Apple’s About To Revamp It’s App Store

Clearing the underbrush so the Oaks can thrive

Apple’s App Store has become as unfathomable as an Amazonian forest. Lots of trees crowded in by lots of undergrowth.

Result: an unwelcoming journey that fewer folks are desiring to initiate.

And that can’t be to Apple’s benefit. One of the biggest success stories of consumerism and the greatest display of micro-products raking in billions for the seller, the App Store’s success has become its failing.

And whatever views the world may have about Apple, the one thing that it agrees to unanimously is that Apple likes to wring out every possible dollar they can convince you to part with.

So when customers become wary or stop buying, Apple digs out it’s broom and issues its clean-up crew some very clear instructions.

In this case, the instructions are very simple: Showcase the Oaks more than the weeds.

App discovery needs to be improved, drastically. Crowded by a plethora of apps that are disorganisedly ordered, all lying in a heap for the user to sort through, clearly, the App Store’s user experience needs to change.

Now, Apple seems to be implementing a new algorithm that determines how search results show up on the App Store. Reportedly, the Cupertino-based company has put together a “secret team” reportedly, around hundred employees, Including a bunch of engineers from the Apple’s iAd team to work on different possibilities and methods to improve the discovery of apps on the App Store.

The new algorithm could implement paid-search like mechanisms onto the App Store (similar to those employed by Google) that will stack certain apps higher up in the search results thus making them more noticeable. All this, for a charge of course, that App Developers will need to pay to Apple.

Touted as a win-win situation, this policy of promoting content will undoubtedly help App Developers significantly increase revenues from their apps.

The App Store is the backbone of both, the iOS and Mac OS ecosystems. Not only has it earned Apple their loyal fan base it is an important bread-earner for the oligarch. Apple currently earns 30% from all app sales on their App Store, and this revenue is an important part of Apple’s Balance Sheet.

According to Bloomberg, “Among the ideas being pursued, Apple is considering paid search, a Google-like model in which companies would pay to have their app shown at the top of search results based on what a customer is seeking. For instance, a game developer could pay to have its program shown when somebody looks for a game of football, word puzzle, or blackjack.”

Apple is most probably motivated by the rip-roaring success that Google’s Ad-Words business has enjoyed all these years. And Google’s not the only one. Social networking giants like Facebook and Twitter have also garnered profitable, long-term sources of revenue from some famous game and app developers.

It seems that Apple’s iAds Vice President, Todd Teresi has initiated the scheme seeking to change the perception and usability of the App Store. While there has been no official statement by Apple about the incorporation of the new changes onto the App Store, this could move could also be necessitated to negate the drop in the iPhones sales (which is being headlined in the media and on Wall Street).

Apple does have a full year ahead — it has their June launch of the iPhone 7, the new Mac line-up, new markets like India to explore; and the added improvements in their App Store could be the cherry on the cake, with them having the last laugh at the end of the year.

We at Chip-Monks, are all for it. The forest is becoming a jungle, and pruning it will help everybody involved, so long as it is not overly biased towards the paying clients (App Developers), else we’ll be looking at yet another contravention of economic theory and buyer discretion (a la net neutrality).

Originally published at Chip-Monks.