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Apple, you win: we're pulling out of the App Store. for now

update 08/07/2010: we're back!

Dear Apple Inc. 

Your app-roval process is full of holes; you have approved Appsfire v1.0 last August and wished you hadn't because almost no one had any real clue about discoverability issues back then - indeed, we were the very first to address this issue in an app. Now you know what's at stake, so you've locked-down every aspect of the SDK ToS. Which is probably why you wouldn't write anything to us for 56 days re: Appsfire v2.0, despite our numerous calls, emails, and high level contacts (period during which you had no problem approving similar apps). Was your intent to shut us down by playing the waiting game until the legal team had caught up? The problem remains, in fact we don't even know what the problem might be since you are not talking to us.

So now, we're doing you a favor. We're pulling Appsfire v1.0 so that you don't have to.
Besides, we have so much content now that this old v1.0 is choking on it; but you won't let us update it to optimize the user experience.

We care about our users, and like you, we go to great lengths to ensure the best experience.

Appsfire v1.0 RIP.  

Anyways, you know full well that an app that does not get updated has a half-life of two days, and that the App Store has too many (fart/cheat/book/udid) apps anyways. Let's prune the apple tree (couldn't resist, sorry).

A bit of Objective-C is in order:
    [[AppStore sharedInstance] removeObjectForKey:@"appsfire v1.0"];

Steve, please update your slides. It's now 225k − 1!
Of course, you'll have to add another 15k apps since another week has passed. Good for you.

Meanwhile, and until we get approved, we'll be considering out-of-store alternatives, or until we get any sort of professional & constructive discussion going. 

Luckily, there is no limit to human creativity, and nothing worse than a lion in a cage. And as we like to say: "happy to think differently".

Note to our many users: we know many of you are waiting for our new version. We're confident things will change sooner or later. Meanwhile, stay tuned for very cool stuff coming up your way in the coming weeks. For now the best way to enjoy appsfire is by registering on our site!
ps: this is appsfire v2.0 in video demo for those asking

Bonjour! The iPad App Store, available in French!

update: it can be viewed only from the iPad, not from iTunes (yet)

The iPad will start to be sold in France in about a week. But the App Store is already available in French from your iPad (the first international that we know of)
 
 
Just log with your French App Store credentials to see it.
 
The iBook store is also available btw (although we just see 1 book for now)

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App Stores and the future of the mobile. An ever lasting love story.

App stores will be the primary (and, in some cases, the only) way to distribute applications to smartphones and other mobile devices
via gigaom.com

Says Gartner in their last report

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Apple hiring people to help users discover cool apps. Apple work with us!

Apple is taking the App store business seriously and, it makes us really happy because we believe the App Store deserves to be better served. In the key positions they are hiring, they want to help users discover apps in a new way.

If someone from Apple is reading this post: Hire all the key talents, but also work with outside people like us! we focus 100% on bringing a relevant experience to discovery. We brought in the "Top grossing chart" before it was even in the App Store. We brought App Sharing on Twitter and Facebook, before it was on the App Store and many more things. So much more is coming that could potentially be a game changer and accelerate the discovery of relevant apps for each one.

Apple, work with us! 

If you needed a proof that the APP-roval process is faster- there it is

The image below is the status bar of the global review process made by Apple when you log into iTunes connect (the developer zone for apps). Just as an element of comparison 

  • Before december it was 89/90% in the last 14 days 
  • Just before the christmas break it was at 99% in the last 14 days
  • and now what you are seeing below 99% in the past 7 days. 

This is a great news and a major improvement

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iPhone app discovery: how it is approached today, online. Full map and observations

We like to map the complex iPhone ecosystem (we did it for analytics and app creation), because it is important for us to understand where we move. One of the key issues of the iPhone world is app discovery: finding the right apps for you.

 

It is an issue for both developers and users. 

iTunes is doing a decent job at organizing the app catalog but, let's face it, the browsing experience, the absence of internal marketing channel to the App Store and the explosion of the number of apps (will reach 300/500k by year end) is making the discovery and relevancy of the process painful. 

This is then, no surprise that lots of services and companies are trying to solve that issue. We wanted to map those players and although Appsfire has not really started implementing what we are planning (this is called a teaser - more on that later), we also find ourselves in that map. 

There it is (click to zoom). Note we put aside the App store/Google and the blogosphere/TwitterSphere that plays an important part too. We focused here only on services that specifically aim at solving the discovery of mobile apps for the iPhone

What we can learn from this map is that the attention of iPhone users is split between many sorts of discovery opportunities from the most traditional (app catalogs like AppStore HQ) to the most complex (Flurry is an example), from personal initiatives (like appstore-appstot.com) to funded startups (a bunch in our map). And none has really taken the lead to mainstream although some have reached a decent size already (like AppstoreHQ)

App discovery is far from being solved. All those players, Apple included and soon many more players like Google/Android, Mobile operators, probably some publishers, will try to bring their own solution. This is a very hard problem to solve correctly. We tried ourselves with a few discovery mechanisms from which we learned a lot and gave us the vision for our next steps.

One more thing to mention is that the discovery of Apps for many users does not take place online. It takes place offline, while discussing and comparing apps with friends. Apps are the new playlists and the new mobile glue. People like to talk about them in real life. If you have an iPhone you know what we mean. And this part cannot be underestimated
This is definitely a hot space and one that requires monitoring.

Cool! Pastefire top 20 productivity free app in Japan!

Just before RememberTheMilk :)

The App store brings the "Did you mean THAT APP" to search [updated: not that new! just not really visible]

Not sure, how new this is, the visual integration is kind of not obvious but it works.

Any idea when Apple released that?

update: looks it s been around since last itunes 9. but it was not obvious to notice it

App Stores everywhere: Kindle App store coming now!

 

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Amazon will roll out an updated Kindle. Publishers and readers are likely to choose between it and an Apple tablet computer.

via nytimes.com

We like to see the model of App store, this new way of consuming bites of the web and content, growing within nearly every platform. And the Kindle is a platform. Coming soon near you, for books, games and utilities i guess. Amazon/Kindle App store

 

In its announcement Thursday, Amazon will say that it is letting programmers create what it calls active content — similar to applications — for the Kindle and keep 70 percent of the revenue from each sale after paying for wireless delivery costs.

Amazon will release a set of programming guidelines that other companies — including publishers of books and periodicals — can use to create and sell applications for the Kindle.

App Stores everywhere: on your Netbook and your TV

if you thought apps were only the domain of the iPhone, Android and mobile smartphones/appPhones in general think again.

Apps are coming everywhere. Intel just announced AppUp, an app store for Netbooks and Samsung announced its own App store, which will be for mobile but also for TV.

Apps is a convenient and simple way to consume and digest the web in general. No surprise that they'll get popular on many platforms

We said it in the past, App stores everywhere

Good news for Appsfire!