Old News is Apparently Good News to Apple

[Michael Essany]

Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between an ad and an article.

This weekend, Apple garnered some gushing media coverage courtesy of the front page of the New York Times business section. The point of the article? To notify the world that the App Store is a "game changer." But as the follow-up coverage from 9to5Mac illustrates today, we pretty much started using the "game changer" reference a few years ago.

So does the article actually do anything but kiss up to Apple and strive to pin some positive press on the company for a change? Not really.

Today's gushing front page Business Section App Store article reads more like a PR piece than actual information. Let's keep it real here. Apple granted interviews with Phil Schiller and Eddie Cue to get some positive spin on the App Store which has been getting some significant negative press lately. The news that the App Store is a "game changer" is not new, people were calling it such in 2008.

It's clear Apple is starting to get nervous. Once the darling of the digital world, it's tough to find widely positive PR coverage about the app store today, and it's likely starting to upset those at Apple who dreamed of the App Store being beyond reproach. The need to participate in media coverage only confirms to many their suspicions of the growing apprehensions in Cupertino.

But its not all sunshine and rainbows in The New York Times article either. Ultimately some "truth in advertising" did emerge.

“We’re facing 396 days with no contact from Apple,” says Eric Thomas, chief executive of FreedomVoice. “The app has been ‘pending’ in the App Store for a year.”

Mr. Thomas says he understands that it is Apple’s decision whether to accept his app. “But the idea they wouldn’t tell us it was a no — or even why — so we could try to do something about it,” he said, “is a very strange and unneighborly approach.”

Yes, very "unneighborly". Mr. Rogers would be very upset.

2010 seems poised to be a year of rampant growth for the App Store, which some expect to welcome upwards of 200,000 new applications. But the approval process and Apple's myterious policies governing acceptance and rejection could continue to confound and frustrate both customers and developers alike. Some at Apple are even fearing beneath the radar that the App Store has already seen its best days.

That's unlikely - highly unlikely. But Apple has its work cut out for it next year if the company wants to regain some of the luster its reputation has lost with a wide variety of current and former Apple fans.

Apple hasn't been too kind to phone apps in general. Remember AT&T all of those (3) months ago saying they would allow VoIP over their network on the iPhone? Not one voice app has been allowed to do that and Apple is the only one stopping them.

Image from New York Times

[jdys_1991]

*The wall of words*

[rhekt]

i rarely purchase off the apple store anymore. its just become a bloated mess.

[Zeal]

They'll reject 199,000 thousand apps as usual..

And we all know out of those 200,000 apps 100,000 are probably Fart Machines... 80,000 are probably completely useless in every sort of way, 10,000 are probably gonna be stupid boring "Flash game, or more Tower Defense game..." 10,000 MIGHT be someone useful... MAYBE

IMO

[MetallicaFan1991]

Same here, I never buy off the App Store, no good app tbh, 95% of it is just pure crap!!!

[romeo_herman]

Old or new, atleast can make money.....

[steve-z17]

There are a lot of useless apps on the store, but there are also some good one's that get used quite often. I might not use all of my apps every single day or even every week but when I do need them they definitely come in handy, especially when I'm not near a computer and I need some info fast!

[Masterz1337]

I'd buy off the Appstore if i knew what to buy.

[confucious]

Is it just me that finds the new app store very difficult?
When you can find the different sections you can only navigate through the pages from page 1. With 270+ pages you view the first few pages and give up, you can't jump to other pages to browse.
Unless you know what you are looking for it's almost impossible to find anything.
There is a lot of dross but a few gems - it's a matter of finding them...

[reanimationxp]

Yea, browsing on the appstore is the real problem. If it's not in the Top X lists, I never see it. Related, that being the case means I'll never see anything that isn't already popular. When browsing sucks, things that end up on top lists are likely to stay there.

[Channan]

Apple needs to get rid of the "What's Hot" tab in the Featured section of the App Store, since it's pretty much another "Top 25", and replace it with a "Random" tab that picks 25 or 50 apps out of the entire store at random every time you open the App Store. Would make finding new apps easy.

[awesomeSlayer]

So much crap in the App Store that I check for updates more than buying them. One of the my high priorities is getting ports of id's DOS games from the App Store.

[DarkoNova]

i rarely purchase off the apple store anymore. its just become a bloated mess.

The Apple store or the app store?

They are two very different things.

Matt

[gthugballin]

Is it just me that finds the new app store very difficult?
When you can find the different sections you can only navigate through the pages from page 1. With 270+ pages you view the first few pages and give up, you can't jump to other pages to browse.
Unless you know what you are looking for it's almost impossible to find anything.
There is a lot of dross but a few gems - it's a matter of finding them...

/agree

[J_Marley]

Quote
Apple hasn't been too kind to phone apps in general. Remember AT&T all of those (3) months ago saying they would allow VoIP over their network on the iPhone? Not one voice app has been allowed to do that and Apple is the only one stopping them.

Well it looks like someone didn't do their research before putting this article out there. Apple has changed a fee of it's policies and one of them being to allow VOIP apps to be used on network. I currently use PhoneSpeex, a TeamSpeak companion and it has no problems even over edge. So there are improvements, but I do hope there will be more to cone.

[confucious]

VOIP over EDGE might be good news for you but it's very bad news for everyone around you. Unlike 3G/HSPA GPRS/EDGE does not allow time slicing so you will be blocking the network. I am very surprised AT&T haven't blocked it over EDGE.

[hollow0]

But there's Vonage for that VOIP app. And 396 days no contact? wow... Come on Apple you need to regain control over that store.

[rwin84]

Blah blah blah

[thevmax]

Is it just me that finds the new app store very difficult?
When you can find the different sections you can only navigate through the pages from page 1. With 270+ pages you view the first few pages and give up, you can't jump to other pages to browse.
Unless you know what you are looking for it's almost impossible to find anything.
There is a lot of dross but a few gems - it's a matter of finding them...

True! After a few pages of crap, I find myself pushing the home button to just get the hell out of there!