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So, 95% of this article is crap then too...

Can't we say the same thing about the music on itunes, too? And just music in general? In fact it's probably more like 98 percent crap.

Aug 14, 08 - 09:51 am Comment from: Randian

The very same can be said of my local library. Or any supermarket. Or the NASDAQ. Or any political party.

Actually, the world IS 94% crap; thank Gawd for the elite 6% who bring quality of thought and production to the fore.

It's true that 90% of the apps are crap. However, when sifting for gold one has to sift through a lot of sand to find the nuggets.

MDN once again looks like an idiot with it's childish comments every couple of sentences. Then again once in a while MDN has good comment so you have to sift through 90% of the crap MDN writes to get to the 10% of useful comments LOL

Aug 14, 08 - 09:58 am Comment from: Anonymous©

If 90% of crap is crap, what's the other 10%?

Aug 14, 08 - 09:59 am Comment from: shen

behold the harvest of society....

a generation of programers have been taught by microsoft that "innovative" means "a cheap knock off of someone else's 4 year old bad idea." they have also learned from the music industry that a single good song and 8 filler tracks are a good way to make money.

...and thus we have the $9.99 flashlight app.

look, all i am saying is, you reap what you sew. if you want to pick apples, don't plant weeds.

Aug 14, 08 - 10:00 am Comment from: Goople

Apple is a software company...it's obvious there will be compelling Apple apps in the Appstore. Verizon might as well create a VCAST iPhone app and get it over with

Aug 14, 08 - 10:04 am Comment from: Mr. Peabody

What is this, "Useless" "Crap" Day? (See other MDN post(s))

Hypocrite.

"That's certainly true of the crud passing for 'software' in Apple's new App Store"

"It wasn't malware. Apple yanked it from the App Store just because the company didn't like its face."

Too much crap. Apple pulls crap. Damned if you do . . .
What a wanker.

Oh I get it... Crap rhymes with App!

Kinda like Feces Magazine.

90 percent crap ... isn't that microsoft's market share?

There is some truth to the headline. I mean, how many tip calculator options do we really need? The only killer app I've downloaded and used with regularity is the Apple Remote app.

Beyond that, everything seems to be almost novelty based. Almost functional, but falls short of the mark. I can only hope Apple is working on additional killer apps, while the dev community is churning out tip calculators.

Aug 14, 08 - 10:14 am Comment from: theloniousMac

Yeah, this is an odd article, clearly written in a way to state the obvious while getting the Fan boys upset and it seems to be working.

As MDN indicated, 90% of all the software out there, especially in the PC world is crap.

With just a bit of observation though, one might conclude that there is something special about the iPhone App store because developers were able to generate so much crap so fast! That is an indication of promise.

There is always a ratio of crap to good stuff, so let's just assume 10% is great software.

That's an awful lot of good stuff for a nascent platform in so short a period.

Apple did the correct thing by pulling the I am Rich application.

Only a say-anything-anytime-you-want hack journalist like MDN is want unbridled apps on the App store ... they equate it with free speech.

Wake up. The App Store is not a outlet for free speech. Apple wants to keep shit out of it like I am Rich apps. They don't take a vote, they don't check with their lawyer, they don't give a shit about free speech. This is business ... you dont like it, then carry your ass.

Aug 14, 08 - 10:16 am Comment from: critic

Then 90% of posting on MDN are crap. Calling ZuneTang.

So 90% of Sascha Segan is crap!

"I mean, how many tip calculator options do we really need?"

It's not about what you really need. In what book is it written that we should only have one tip calculator available to us?

I get sick and tired of people dumping on the tip calculators. Some of them have a terrible interface and others work nicely. What if the ones that sucked were the only options available?

If only we could get that kind of variety when it comes to other utilities such as American dictionaries. There's only about three and I don't like any of them. Maybe we should get the tip calculator developers on it.

My advice to Segan: Go bite a fat hog in the ass!

I'm Victor Meldrew and I approved this message.

Aug 14, 08 - 10:22 am Comment from: Macintosh

One thing that I am not fond of in the App Store are the reviews. It seems most of the reviews are written by people who have not purchased the App. Very annoying.

ForeFlight Mobile is a perfect example. It's an application for pilots that has detailed information about every airport in the US, aviation weather, file flight plans, and more. It's a replacement for a book that we pilots must buy and replace the paper pages every time something changes at an airport, or simply order a new one every year or so...

There are reviews on there saying, "this should be $4.99", or "why would anyone want this?" with a 1 star rating. It's ridiculous.

This is probably one of the best-made apps on the store, and the pilots that have bought it are in awe.

My suggestion to Apple is to only allow reviews to be written by people who have bought the app.

The only reason why people are able to assess the App Store in such a way, no matter how wrong they may be, is because Apple put it all together in a single easily accessible area. If Microsoft did the same for Windows Mobile applications, there'd probably be 300 tip calculators.

Only difference is that they're scattered all over the place and the last thing Sascha Segan would do is some real journalism by researching the apps of other platforms. That's far more work than sitting down with his iPhone and browsing the App Store.

"Go bite a fat hog in the ass!"

Or as Ballmer calls it, "playtime." The safety word is developers.

Holy gesundheit, somebody wrote something funny right here in the Reader Feedback on MDN. I'm serious.

"If 90% of crap is crap, what's the other 10%?"

I'm going to spend my day pondering this one. And who knows? I might just do a little research and discover a golden turd. Heck, it's worth a try.

Aug 14, 08 - 10:34 am Comment from: alansky

Yes, 95% of this MDN article is crap and 95% (at least!) of the feedback is crap also. Crap is crap, and the whole world is made of crap. Has this simple fact really not been established yet?

"If 90% of crap is crap, what's the other 10%?"

Perfectly good corn.

Aug 14, 08 - 10:43 am Comment from: MacRaven

A crap app to one person is a useful (or fun level) app to another.

I only label an app as "crap" if it doesn't work properly for the specific function it was designed to carry out.

It all depends on what level your needs are, for some people a quick, cheap & dirty app completes the task they need done, others need a full blown $$500+ app. to get desired results.

I can't keep quiet any longer. MDN is wrong about Apple pulling I Am Rich. It's their store. Any store can choose to carry or not carry whatever they want. They're under no obligation to anyone to carry anything and everything. I Am Rich had a dangerous potential. Someone could accidently download and be out $999. Someone's kid could download it. I'm not a big fan of protecting people from themselves, but this was ridiculous. It was a stupid app that added nothing of value. I think Apple was right to remove it, but even if I didn't think they were correct, I acknowledge their right to do it. Once again, it's their store. None of us have to shop there or have iPhones or Macs. It's our choice. As in everything, you take the bad with the good. Let it rest MDN. Oh, and calling I Am Rich art is why most people scoff at art.

Aug 14, 08 - 10:46 am Comment from: ChrisM

So is MDN saying that 90% of Apple products are crap too?

As for headlines, I can just imagine the MDN staffers sitting around in a meeting:

Staffer1(Steve1): "How can we use the word -beleaguered- in a headline today?"
Staffer2(Steve2): "I dunno, but I got this picture of Balmer with his tongue hanging out..."

"I Am Rich had a dangerous potential. Someone could accidently download and be out $999. Someone's kid could download it."

That's why Apple should've simply added an extra disclaimer before purchasing apps over $99. They also could've disabled one-click purchases for apps over $99.

As for children downloading it, that's what the new parental control settings are for. You can put a block on new App Store purchases.

There is no excuse for the terrible precedent Apple has set by removing the I Am Rich application. MDN is right on this one.

I think it's fair to say that no more tip calculators will be written.

Every writer of a tip calculator thought they had a killer app. Who knew everyone else had the same idea?

I am sure the crap percentage will fall as all the crappy ideas are used up.

Yes, there is a finite number of crappy ideas.

"Kinda like Feces Magazine."

EXACTLY like that! (good one!)

I love Sacha. He's one of the very objective dudes at PC Mag. A lot of times he defended Apple from the prey of his colleagues who mostly know nothing about Apple.

He basically bitches around on nasty things regardless of the platform. He bitches at our friends in Linux and of course he bitches more about Windows. TRUST ME. He's nearly the opposite of Dvorak!

Really, couldn't some of these folks say the same about the iTunes Store? What if you just listen to two or three genres of music. There's well over 8 million songs available. If you just buy a couple of albums here and there, does that mean 90% of the iTunes Store is useless? Does that mean the iTunes Store is crap?

Like I said (or quoted I guess) in a previous post, one man's garbage is another man's treasure. An app you think is useless might be the reason another person finally bought an iPhone.

Should Sturgeon write an iPhone App that intuitively downloads and reads science-fiction books with ease in order to change the crap to 89 percent?
It would be a start and be far more effective than the 100 percent crap coming out of his mouth.

Aug 14, 08 - 11:11 am Comment from: madgunde

Since 90% of apps for every platform is crap, isn't it great we only have to look in one place for the iPhone? What a pain it was searching for and downloading apps for the Palm or Blackberry, having to deal with different install methods, different stores, different payment methods and then keeping up with the updates!

This is why the App Store rules.

You could say the same thing back when Apple carried a list of AppleScripts on their web site. There was a pitiful amount of AppleScripts and the few that were there weren't all that helpful. However, maybe it's like going to garage sales and the value is up to the individual. Like anything, one man's treasure is another man's junk.

Does the iTunes App Store have a means of counting how many downloads a certain application got, or offered any area for comment postings like say VersionTracker or other software places offer? Maybe user feedback would be welcome to Apple and the developer community.

Aug 14, 08 - 11:17 am Comment from: Mr. Reeee

I agree 100% with MDN and R2.

Apple should have kept "I Am Rich" in the App Store.

Why not? "Oh, somebody might accidentally download it". What's the saying, think before you click? If somebody is dumb enough to enable One-Click buying of APPLICATIONS... well.

Tip calculators? Gimme a break. Good for groups of old ladies and retards. It keeps them from murdering each other over that stray 34¢.

Don't blame Apple for crappy 3rd-party apps!
The 3rd-party developers moaned and demanded an SDK and Apple gave it to them.
If there are 500 guitar tuner apps out there, then it is not Apple's fault.
Now if someone like Reyburn Cybertuner, which is an $800 piano tuning app on Windows Mobile, would write their graphical tuning app for iPhone for say, $99 bucks, there would be less crap apps out there, but they won't do it because there is a low volume of downloaders.

Tis true ... 90% of the Apps in the Store are crap.

As is 90% of music, videos, movies, television, games, etc.

I am going to write a taser app for iPhone with sound effects and charge $999 bucks. My goal...2 downloads...that buys me a new Macbook. I am rich crossed the flexible line for moral standards and Apple was right to yank it.
Let Micro$oft take advantage of the ignorant people, not Apple. Obama would take the middle ground on this just like he did on Russia/Georgia...sorry, I forgot I wasn't on the Huckabee forum.

The column is basically a rallying cry so that we all demand higher quality and more interesting mobile applications. Like everybody around here (I think) I have had MORE than enough tip calculators, currency calculators that don't download rates off the Internet, "location-based" apps that can't search anywhere OTHER than your current location, Sudoku games, subway maps that charge you for what you can get for free, and reformatted Web sites that work perfectly well in mobile Safari anyway. The people developing those apps should spend some more time with their families. You have to dredge through a LOT of that to get to the good stuff in the App Store.

I'm trying to suss out where the real innovators are, or why they're being held back. Not just people developing obvious things like office suites, VOIP, or other big useful stuff, but whatever the 'killer apps' will be that will transform the way we use mobile devices entirely. Is it a lack of ideas holding them back? Something about the structure of Apple's SDK? Fear? Lack of VC money? I try to touch on all of that in the column.

Aug 14, 08 - 11:25 am Comment from: Wade

Hey, the AppStore is a VersionTracker for the iPhone. Browse through all the apps at VersionTracker sometime. Better yet, spend a really infinite amount of time browsing the windoze side of VT and sift through that myriad of mediocrity to find a few good products, free, share, or commercial.

"As for headlines, I can just imagine the MDN staffers sitting around in a meeting:"

There's only one MDN Staffer, but I'm sure he argues with himself.

Aug 14, 08 - 11:36 am Comment from: seedavenkc

Pachyornis,

You made my day!

LOL

Aug 14, 08 - 11:48 am Comment from: DLMeyer

Sturgeon was an optimist.
OK, you could claim that 90% of the software in the app store is crap, just like 90% of the widgets available are crap, and 90% of the podcasts are crap, and ... BUT! That's counting the 1% you need, and the 1% I need, and the 1% my daughter-in-law needs (etc) as "good". Yeah ... you need to sort through a LOT of dross to come up with a really decent app, or widget, or podcast, or ...
Heck, HALF those items are near-duplicates of other like items. How many versions of a calculator do you need? How many updates are left lying around? We in Apple land should be thrilled that most of the games that PC owners get to choose from die before they get ported to the Mac. Same with other software.

Aug 14, 08 - 11:52 am Comment from: TexasAg03

So, if 90% of everything is crap, does that mean this article was 45% crap since it was half assed?

Aug 14, 08 - 12:16 pm Comment from: iDon't

Is crap only 90% crap? Does this mean I can get 10% non crap from pure crap? Does the contents of crap have to labeled?

OH CRAP!!! My head hurts.

One man's shit is another man's shinola...

perhaps what he meant to say is that '95% of these apps have no PERSONAL relevance to my life'

Aug 14, 08 - 12:24 pm Comment from: The Rude Bellman

To some it may be crap, to others it's fertilizer.

Aug 14, 08 - 12:24 pm Comment from: ChrisM

I think the amount of crap in general has risen with the dawning Web 2.0. The more tools become accessible to the masses, the more crap is released. YouTube proves that point spectacularly. But that 10% (I'd argue 1%) that is good, makes YouTube worth it. What was life without the numa-numa guy, or the fat Star Wars kid?

It's a shame that Sascha's article is a bit light on detail.

I'd expected a discussion/rant about:

- how difficult it is to find the decent apps on the store (mentioned, but not discussed in any great detail, eg. suggestions about how to resolve this)

- how the user ratings don't match "What's hot" or "Staff Favorites" (proving trash vs treasure)

- how the overview pages don't show ratings so you have to click the app to see if it's gotten good reviews

- not enough groupings - so the 50 different versions of Sudoku or Mahjong cannot be grouped into single lists (reminds me of when I go looking for MAME games.)

- how people can review apps they *haven't* actually purchased/downloaded (grrrrrr, this one needs to be fixed.)

- the possible future of the app store, be it smart searches, custom sorted lists of varying degrees, etc Is there even a way to search on apps rated with 5 stars?

- interesting ideas for novel new apps (I guess people don't like giving away great ideas anyway??)

- what does "Most Popular" mean anyway? Most downloaded? Best reviewed? Both? Something else? (although this comes under the trash vs treasure situation anyway.)

And to all those commenting and re-commenting on everything being 90% crap, well, good on you guys for perpetuating the rule.

In fact, one thing I'd like to see on the store is a way to mask things already downloaded/viewed. That way you wouldn't have to keep seeing the same old crap over and over.