There has been a couple of blog posts lately regarding the bloggy criticism of iOS applications by other app developers as well as general tech bloggers. These posts seem to suggest that iOS developers should band together and not criticize each others applications. I generally agree with the statement “be excellent to each other” – but if that means patting each others backs and saying good job even if the application has flaws then the iOS platform is in trouble. I think that one of the great things about the iOS platform is the constant push to make something that is greater and more amazing than what has been done before.
Getting criticism, be it from users through app reviews or emails or from bloggers, is a great way to push everyone to make better applications. I can clearly identify with the fact that developers have an emotional connection to the applications that they make. None of my applications make a huge amount of money and my main motivation is to provide people with great tools to use on their phone – so getting emails or reviews saying “this app sucks” is a feeling not much different than helping a complete stranger just to have them spit at you.
In my opinion, the app review system setup by Apple is one of the greatest innovations of the iOS platform and has been instrumental in the success of the App Store – before this the only way to give feedback was to email the developer and then they could do whatever they wanted – you had already paid for the app so they had no incentive to actually fix the issue. With public reviews and a rating system the incentive to fix issues brought up is much greater and this is something that will push apps to become better. Several times this has brought great new features to my apps and alerted me to features that were not as intuitive as I had originally thought.
Like many other Apple enthusiasts I was very excited for the launch of The Daily. Like many others I was disappointed at the initial product. I think that a lot of people expected the app to be Apple Great (like Maps, Garage Band etc) because of the hype and media buildup for the app and the apparent endorsement of the app by Apple. However, the app has several short falls which were pointed out and suggestions for improvements with implementation were posted. I do not understand why the developer of the app would be surprised that the app got a harsh reception when the developer admits himself that there were issues with the app that if they had longer time could have been sorted out.
I hope that the iOS developer community is grown up enough that we can accept criticism of our work and that we can learn from this and all strive towards making excellent if not perfect apps.
