APP STORE Ping!
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Posted on 12/11/2009 12:53:47 PM PST by Star Traveler
By Yoni Heisler
Fri, 12/11/09 - 2:17am.
It's no secret that a well-reviewed and popular iPhone app can potentially net a developer hundreds of thousands of dollars. But the potential to make a lot of money inevitably causes some less than honest developers to try and scam the iTunes App Store for monetary gain. Scamming the iTunes App Store can take on a number of different forms, whether it be through creating knockoff applications or through sprinkling popular, but irrelevant, keywords throughout an app description.
In the most recent example of a developer attempting to milk Apple customers out of their hard earned money, a Chinese-based development company named Molinker engaged in a scheme to artificially inflate the number of positive reviews that appeared alongside many of their apps, which altogether total over 1,000.
The scary part about Molinker's insidious behavior is that it actually worked. By trading promo codes in exchange for positive app reviews, a number of Molinker's applications actually did quite well on the iTunes charts, with one app in particular, ColorMagic, actually making it onto the "Staff Favorites" section on iTunes - which kind of makes you wonder if the listed apps really are staff favorites.
In any event, after a good samaritan noticed something fishy about a number of Molinker app reviews, he shot over an email to Phil Schiller informing him of the situation. After looking into things, Schiller replied a few days later stating, "Yes, this developer's apps have been removed from the App Store and their ratings no longer appear either."
While it's all well and good that Apple kicked Molinker's apps to the curb, the fact that this ruse went on for as long as it did suggests that there are some glaring holes in Apple's app review process. Shouldn't the fact that a single development company was able to release over 1,000 apps have raised some red flags? Gameloft, by way of comparison, is a well-respected iPhone development house with an extensive catalogue of quality apps. As it stands now, they currently have 93 apps available for download on iTunes, and that figure includes various versions of the same title.
Put simply, there's no way a development company could realistically release 1,000 quality apps in just a few months. In those types of circumstances, it's not unreasonable to assume that something fishy is going on and would make sense for Apple to keep close tabs on development companies whose actions should trigger some sort of internal alarm.
In a similar example, it wasn't that long ago that Apple kicked out one of the most prolific iPhone developers for creating apps that consistently made use of copyrighted images and media content without legal permission. The development team in question was led by Khalid Shakih, a developer out of Pakistan with 26 employees working under him. Before getting kicked out of the app store, Shakih and his team released an astounding 943 iPhone applications, which comes out to 5 apps a day for each of the 250 days that Shakih's apps were available.
What's ridiculous is that Apple will ban apps for the silliest and most miniscule of things, yet they somehow go months without noticing an app development team with a pattern of subbing more apps than humanly seems possible - and apps with copyrighted material no less!
For as much flack as Apple receives over its app store rejections, it should also make a point to monitor potentially suspect developers even after an app has already been accepted into the app store. Hopefully going forward, Apple will at least keep an eye out on developers who have hundreds of apps in play on iTunes. Not only would this help keep out many of the blatant crapware and scamware apps that sometimes plague the app store, it would also help make app store browsing a more productive and enjoyable activity.
I think Apple needs to keep watching it with the iPhone and iPod Touch apps...
Apple Bans Another Developer, 1000+ Apps Pulled [Developer scamming reviews]
Does Apple need to keep a watch on the iPhone and iPod Touch Apps — or — just let all hell break loose and “buyer beware”...?
Is letting “all hell break loose” the way to build up the iPhone and iPod Touch customer base... :-)
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Why is it that most on this board are big supporters of private property in general, but few respect Apple’s right to run their store as they see fit.
Or even to build an price their computers as they see fit.
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