I’ll take a stab in the dark and say that if you’re reading this, you probably own an iPhone – or at least know someone who has one. So, you’ve probably used the App Store at least once. As this runaway success passes its first birthday, it’s interesting to take a step back and see how far the Store has come, and how far it still has to go.

History
The App Store opened with the iPhone OS 2.0 firmware and the launch of the iPhone 3G in 20 countries around the globe. It started with just 552 apps and 4000 developers registered. The average price for an app was around $5, capping at 12 and bottoming out at free (some apps being far higher), and people didn’t complain – taken in by the hype and the initial wow-factor of the App Store. I remember that Thursday night on July 10th, huddled up by the computer, anxiously refreshing MacTalk for the latest updates on the store opening. I remember the loophole of searching for an app, and gaining access to the App Store prematurely then splurging on anything that looked remotely good, feeling my wallet get emptier and emptier, ready for purchasing my JesusPhone the next day.

A year later, Apple has sold 1.5 billion apps, has 65,000 apps on the AppStore, and there are over 100,000 registered developers. Everything seems to be going well for a product in its first year of launch, but if Apple wants to succeed, there are a few factors that they have to change.

The 99c Trend
iPhone and iPod touch owners are attracted to the price tag of a buck. For an iPhone developer to succeed, they have to price their apps at a low price around $1.19, (AU price)  no matter how good the quality the app is, or how much money they have invested into the development of it. If the app is not the cheapest it can be without being free, people complain. Look at the Nintendo DS or the PSP. To buy games on those platforms are easily $50-$60, but no one dares to question the price. Some apps have gotten away with higher prices, but only those of exceptionally good quality.
For the first time in a long time today, I decided to pull out my DS and play games that I had neglected since buying an iPhone. It was only then did I realise how good the quality of an iPhone game is compared to the DS, and people just don’t realise this. If you look in the Top 100 Paid Applications, they are all dominated by $1.19/$0.99 apps. Close to the top is Hero of Sparta. At just $1.19, I think you have to turn around and say that this is just too cheap. The gameplay of Hero Of Sparta is equal to that of such other iPhone games as Assassin’s Creed, and other large, well known games that are 5 to 10 times the cost. Developers are having to lower prices to ridiculously small amounts just so they can be noticed and make even just a couple of dollars.

I feel that Apple need to be doing more to encourage the price of games to raise up to where they should be. Such a solution could be the addition of a “Premium App Store”. A developer would gain access to this store by submitting an app to the regular App Store, and having the Apple App Store review team deem them worthy enough to be let in, definitely NOT by their performance on other platforms, or how friendly some of their higher ranked staff are with Apple (looking at you, ngmoco).

The AppStore Review Process
This is one aspect of the App Store that every developer, including myself, hates. From day 1, Victor Wang and co. have been getting into everyone’s bad books due to the extremely long time it takes to review apps. When you are working on an app and you desperately want it into the App Store by a certain date or event, the last thing you need is for your app to be under review for over a month, and have it rejected because of a minor issue.

The solution to the long wait? Hire more people. Simple. Wouldn’t this solve our App Store approval process? Well, not really. I “know of an app” that was checked by Apple’s review team after 2 days, but not approved for over a month. So, here’s another solution for you, Apple. Be more transparent. Tell us developers exactly what happens in the review process, and explain why an app might be denied. There’s nothing worse than working on an app for months, only to have it rejected for a reason that doesn’t make sense. Also, give realistic estimates of how long the review process is going to take, and don’t let apps get approved in a matter of hours as they may have higher board members who are friends with Apple (again, looking at you, ngmoco, us devs know that you are getting special treatment from Apple. If you didn’t want us to find out, refrain from Tweeting your approval times).

App Reviews
I’m sure we’ve all seen them, the ratings of between 1 to 5 stars accompanied by a few lines of text that may or may not make sense. The one big issue? Developers have no way of contacting the people who wrote the review to explain the complaint that they have, which most of the time is just them not reading the support documents or not investigating the settings. Why should your app suffer if 1 person can’t work out where a certain setting is or how to do something? Then once you explain things to people (if you eventually get in touch with them), they still never change their app review anyway. Apple has made big improvements in this aspect of the App Store since its launch, but there are still improvements to be made.

So, Apple has come a long way with its App Store, but there are still a number of improvements that could be made to make sure that the store is it the top of the ever-growing list of mobile application stores, and to make sure that developers are driven away. What do you guys think?