Shipley’s App Store Plan

September 22nd, 2008

Wil Shipley wrote today probably the definitive article on Apple’s App Store censorship, but I found this part particularly interesting:

The App Store needs to think of itself as two different parts – it already implements these parts, but the people who run the store need to understand that these two parts are fundamentally separate:

• Part one is a giant warehouse, where every piece of software that is not actively harmful is kept in case someone wants to buy it (remember, users can always get a refund). This warehouse can be searched with titles and keywords or an item can be directly linked.

• Part two is like a traditional storefront, with limited real estate, so only the best or coolest applications are highlighted. It’s a recommendation engine, that highlights popular, highly-rated, or innovative applications.”

(Via the Ranchero.)

This is an issue that has bothered me, too — how does the App Store scale? — and this is the first solution I’ve heard. I like the idea of having a “back room” where the majority of software titles are housed, and the storefront, where Apple displays the applications which deserve exposure.

Oddly, part of the reason I like this is it brings company website marketing back into the game. If your application depends upon traditional marketing, like word of mouth and advertising, you must build and maintain a well-designed website for your company and application.

This hasn’t been true thus far — with a few notable exceptions, like Tap Tap Tap and Cultured Code, companies have relied on their application’s iTunes store page to market the application, and that’s disappointing. Part of the Mac community’s magic, at least for me, is the excellent websites independent developers build for their applications. Panic’s website, Shipley’s Delicious Monster, Checkout’s website, and Cultured Code’s website all provide great inspiration for web designers. And, frankly, I love finding a new Mac application in part to see its website — the company’s website design is an important part of the application for me.

If Apple models the App Store around Shipley’s model (and even if it doesn’t, as the App Store is developing in a similar way, anyway — paging through certain categories is impossible), then application developers will have no choice but to create these websites again, and I will be a happy man.