app store

Apple’s App Store in recent years has arguably gotten too big for its own good. With more than 2 million apps currently available for download, finding exactly what you’re looking for can often be an exercise in frustration. This dynamic is only exacerbated by the plethora of unscrupulous app developers who often employ underhanded SEO tactics in order to make their apps more visible in search queries. Additionally, some developers will purposefully employ long app names and alternate spellings of popular apps in order to trick unsuspecting users.

Thankfully, Apple is finally getting around to cleaning up shop. Earlier today, Apple said that it plans to remove much of the clutter that currently resides on the App Store.

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Even though Android handsets cumulatively account for a majority share of the smartphone market, Apple’s iOS ecosystem remains vastly more profitable for developers relative to Google Play. According to research data recently tabulated by App Annie, the average app found on Apple’s App Store tends to generate nearly four times as much revenue as an app found on Google’s rival platform.

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Ever since its inception, the rules governing the App Store have more or less stayed the same. Sure, Apple has implemented various tweaks and enhancements over the years, but the underlying fundamentals have largely remained unchanged.

Well, it’s time to buckle up folks, because Apple is planning to completely revamp the way we think about and purchase software. In a wide-ranging interview with The Verge, Apple executive Phil Schiller detailed all of the changes Apple plans to roll out to the App Store experience in the near future.

First and foremost, Apple will soon allow developers to sell subscription-based apps across any category. As it stands today, only a few type of apps (news, dating, audio streaming) have the ability to offer users subscription pricing.

“Now we’re going to open up to all categories,” Schiller explained, “and that includes games, which is a huge category.”

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Apple is really, really good at some things and really, really bad at others. Every company obviously has strengths and weaknesses, but Apple’s seem to be further apart on the spectrum than most companies. And somewhere on the opposite side of that spectrum from “building gorgeous smartphones” lies “App Store search,” a crucial app discovery feature that, quite frankly, couldn’t be any worse than it is right now. You can literally search for some apps by name and not find them anywhere in your results.

Well, Apple is finally starting to take its App Store search problem more seriously according to a new report, and it may have found a way to boost its services revenue in the process. More →