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0 pointssaurik13y ago0 comments

While that's a fair comment, the services being described here really shouldn't be affected: there is no excuse for, say, TapJoy, to mimic the App Store (and I doubt they are doing it, although I haven't seen their UI in a while)... it wouldn't even be optimal for their mission and if they or someone in a similar position is doing so they should probably look at their layout again.

However, I will then point out that the distinction you are drawing can get somewhat vague: just because you aren't accepting money, doesn't mean users aren't now confused because they think they are using the App Store's interface; as an example, they might have expectations such as trusting the validity of the reviews and ratings being shown.

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arn13y ago· 1 in thread

Sure you can argue that. But any App Promotion App is ultimately downloaded from the App Store originally, so I'd assume it's reasonably obvious. But even so, I don't think that Apple's adding a specific clause to their App guidelines due to the very small percentage of people who are downloaded App Discovery apps and then get confused.

If I had to guess at their motivation, it would be their attempt at blocking paid-for-promotion schemes that try to game the App Store ranking systems. I think that's more likely.

jsatok13y ago

Totally agreed. I tried to get that across in the interview for the article. It's pretty hard to say that the pay-for-ranking firms help users, and I think Apple's just taking a first stab at combatting them. I think there's a lot more they can do to improve the ranking algorithm in helping to combat these firms.

As a user and as a developer, I really hope these changes help move some of the blatant junk off the Top Lists.

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