iBamse, you have a good idea, but it's not practical. To "get in touch with your customers" you have to know who they are- or how to communicate with them. As numerous developers have pointed out, Apple builds a wall and doesn't let developers communicate with customers. Try collecting customer info in your app and Apple rejects it.

To market outside the App Store, as our web developer 'friend' advocates, you could run Google AdWords ads, although 97% would be wasted because the iPhone is still a very small part of the market- and it it's infinite wisdom, Google AdWords prohibits you from including the word "iPhone" in your ad. I tried, and they repeatedly rejected it. I can run an add to the whole world, but I can't target iPhone users on Google. Nor can you target iPhone users. You can target "smartphones" but that includes a variety of devices, and thus wastes valuable marketing dollars. To target only iPhone users, you can run AdMob ads, but the only one that pays off for is AdMob.

In a nutshell, save the lectures about marketing unless you've developed your own app and somehow managed to find a way to successfully market it to the masses- outside of the App Store. Once you figure out how to do that, we'd love to hear your secrets. In the meantime, get off your pedestal and stop throwing rocks!

At least spend a little time on creating a proper website with a proper user manual, extensive screen shot gallery and support section with an FAQ, online support forum and some kind of warranty as to how many updates I can expect and how often they will arrive.

Do your freaking homework. Get in touch with your customers!

It is DEAD SIMPLE!

Welcome to independent distribution!

Maybe take a page from their book and start marketing your product outside of iTunes to generate some buzz like mentioned above. iTunes is a great channel to distribute and monitize your hard work, they said nothing about free marketing - that's your job as well. The last five apps I bought, I found through website reviews, not iTunes top 10.

An app that's $5+, draws my attention.

1) Do developers need to work harder now that the market is crowded, and are they primarily the ones responsible for their own success or failure? Yes.

2) Do certain structures and policies of the App Store throw unnecessary roadblocks into the face of developers trying their honest best at #1? Yes.

The answer to the oddly worded question "App Store Broken or Developers?" is simply "yes."

on the phone I fired up iTunes and searched for Microsoft CRM. Boom. There it was.

If I was using Microsoft CRM THATS exactly what I would search for.

I hope this doesn't start a trend of asking how to find every one of 85,000 apps...

My point was simply, uploading to iTunes doesn't grant you free publicity. Just cause you made something doesn't mean you can stop "selling" it.

I buy my apps based on 3 things, reviews, descriptions (if you can't speak English or use propper in your description, find someone that CAN to write it for you! And SELL it to me, don't brag, just tell me what the hell it does!) and price. Within reason.

I would gladly keep discussion with you but I don’t see any valid counter-point on your reply

No, you'd rather suggest that anyone who disagrees with you must be living in their mother's basement, which clearly shows that you don't know the meaning of valid counter-points... and are incapable of intelligently discussing anything with anyone.

http://www.numenes.com/en/Home.html

, I still think that is Apple responsibility to better showcase all the apps that end up buried under a 75000-app mountain.

Surely you must see the logical inconsistency in that!?

Somebody has to be at the bottom.

Independent devs probably need to also look into being independent marketing and sales people if they want to continue making money on iPhone apps. Any time or energy spent hoping, wishing and otherwise commenting/whinging/opining about how the App Store is broken is probably going to be wasted time seeing as how Apple had sold millions upon millions of iPhones before there even was an App Store and developers to keep happy. Now that they've sold 50+ million iPhones ...well, if they lose a few devs that were more or less making a variation of something that already came in 19 other variations... Doesn't sound like anything to be worried about, at least from their point of view.

That said, the store doesn't work that well for consumers either. We don't need 100,000+ apps. We need probably about 1/10 or even less. As others have said we need a better way to search based upon multiple criteria and a bunch of other changes. Having developers leave the store is probably a good thing in the long run. After every gold rush you will have a contraction but then you'll have a more reasonable number of developers who can make good apps and there will still be competition so that great apps are made and will still benefit consumers.

I personally never look at games and mostly shop on Marco's B store. However, I'm not someone who has to buy new apps all the time either, so something has to grab me and be truly useful to me in order for me to get it.

And for the record, Ramp Champ is by FAR the best Skee Ball game on the platform. Hands down. And now, I don't work for them.

...either you are an office monkey that has never run an independent project, or you still live at your parents basement and your mamma still pays for your dinner.

No. But I'm a web developer and online business merchant, and spend more time marketing my two stores than I spend doing anything else. It's a lot of work. There are no signs for people to drive by, and no kids dressed in furry costumes to wave to customers from the side of the road. I have to FIND creative ways every single day to bring in business from people who have thousands of other stores to choose from.

Producing a great quality is not directly proportional with good sales or app store notoriety.

Like Podmonkey, you must have me confused with someone else.

Apple has to work in a better system that Top 50 or Featured Apps.

Apple has to do NOTHING. Work... and quit expecting handouts, and for someone else to make you successful.

If you think it's a business, then run it like one and get the word out about your great app. If it's worthwhile, people will pay for quality, but it's up to the developer to make the case, not Apple, and certainly not other consumers. Don't cry about pricing, when your not doing anything to market the product!!

Say something valuable instead of just saying all the developers of the millions of apps out there are wrong.

You must have me mistaken for someone else. I don't seem to be able to find that remark in my comments.

fastlane, how can you logically comment on the App Store approval and developer application process if you know nothing about it?

Check out the last sentence in the article: "Which one do you shop at? And why?"

It doesn't sound to me as though that question is directed at developers, but rather consumers. So, perhaps you're in the wrong place.

Good luck.

3 things thats irk me are a) cant search from top downloads, sorry but an app with 3 reviews or non that list under top downloaded or top 25 is pure bullshit.

trial modes, sorry but no manual, no boxing, no nothing, should then bring trial modes, while some release lite version others dont, but this once you buy you can't return is also bullshit.

and alas, the store is filled with 99cents or just 90% crapware which in reality is kinda funny, content dont exist for a simple reason, no way to search for quality, there is no organization of it. its what itunes say is #1 but is it really #1? why cant i sort with release date, most downloaded, most reviewed, etc. simple basics.

with apple saying what is #1 and the fake reviews in the store, its destined for the crapware that exists in it.

the best expression of the itunes store is the iphones 75,000 app commercial while it may have 75,000 apps the duration one would use it, is how long the commercial ran and then they would get deleted.

So how do you as a consumer decide what something is worth?

Something is WORTH what the buyer is willing to PAY.

I would have thought anyone with a junior high school education would know that.

BTW complaining about not being able to interact with your customers and get bug reports/fb have you ever heard of a website? iTunes will give you a link where you show info on your app to your website... forums work wonders and some of the better apps out there have taken that as common sense.

First, if you aren’t a developer then you shouldn’t even comment.

I wasn't going to till you threw that out there.

But now that you assert censorship authority, I have no other course of action but to step over your line in the sand.

Simply put, Putting out applications, (iphone or otherwise) for the sake of putting out apps is a foolish business model for anything but games.

If you are skilled in a specific industry, and see a problem in need of fixing, or an application that can solve a problem then by all means, go build it. Advertise on Google by simply putting up a page. People will come.

Apps are EITHER tools or toys. Take your pick.

If you want to make toys, go write games. Take your 15 minutes of fame and be happy.

If you want to make tools, you better know a LOT about the subject under discussion.

If you make forks for left handed people one day, and a sewing needle sharpener the next and follow it up with an engine vibration measurement app, don't be surprised when people think your apps are unfocused, ill designed, poorly implemented and next to useless.

If you don't know your subject area, you are simply churning out mediocre tools to solve problems that don't exist.

Useful applications do not exist because a programmer somewhere was scratching around for something they could write a few lines of code about, and sell for a quick buck. The novelty of having a computer in your pants pocket does not justify turning it into a flashlight.

They exist to solve a problem.

If you don't understand the area of expertise or the industry, you will be no more successful than a framing carpenter designing Dental Prostheses. Ask George Washington how well that turned out. You don't belong in the App Business. Its not a generic trade, any more than the ability to write automatically makes you a novelist.

Marketing is not about better quality, its about having more money. The App Store should be a level playing field and it is not, its that simple. How did FIFA10 get that upper banner spot? As a developer, we should all be able to bid on that spot. When Apple put them there, they jumped into the Top Grossing in 1 day.

Nonsense.

I have quite a few 4.99 and up apps, and they are worth it.

Also, market your apps... You can't put a product on the market and forget it, it'll fail, even if it's the greatest idea since the Wheel.

Just facts.

You basically have to submit your app out and cross your fingers. If you are EA, Gameloft, Glu, etc then you almost automatically get higher billing simply because it makes Apple look good. However while Apple pushes them up this also pushes most independent developers down because you have no way of breaking this boundary.

Also, the definition of a "good" app is really in the eye of the beholder and entertainment. TomTom is just mediocre when compared to many of the competitors And you fastlane are in the minority if you are buying only apps that are over $10. I personally think BeeJiveIM has a terrible UI. Just because it has a high price tag does not make it more entertaining or mean it has higher utility. It simply means that developer selected that pricing tier when they submitted it.

There are so many "good" apps most people will never find because the process and functionality of how the store works means no one will ever see them. Also, you can pay for placement under the current model. You could literally buy your way to the top if you wanted to.

I have made good money as a developer, but it is getting harder to get any sort of exposure under the current model. It is very clear that the store is moving away from independent developers and more to mainstream publishers, much like the normal game industry.

If they won't promote their own product, why should they expect Apple to do it for them?

Some examples of great apps...

BeejiveIM - $16.00 LogMeIn - $30.00 QuickOffice - $13.00 GuitarToolkit - $10.00 FTP On The Go - $7.00

I've only bought the apps listed above, along with a few others that were below five dollars (nine total), since the App Store opened. I don't buy crApps.

Sorry, but I'm the least bit sympathetic.