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App Store Reviews: credit where it’s due

Great move by Apple today. One thing that has always bugged me about reviews of higher-priced applications such as the love of my life, OmniFocus, (and to a lesser extent, Exposure Premium) has been that some people tend to abuse the App Store’s review system to protest the price.

For any software of any appreciable complexity, the sine qua non of a review of that software is that the reviewer has at least been in possession of a copy of the software. Simply complaining that you won’t pay the price of an application is fine, but in no sense whatsoever is that a review of the software. If you have purchased the app, and still don’t think it represents value then, by all means, say that in a review. Don’t hijack the purpose of a review to push your ideas about software pricing.

The App Store has always had enough data to enforce this requirement, since it knows which accounts have downloaded each title. Until now, that hasn’t been enforced. I and other developers have requested that it should be, in order to keep the review system as a venue for actual reviews that are worthy of the name.

Thank you, Apple.

Congrats Apple. There is wayyy too many people sitting around with nothing but negative things to say and with motive other than helpful. A great move!

I also applaud Apple for creating this requirement.

There was too much of a negative tone set by people WHINING about a product that they have never bought or tried. The Never Bought Price Whiners particularly set a negative and distasteful tone which prejudiced a product from consideration without good reason.

Good riddance to the Never Bought Whiners.

This is a duh moment for Apple. The “reviews” that complain about price (or any other misgivings) without having previously downloaded the app aren’t reviews at all. They’re comments. Just like this one.