Can An App Cheat Just By Its Name?
Our wonderful Den Den Boy is out of town for a few days on an impromptu vacation, so I'll be filling in his shoes with as much Apple news as I can possible stomach. That said, I do have a confession: I broke down and bought the new iPhone 3G this weekend. Yeah, I know, I have my issues with Apple, but I have a hard time hating a damn cool product when I see it!
Now that I have that off my chest, I have to say that I'm enjoying it. A lot. I've tried tons of the free apps over the weekend (I'm a bit cheap, I'll wait for reviews on the paid apps before forking the cash) and have been pleasantly surprised with the quality and relative diversity of apps ready to go today, which truly excites me for the future of the platform. But, apparently, I'm only happy about it because I'm not a developer.
You see, many developers are a little ticked off about lack of control on app names. Why does this make a difference? Let's say the name of my app is "Unicorns For Sugar And Love." Now, you would think that because the app name starts with an U, it would be lower in the list, but because of a slight oversight in the naming conventions on Apple's end, I can change that by placing an empty space or two in front of the U or a quotation mark. By doing that, I move my app up the list, which many other developers are calling unfair.
I see their point, but I have to say it's kinda a lame fight to pick. A BIG piece of marketing ANY product is the name, and all pieces of that need to be considered. Will the name grab your attention? Where will it be placed? Does it describe your product well enough to get people to look at it? All of these pieces are important, and if you didn't think about that when you title your product, that's your fault. However, if your product's name is 11 Aardvarks, you would guess it be near the top. With the current policy of the App Store though, my Unicorns For Sugar And Love could be higher if I just use a small little cheat.
Is this cheating, or just smart marketing?
[via: Gizmodo]
Jesse James
Posted to In the News on 14 July 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: App Store, Apple, Cheats, Developers, iPhone 2.0
I know it's pedantic and unnecessary, but the title of this article, if the contracted word were expanded out to two words, would be: Can An App Cheat Just By It Is Name?
Good call, thanks! Updated
I'll cal it cheating just because it's ugly. Apple should definitely do something about this, lest their download service look as clean and polished as Napster (the real one.)