developers are putting out,

00:12:42 ◼   ► and to find ways to differentiate that in the market itself, to help the market to define

00:12:49 ◼   ► what is quality, what is serving a purpose, what is meeting those expectations that these

00:12:55 ◼   ► customers are opening the App Store for.

00:12:59 ◼   ► And that, I think, is the goal.

00:13:02 ◼   ► That's the thing that I'm trying to drive towards.

00:13:03 ◼   ► And so I think focusing on the output, focusing on the thing that we can actually look at

00:13:11 ◼   ► is the more productive way, not necessarily to get into trying to determine an app developer's

00:13:15 ◼   ► motives, for example.

00:13:16 ◼   ► Like, are they making this app to make a quick buck?

00:13:19 ◼   ► Are they doing this to spam the app store?

00:13:21 ◼   ► Are they doing this because they're a quality artisan who's been sweating over the details

00:13:25 ◼   ► for the last two years?

00:13:27 ◼   ► That type of thing is, in some ways, kind of irrelevant to the end result.

00:13:32 ◼   ► It doesn't matter how long an app took to create so much as the quality of the experience

00:13:37 ◼   ► that that app can deliver.

00:13:39 ◼   ► So that's kind of where I'm starting from.

00:13:41 ◼   ► And I think it seems like it's productive and constructive.

00:13:44 ◼   ► I've been developing this out a little bit farther as I'll be addressing over the next

00:13:48 ◼   ► few weeks, and it seems like it helps.

00:13:50 ◼   ► It seems like it's a good way to think about this problem of making an app store that helps

00:13:55 ◼   ► customers fill their expectations as quickly as possible and to overall make that experience

00:14:01 ◼   ► better and better because what I want as an app developer is for customers to feel happy

00:14:05 ◼   ► and delighted every time they open the app store to come away with a wonderful experience.

00:14:11 ◼   ► So here are some of the problems that I think I'm going to unpack. This list may grow, expand.

00:14:15 ◼   ► If you have specific recommendations, I definitely want to hear them. But the kind of areas that

00:14:18 ◼   ► I think we could see a lot of improvement and they kind of break down into these seven

00:14:23 ◼   ► seven categories in terms of the catalog size, the business models that it encourages, search,

00:14:30 ◼   ► ratings and reviews, editorial in terms of featured and, you know, sort of, you know,

00:14:37 ◼   ► proactive editorial review of applications, the way the categories are structured and

00:14:42 ◼   ► set up and the effect that TopCharts has on it.

00:14:45 ◼   ► And I think unpacking those will have a big impact on making this better.

00:14:48 ◼   ► And that's it for today's show.

00:14:51 ◼   ► As always, if you have questions, comments, concerns, or complaints, I'm on Twitter @_DavidSmith,

00:14:55 ◼   ► David at DevelopingPerspective.com, and I look forward to this series.