I started off the day putting all my Christmas giftcards into iTunes. Â I had the complete intention of spending a good portion of it today on iPhone apps in a hope to both support the indie developer community and to get some new material to write about. Â Neither happened. Â I couldn’t find one application that would make my life easier. Â Before you get all huffed and puffed about exhibit A and exhibit B applications that have “changed” your world–I know they exist. Â I just can’t find them. Â Unless I know the application name, there’s a very good possbility that i’ll never find anything useful.
There’s 25 New and “featured” applications, 25 what’s hot applications. Â 20 Categories that list multiple sub categories and once you’re through selecting categories you’re met with three more pages, each with 25 listings–Top Paid, Top Free, Release Demo.
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What’s a user to do?
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If you’re not a “popular” application there’s little hope your application will ever be found unless you put a lot of time and effort into getting your name out around the internet. Â But the problem with this application hub isn’t the “popularity” issues. Â It’s the complete lack of attention paid to “useful” applications.
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At the time of this writing, 17 of the top 25 applications are crappy games. Â Games I’ve downloaded a thousand times in a thousand different iterations, from a thousand other indie developers trying to make a quick buck. Fart Applications ring a bell? Â Flashlight Applications? Â Beer Games? Â Check, Check, and Check!
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You know what this tells me? Â There is a serious disconnect between “real” applications and jokey/fun applications. Â We need to split them up, and Apple needs to do a better job of promoting “real” applications in their Appstore. Maybe the categories need a tweek or a tag needs to be assigned that categorizes the “fun” and the “real” applications into two distinct places. Â I don’t want to see Fart noise generators beside mileage trackers.
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I want to see my options, and I want to be able to find what I need quicker. Â It says a lot about a devices usability when I have 60 dollars to spend on applications but the opportunity cost of spending a dollar to find that application I need just isn’t worth it. Â Three categories in, and two pages later I was still without any “real” options. Â My only real choice was to go to the iTunes store and buy a new album. Â Sorry to the indie developers out there, but you should know I tried. Â I really did.