WTF? Is Apple iTunes Democratic????

So i posted my app to iTunes today, Ten Monkey Marbles. It’s not easy to find… the feature things under each category is limited and favors Disney, Pixar, Marvel etc.

Is this the way it works?

It feels like I worked hard to make an app to drop it off in that place that they hid the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Will it be a lost App? Does Apple favor the big corporations over the indie developer?

The featured sections are like a digital magazine. It’s not a list of everything that just was released, its a an editorial collection of what Apple editorial think it’s cool. These features are updated weekly and only on the afternoon of Thursdays (US time, it varies a bit.)

Usually, especially with games, they will highlight new stuff there, again, not everything just what they thin it’s cool. I been featured in the past, it does not take an amazing app or even being a big name to be featured.

It does tend to help to release your title on Thursdays, I think it’s easier for them to spot what is new that same day, although I seen them feature stuff that launched during the week.

This being said, your title (if it just released today) should be in the New section of the appropriate sub-category (Games > Action, Games > Role-playing, etc.) If you just go to Games, you will see a big New and Noteworthy section, this is also editorialized and does not list the games by release date.

curses, if only I knew about Thursdays yesterday. :slight_smile: Thanks for the info… trying to be patient with the process.

It’s really important with the current state of the market to do your own promotion. Releasing something on the app store now and expecting it to sell by itself is the equivalent of putting it on your doorstep and complaining that the only people that are interested are your family and friends. You may strike it lucky with getting featured, but the statistics aren’t in your favour.

Over 2/3 of apps on the app store are never downloaded.

I have strong feelings about that study. It was done by “A new mobile analytics firm” (new = extremely likely to fup, analytics is NOT easy) and they extrapolate based on the apps that use their code.

Also, many analytic software pack events and send them all out at the start of the next session if network is available, else they pack more sessions until networking is available. It’s very easy to think that 2/3rds of the apps that use their code are so bad they only are downloaded and run once, then deleted never having sent the data.

There are many other ways the data can be lost. I just think 2/3rd is too large of a ration, especially when at least family or friends tend to be harassed to download the apps and at least run them once. So that “Never” seems like either BS, hyperbole or evidence of bad analytic service.

Edit to add:

And this bit is pricely BS:

If the market was any more open, it would be even harder for people to find anything. Just look how Google play works. But more than anything, this paragraph proves an agenda is behind the numbers.

You’re description in the app store is 2 sentences long. You wrote more in your post here than you did in the description for your app that you want people to find.

This is yours (2 sentence long description)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/10-monkey-marbles/id594412373?mt=8

This is in the same category as you for the same price (description is several paragraphs of text full of juicy keywords)

You also need some reviews… generate some free codes in itunes connect and give them to some friends so they can review it.

Hi Carmine, thanks for the feedback. I will do what you suggest.

My real complaint with the App store isn’t that it’s not a great platform, and a great way to get out into the world. I think that it’s great that you can submit something yourself etc. My complaint is that I believe in the early days of the App store there was a “more” button or something like that, for each category. Then you can go to the page of new books for instance, and keep searching through for more. This is essentially the way every other e-store I’ve used works but somehow Apple’s store has become one where instead of letting people casually browse like that, you have to run a search pattern to start doing that. It puts a big wall up between you and the consumer. Additionally, it’s pretty obvious that Apple likes to feature things that are so mainstream… Disney, Marvel, Disney again…Pixar, it’s somewhat nauseating. I just wonder why a company that was built on a couple of Indie guys building something in their garage, don’t create a store front that may also do the same for other Indie people, but even at the most basic level not being able to hit a “MORE” button is discouraging and to my mind pretty much insures that most apps will remain hidden to the casual user.

Do we really need to go into every brick and mortar store and be assaulted by Disney Pixar Marvel, and then have the same happen when we go online? It’s discouraging.

Someone’s bought it, it’s been reviewed.

My first review. :slight_smile:

Okay, enough of my complaining, I am happy that I could use Unity and work through Apple and get my product into the world. Going to shush up now and get back to work on more games because whether it sells or not, it’s just what we do.