Ondrej Holzman Although Apple already has a keynote at the developer conference WWDC scheduled for next Monday, it decided to reveal some news today - and they are essential. The biggest changes in years are coming to the App Store: Apple is trying to push the subscription model more, will offer more money to developers and also improve the approval process and app search.
It's not even half a year since Phil Schiller took over partial control over the App Store, and today announced the big changes it has in store for the iOS software store. This is a rather surprising move, because Apple has always talked about such things during the keynote at WWDC, intended primarily for developers, but Schiller personally presented the news in the App Store to journalists ahead of time. Perhaps also due to the fact that the program of Monday's presentation is already so full that this information would not fit into it, but that is just speculation for now.
Subscription as a new sales model
The biggest topic of upcoming changes is subscription. Phil Schiller, who deals with the App Store especially from a marketing point of view, is convinced that subscriptions are the future of how applications for iPhones and iPads will be sold. Therefore, the possibility to introduce a subscription for your applications will now be extended to all categories. Until now, only news applications, cloud services or streaming services could use it. Subscriptions are now available in all categories, including games.
Games are a huge category. On iOS, games generate up to three-quarters of all revenue, while other apps contribute significantly smaller amounts. After all, many independent developers have often complained in recent years that they can no longer find a sustainable model for their applications to make a living in the crowded App Store. This is also why Apple will start supporting the expansion of subscriptions and will even give up part of its profits for this reason for the first time in history.
While the normal split, where 30 percent of app sales go to Apple and the remaining 70 percent to developers, will remain, Apple will favor those apps that manage to operate on a subscription model in the long term. After a year of subscription, Apple will offer developers 15 percent of additional revenue, so the ratio will change to 15 vs. 85 percent.
The new subscription model will go live this fall, but those apps that are already successfully using subscriptions will get a more favorable revenue split from mid-June.
In general, the benefit of subscription should mean that many developers will try to sell their app on a monthly payment basis instead of a lump sum, which may actually prove to be more beneficial for some apps in the end. But only time will tell. What is certain is that Apple will give developers several price levels to set the subscription amount, which will also be different in different countries.
Search with advertising
What users and developers alike have been complaining about in the App Store for a really long time is search. The original model, which Apple has changed very little over the years, i.e. improved it, was definitely not ready for the current load of more than 1,5 million applications that users can download to iPhones and iPads. Phil Schiller is aware of these complaints, so the App Store is waiting for changes in this regard as well.
In the fall, the category tab will return to the software store, now hidden deeper in the app, and the recommended content tab will no longer show users the apps they have downloaded. In addition, this section should change much more often. In addition, Apple is trying to support 3D Touch, so by pressing harder on any icon, it will be possible to easily send a link to the given application to anyone.
The most fundamental change in the area of search, however, will be the display of advertisements. Until now, Apple has refused any paid promotion of applications, but according to Phil Schiller, it has finally found one ideal place where advertising can appear - precisely in the search results. On the one hand, users are used to such ads from web search engines and social networks, and at the same time, two-thirds of all downloads from the App Store come from the search tab.
Advertisements will be launched in the beta version next Monday, and the user will recognize them by the fact that the application will be marked with the label "advertisement" and colored in light blue. In addition, the ad will always appear first under the search field and will always be at most one or none. Apple did not disclose the specific prices and promotion models, but developers will again get several options and will not have to pay if the user does not click on their ad. According to Apple, it's a fair system for all parties.
Finally, Apple also addressed the latest burning issue that has become approval times in the App Store in recent months. According to Schiller, these times have accelerated significantly in recent weeks, with half of submitted applications going through the approval process within 24 hours, and 90 percent within 48 hours.
So many changes at once, perhaps the biggest ever since the App Store's inception nearly eight years ago, begs one question: why weren't they made much sooner when the iOS app store is so often under fire? Wasn't the App Store such a priority for Apple? Phil Schiller denies such a thing, but it is evident that once he took over partial management of the stores, the situation began to change quite quickly. Either way, it's good news for users and developers, and we can only hope that Apple will continue to improve the App Store.
The app store would also benefit from a considerable cleanup.. If I look at the updatedness of the applications, we are often surprised that they are not updated for large 6tk ip displays after two years from the launch! About the support of novelties such as 3D touch, vignettes for notes. centers, multitasking on iPads, etc., are also out of the question for many apps. Another issue is the lack of iPad/AW/ATV versions of the app. I would welcome it if Apple "persecuted" these applications, for example by placing them lower in the search, etc. If a person downloads an application for a 4-inch display on a plus IP, it is not quite the same. If we look deeper, we can also find apps that are only for the 3,5 inch model or designed only for iOS6.. I would easily delete such apps from the app store (or leave them visible only for devices with older iOS). I think it would benefit the clarity of the app store as a number of non-updated apps would fit in and it would force developers to take more care of apps. Hopefully the Mac app store and other stories will also be reviewed...
Well, deleting applications that haven't been improved for newer chips, but many people use them and get used to them, seems stupid to me, but Apple likes to do it like that, so why not. They already have a tradition of deleting things that a lot of people were used to, and replacing them late and in clumsy ways... But if this also pushed for updating some applications, it would be nice. Treba GoodNotes are fine, but version 3 ended up in a form where it often crashes and sometimes glitches. It was replaced by GoodNotes 4, which means another release and an unimaginably annoying and lengthy migration of build data.. This should also be avoided somehow, right?
I don't think that applications should be deleted that, for example, do not yet have an update for 3D touch, etc. (the aforementioned delay in search, etc., would serve to motivate developers to add these new features). Deleting the application I meant, for example, with apps that are still only available in the 3,5-inch display version and are unusable on 6-inch IPs.. The developer has obviously lost interest in them if he left them without an update for several years, which means that they also lose their useful value and the reason why this is so can be, for example, the fact that apple has already integrated the same function into the system. Such applications make the app store just confusing. For useful applications, on the contrary, I would push the developers to update.. Apple can come up with great news that will make everyday life easier, but if the developers are not supported, they will remain unused, which would certainly be a shame...
If that would be enough to filter applications according to what they support, don't support...
exactly. deleting something because I don't find it interesting is nonsense. It would be enough for the application to simply not be displayed for the given device. that ios6 is a system that many would like to return to if they had the opportunity. be aware that someone may simply not want retina.
Degrading and deleting the app because I don't have widgets in my notes. center, or they are not for apple watch is nonsense. these things are not suitable for every application and it also costs time and money to program such a thing. however, I agree with the support for the 4″ display.
So at night I put something in the app store for approval, we'll see if it really works in 48 hours :)
Subscription??? and the fuck :-(
I don't like that :-(