I think we'd be better off if we had people who curated apps, then rate the curators.
The App Store has such a limited interface, that's it like walking into a minefield. You can't tell if something is crap or not until you've blown your money.
Apple doesn't even try to prevent you from buying crapware because they've already made their money.
Android used to have an hour-long window after you purchased an app to get a full refund with the tap of your screen. Then they knocked it down to 15 minutes, which, depending on the app, may not be long enough to install and test out the app. Then as you suggested, Apple has nothing like that in place at all. It's kind of frustrating as a customer.
I don't really trust high star rating but I'm inclined to trust lower star ratings. What I mean by that is if an app has 4-5 stars I don't assume it's good (unless it's an indie title) I assume they paid for the ratings. If an app has 1-3 stars I will read the reviews to see if my device or my use-case are mentioned (ie. Doesn't work on iPhone X OR Works great except feature X seems broken) but if the reviews are all "This sucks!!!!" or "Don't Buy" then I will take them into consideration but it won't stop be from downloading necessarily.
I'm with you on this. Five-star ratings don't pass my astroturf gut check these days. One-star [1] or two-star or three-star ratings are usually there because there is some glaring flaw that everyone is upset about, and it's usually worth reading the reviews to see if it's a problem I'll also encounter.
Fifty percent of the time, that "flaw" is a bunch of complaints about price or IAP [2]. The other 50% is crashing on certain devices. Vanishingly few people with thoughtful, in-depth grievances about an app will actually take the time to review it. They'll just delete the app and move on. So there is a bit of a selection bias at play in the ratings set.
[1] I do feel there's a big gulf between one star and two stars. At least in my anecdotal experience, a one-star rating often means the app is so buggy as to be borderline unusable, or else fundamentally flawed in some way. A two-star rating is a very different animal; it often means the app itself shows promise, but it is priced poorly, or else it has stability issues on certain OS versions or devices. Three stars is where you start to enter the territory of legitimately mixed opinion about an app's quality in and of itself. (Assuming, of course, that the number of reviews is large enough.)
[2] Incidentally, these complaints are often valid, albeit expressed in very peremptory ways. I'm not dismissing them, especially when they concern pay-to-play IAP mechanisms. But I do take them with a grain of salt.
They are very easily bought on services like Fiverr. There was a show on CBC News (the Canadian public broadcaster) that showed how easy it was to buy positive ratings on Yelp, G+, and App Stores -- apparently it mostly works and is fairly cheap.
I wouldn't download a Retail app of any sort anyway. I may be a geek here but I think approach is likely to catch on rather than die away.
Even with all the hype, an "app" is supposed to be something more than a website or a brochure. I can't see much of a future in particular retailer or state agencies or whatever turning their websites into apps - it only really has the force of novelty on its side. Consumers will learn the uselessness of such things in the way that they previously learned the uselessness of free pens and other novelty material items.
[+] [-] drivingmenuts|11 years ago|reply
The App Store has such a limited interface, that's it like walking into a minefield. You can't tell if something is crap or not until you've blown your money.
Apple doesn't even try to prevent you from buying crapware because they've already made their money.
[+] [-] toxican|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joshstrange|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonnathanson|11 years ago|reply
Fifty percent of the time, that "flaw" is a bunch of complaints about price or IAP [2]. The other 50% is crashing on certain devices. Vanishingly few people with thoughtful, in-depth grievances about an app will actually take the time to review it. They'll just delete the app and move on. So there is a bit of a selection bias at play in the ratings set.
[1] I do feel there's a big gulf between one star and two stars. At least in my anecdotal experience, a one-star rating often means the app is so buggy as to be borderline unusable, or else fundamentally flawed in some way. A two-star rating is a very different animal; it often means the app itself shows promise, but it is priced poorly, or else it has stability issues on certain OS versions or devices. Three stars is where you start to enter the territory of legitimately mixed opinion about an app's quality in and of itself. (Assuming, of course, that the number of reviews is large enough.)
[2] Incidentally, these complaints are often valid, albeit expressed in very peremptory ways. I'm not dismissing them, especially when they concern pay-to-play IAP mechanisms. But I do take them with a grain of salt.
[+] [-] bhouston|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] somerandomone|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] herbig|11 years ago|reply
User surveys seem like a really poor metric here.
Also, being posted by the article creator, 12 upvotes and only 1 comment seems to suggest gaming the system.
[+] [-] benologist|11 years ago|reply
And at least one account helping out with comments exclusively on his submissions: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=Kaibert123
[+] [-] jsonchen|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] giarc|11 years ago|reply
Even though I know people game the system, I still glance at the number of stars when downloading an app.
[+] [-] joe_the_user|11 years ago|reply
Even with all the hype, an "app" is supposed to be something more than a website or a brochure. I can't see much of a future in particular retailer or state agencies or whatever turning their websites into apps - it only really has the force of novelty on its side. Consumers will learn the uselessness of such things in the way that they previously learned the uselessness of free pens and other novelty material items.
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] cjg_|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MrDosu|11 years ago|reply
Myself working in the field of statistics this really makes me cringe...
[+] [-] martin_tipgain|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Kaibert123|11 years ago|reply
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