app store is horrible

[Russ2387]

i have had my droid for 2 months now and i love it. so much so that i bought one for my wife. Its seems to me that is head and shoulders above the iphone. accept for the app store. apples app store is so much better. i have a itouch that i use every day, so i am on both app stores every day.

First of all, many of the apps including new ones don't show screen pics. i am not going to pay $ for a skin or game without seeing some pics! a skin is bought on the basis of how it looks. i wanted to buy a game today for 5 dollars that had great reviews but it had no pics. its amazing how many apps there are with none. and the ones that do have pics only have 2. apples store has up to 5 i believe.

The second problem is the VERY short description of the apps. Again, i have a very hard time spending money on something that is not clear on what it does. apples app store allows for long explanations of what you are buying.

It seems like a simple thing to fix. android is really picking up. Google has very intelligent people, why cant they move beyond a basic model app store and beat apples app store like they did with there phones?

 

[ldimick]

YOu are correct. The Market is very poorly designed. Try alternate sites such as AndroLib, Find all applications and games available in the Android Market for your Android Phone, HTC Dream, HTC Magic etc... and AndroidZoom.com - Browse the Android Market and download all available applications and games There is another one but I don't remember the URL.

One HUGE advantage that the Market has over the iTunes store is that if you don't like an app or a skin you can return it within 24 hours. I have done it a couple of times. What better way to 'try before you buy'?

 

[Technoman]

i have had my droid for 2 months now and i love it. so much so that i bought one for my wife. Its seems to me that is head and shoulders above the iphone. accept for the app store. apples app store is so much better. i have a itouch that i use every day, so i am on both app stores every day.

First of all, many of the apps including new ones don't show screen pics. i am not going to pay $ for a skin or game without seeing some pics! a skin is bought on the basis of how it looks. i wanted to buy a game today for 5 dollars that had great reviews but it had no pics. its amazing how many apps there are with none. and the ones that do have pics only have 2. apples store has up to 5 i believe.

The second problem is the VERY short description of the apps. Again, i have a very hard time spending money on something that is not clear on what it does. apples app store allows for long explanations of what you are buying.

It seems like a simple thing to fix. android is really picking up. Google has very intelligent people, why cant they move beyond a basic model app store and beat apples app store like they did with there phones?

The Market comments and images are not Google's responsibility. The developer of the APP has that responsibility. There should be a link to the developer on each APP, in addition to most have a link to their website.

EDIT: Tell the developer that you might purchase the APP if it has screen shots, and better description. Rate the APPS, provide feedback.
This is what makes this the BEST OS and Phone you can own!

Don't get me wrong, I feel there could be improvements Google could make in the Market for sorting, filtering, tagging, and such. But the one thing that Google didn't do is CONTROL what is allowed and such.

That is Apple's model, and that is not OPEN like Android is!

 

[hayaku]

huge difference here is apple's app store is regulated by apple. all content is approved by apple before it can be published, so yes, it will have more content, all though edited/approved/beaten up by apple...

the android market is free content written by the developer that published it. so there will be inconsistencies from one app to the next. however, it is not censored by any one group...

 

[claustin]

Even if it is an open store, they could have certain requirements to post apps there. I don't think some screenshots or an accurate description of the app is too much to ask.

 

[hayaku]

its an open market... the more effort the merchant puts forth in promoting his product, the further he "should" get... some developers aren't good at marketing... apple is...

 

[Technoman]

Even if it is an open store, they could have certain requirements to post apps there. I don't think some screenshots or an accurate description of the app is too much to ask.

Again, this is intended as an OPEN system. Your statement of "requirements" is a CONTROL. Ratings, Ratings, Ratings.... that is the way you get quality APP's in the Market. Feedback.

All I want is the market to give me a filter to NOT see APP's that have less than 10 ratings, and are lower than 2 stars.

That would then allow me to see what might be worth wasting my time to try/buy.

 

[claustin]

Even if it is an open store, they could have certain requirements to post apps there. I don't think some screenshots or an accurate description of the app is too much to ask.

Again, this is intended as an OPEN system. Your statement of "requirements" is a CONTROL. Ratings, Ratings, Ratings.... that is the way you get quality APP's in the Market. Feedback.

All I want is the market to give me a filter to NOT see APP's that have less than 10 ratings, and are lower than 2 stars.

That would then allow me to see what might be worth wasting my time to try/buy.

Heh, ratings like the Home app (which are admittedly hilarious)? A little control is necessary for user experience. It's not like it's censorship or anything. It's still open. They can still put their apps in the store they should just have some prerequisites for posting them. Making someone put a little effort into listing may help keep some of the crap apps out of there. Some of these apps don't even have real descriptions. Not having descriptions or screenshots is just lazy and I see no reason to encourage it. I like your filter idea though.

 

[victoriac]

I had an iphone and now a Droid. I have most of the apps on my Droid that I had on my iphone. The ones that aren't there I have found great alternatives on Android market. And the best part which Apple does not do is you can actually try and play with the app for a full 24 hours and if you don't like it you get your money back! Yes the market itself could be set up a little differently but I think its not that bad once you get use to it. Another thing is, a lot of the apps are free or cheap. The iphone app store is overbloated with a lot of useless, expensive apps.

 

[ldimick]

The problem with filtering on ratings is that people do not use the ratings as appropriate. So many of these apps are rated as 1 because the downloader can't read the system requirements. Other users rate them as 1 star because it does a force close. Of course the downloader has rooted and modded their system beyond recognition and blames the developer. Do they REALLY think the developer would release an app that did a force close in their development environment?

Second of all in order to rate an app on iTunes you must sign in. There is a forced accountability. In the Market it is possible for a rival developer and his friends to bomb a competing app with negative reviews and there is no review process.

Fortunately, you have the option of downloading an app and testing it for 24 hours and returning it for a full refund if desired.

Market is not perfect. I would love to see some sort of overview process. But remember the howls of outrage on iTunes when it was taking weeks for apps to be approved for release because of the backlog? Market has had over 10,000 apps released in the past 3 months. That is more than 160 per working day. Who is going to have time to review and certify each app? Who is going to pay for it?

I agree with the post that said that if the developer wants to improve their presence they need to make an appealing presentation. Maybe there is a new career opportunity for an enterprising student.

 

[gotta have that funk]

seriously, you get 24 hours to try ANYTHING you download from the market and can return it for a full refund if you dont like it.

if you dont understand that, then stick with apple's ridiculous stranglehold on everything it releases.

 

[Russ2387]

Ok but.... none of the apps have long descriptions. I heard that they dont allow long ones. Not sure if this is true. Either way it doesnt make sense not to try to sell apps. And it sure dosent look like they try. There is money in it.

 

[GerryG35]

I almost always use the developer link to see if there's additional information and screen shots. I thought developers were limited in the size of the descriptions because they seem pretty uniform in size. If it's a paid app, I run the name through Google and also check the Android app sites (there are several). You can't get burned considering the 24-hour return policy.

 

[1quickv6]

I had an iphone and now a Droid. I have most of the apps on my Droid that I had on my iphone. The ones that aren't there I have found great alternatives on Android market. And the best part which Apple does not do is you can actually try and play with the app for a full 24 hours and if you don't like it you get your money back! Yes the market itself could be set up a little differently but I think its not that bad once you get use to it. Another thing is, a lot of the apps are free or cheap. The iphone app store is overbloated with a lot of useless, expensive apps.

Very similar to a linux operating system. I run Windows 7 and Linux Mint 8 on my box. I use Windows 7 for the most part (for gaming) but use Linux to run the Home Network. I've found similar, if not better, software for Linux to do the same things I need to do in Windows. I find it amazing how much Linux has improved and become more popular over the years and I feel that Android has had a big part in that.

 

[hollowbox]

seriously, you get 24 hours to try ANYTHING you download from the market and can return it for a full refund if you dont like it.

if you dont understand that, then stick with apple's ridiculous stranglehold on everything it releases.

This.....who needs pics and descriptions when you can use the app for a day with no strings attached?