Apple, please do not stop fixing the App Store

When Apple first launched the iPhone in 2007, there were limited apps. In fact, the number of apps that you see on the device Steve Jobs showcased are the only apps that are available for iPhone. This meant a lot of limitations to all the iPhone users who have invested about $600 on a smart phone.

For more than a year, iPhone users had to make do with a very limited number of apps. They were not even able to copy text from one app to another. No support to edit Microsoft Word and Excel files, which was the main reason for people to buy smartphones back then. Fast forward about an year and all this was about to change.

In March 2008, Apple announced App Store at an event called ‘iPhone Software Roadmap’. Steve Jobs outlined the main purpose of App Store saying that it allows developers to bring their software to every iPhone user. Suddenly, iPhone was a blank canvas and the world was full of artists. In July 2008, Apple opened the App Store with a total of 500 applications. In less than a year, App Store had a total of 65,000 apps.

Suddenly, iPhone was a blank canvas and the world was full of artists.

There was a lot of innovation in the first couple of years of the App Store. Sadly, this did not continue. Which led to a lot of issues for both developers and consumers. At a certain period, there were a lot of copycat apps on the store which even questioned its credibility.

Though App Store has not seen a lot of innovation in its middle years, Apple started taking steps by the end of 2016. They have addressed many issues that developers have, like better search algorithms, not being able to reply to the reviews, Search Ads, App Analytics and most importantly, removing outdated, abandoned and copycat apps from the App Store.

Though Apple might have been motivated to make these changes for better revenues, it is undoubtedly helping users across the world. As a developer, we would like Apple to continue its efforts in making the App Store better. Please Apple, let this continue.

If there is one thing we would want Apple to focus on, it is to help small-time developers get better discoverability on the App Store. With Search Ads and the new layout of the of the App Store after iOS 11, Apple is trying to solve the issue of discovery. However, a close observer will notice that at least for now, these are only helping well established developers.

Thoughts?