Developing Perspective

00:00:00 ◼   ► Hello, and welcome to Developing Perspective. Developing Perspective is a podcast discussing

00:00:04 ◼   ► news of note and iOS development, Apple and the like. I'm your host, David Smith. I'm an independent

00:00:09 ◼   ► iOS developer based in Herndon, Virginia. This is show number 178. And today is Thursday, March 27.

00:00:16 ◼   ► Developing Perspective is never longer than 15 minutes. So let's get started. All right. So as

00:00:21 ◼   ► I had said in the last episode, I'm last week never never got a show. And that's because I was

00:00:26 ◼   ► I was at MSConf for the better part of last week, which was an awesome time.

00:00:31 ◼   ► I got to meet many of you, which was also very cool, and got to kind of get over a lot

00:00:36 ◼   ► of the apprehension I had about public speaking.

00:00:39 ◼   ► It's something I've done a very limited amount, if at all, previously, and certainly this

00:00:43 ◼   ► was the first time I'd ever been kind of just like up on the stage, you know, with a couple

00:00:47 ◼   ► hundred people in the audience looking at me.

00:00:50 ◼   ► And so I think it went pretty well, all things considered, and it was definitely kind of

00:00:53 ◼   ► a nice experience for that.

00:00:55 ◼   ► And my thanks to Scotty and all the folks

00:00:57 ◼   ► who organized that conference and allowed me to speak.

00:01:01 ◼   ► Of course, I'm kind of going a little crazy with conferences

00:01:04 ◼   ► this week, because tomorrow I'll be at CocoaConf, which

00:01:07 ◼   ► will actually just be here in my backyard in Herman, Virginia.

00:01:10 ◼   ► So I'm kind of doing two and two weeks, which might

00:01:13 ◼   ► have been slightly ill-advised.

00:01:14 ◼   ► It feels like it's been forever since I actually wrote code,

00:01:17 ◼   ► rather than writing keynote files.

00:01:19 ◼   ► But if you're going to be at CocoaConf tomorrow

00:01:21 ◼   ► and you hear this before then, please do stop me, grab me.

00:01:24 ◼   ► Let me know.

00:01:25 ◼   ► It's always fun to meet people who listen to the show.

00:01:29 ◼   ► Another interesting thing that happened in the last couple

00:01:32 ◼   ► of weeks is that Apple is apparently testing new search

00:01:35 ◼   ► stuff in the App Store, which I would love to have taken

00:01:39 ◼   ► complete credit for, which of course is, I'm sure,

00:01:41 ◼   ► completely wrong.

00:01:42 ◼   ► But obviously, last episode, it was all about how to think

00:01:45 ◼   ► these are practical ways that I think they could improve

00:01:47 ◼   ► searching in the App Store and the things that they're, in

00:01:50 ◼   ► theory, random screenshots from random people.

00:01:53 ◼   ► Who knows what that actually means?

00:01:54 ◼   ► But I'm glad to even just see that progress

00:01:57 ◼   ► is being made in that area.

00:01:59 ◼   ► At some level, I don't even really care

00:02:00 ◼   ► what they're actually changing so much as that they're

00:02:03 ◼   ► actually making progress, that they're actually

00:02:04 ◼   ► changing things.

00:02:05 ◼   ► That's the part that makes me excited.

00:02:07 ◼   ► That's the part that kind of got me jazzed when I saw that.

00:02:10 ◼   ► And maybe someone at Apple is listening, and if they are,

00:02:14 ◼   ► and you're starting to think about these changes, I love you.

00:02:18 ◼   ► You're awesome, and keep it up.

00:02:21 ◼   ► All right.

00:02:22 ◼   ► So today I'm going to be talking about practical changes in the App Store as they relate to

00:02:27 ◼   ► business models or as they relate more generally to things about the way that you can turn

00:02:33 ◼   ► an application into a business and the way that someone as a developer who makes my living

00:02:38 ◼   ► exclusively from the App Store.

00:02:40 ◼   ► This is something I think about a lot.

00:02:42 ◼   ► It's very, very personal and very important to me that the App Store has mechanisms in

00:02:47 ◼   ► place and does things in a way that allows me to make a good, make a living and, you

00:02:52 ◼   ► know, sustainable, reliable way. That's very, very important to me, because obviously that's

00:02:57 ◼   ► the thing that's, you know, paying pay my mortgage. And so whenever I start thinking

00:03:03 ◼   ► about business models and changes, I mean, it's always I think ripe with peril where

00:03:07 ◼   ► people start assuming that either old approaches are best because they're old, because they

00:03:15 ◼   ► they were what was working before.

00:03:16 ◼   ► I think about this a lot.

00:03:19 ◼   ► The transition from the old Mac indie sales from your website

00:03:24 ◼   ► model to a model that is in an app store, even.

00:03:29 ◼   ► I think there are very fundamental differences

00:03:31 ◼   ► about those that change the dynamics in a way

00:03:34 ◼   ► that if the model itself isn't updating and being made

00:03:37 ◼   ► current to that, it's unlikely to expect

00:03:39 ◼   ► that that's going to be the best thing for developers

00:03:41 ◼   ► or for customers.

00:03:43 ◼   ► And so that's just a sort of a caution that I always have when I start making these changes.

00:03:48 ◼   ► Along those lines, there's another caution that I, in general, I'm always very nervous

00:03:53 ◼   ► when Apple makes these kinds of changes.

00:03:55 ◼   ► And that's because obviously, like I said, I'm making my living in this.

00:03:59 ◼   ► And so while they could make a change that would be better for the store as a whole,

00:04:03 ◼   ► that could potentially not necessarily be better for me.

00:04:06 ◼   ► And so that's just kind of part of this game of overall, I would prefer to work in an environment

00:04:13 ◼   ► where I feel like it's the fairest, best, most sustainable

00:04:16 ◼   ► model for developers.

00:04:18 ◼   ► And if I have to adapt myself to that, so be it.

00:04:21 ◼   ► But it's always just something that I'm

00:04:23 ◼   ► in the back of my head, where the way the App Store is set up

00:04:26 ◼   ► right now is working OK for me.

00:04:28 ◼   ► I'm making my living, and this is fine.

00:04:30 ◼   ► And so I always get a little bit nervous

00:04:33 ◼   ► when I start suggesting that they make changes,

00:04:35 ◼   ► because I don't know the actual impacts that that would

00:04:38 ◼   ► have on me as a developer.

00:04:40 ◼   ► But all that said, so I have three main areas that I think--

00:04:45 ◼   ► practical, simple, straightforward things

00:04:47 ◼   ► they could do that I think would improve the business

00:04:49 ◼   ► environment in the App Store.

00:04:51 ◼   ► And the first-- and this is probably

00:04:53 ◼   ► the most important one.

00:04:54 ◼   ► And honestly, it's one of these things that

00:04:55 ◼   ► has been bugging me for a while, but I've never quite found

00:04:58 ◼   ► the right venue to talk about it in,

00:04:59 ◼   ► and this seems the right place--

00:05:02 ◼   ► is Apple needs to better explain the refund process and policy

00:05:09 ◼   ► in the App Store, and perhaps make it more accessible to users.

00:05:15 ◼   ► And what's important to note is that I didn't say Apple needs

00:05:19 ◼   ► to change their refund policy.

00:05:21 ◼   ► You'll often hear people talk about software trials

00:05:24 ◼   ► or these types of things.

00:05:25 ◼   ► And what we want is what they have on the Google Play Store,

00:05:28 ◼   ► where if you delete an application after so many hours

00:05:33 ◼   ► or something like that, you don't get charged for it.

00:05:36 ◼   ► There are things like that that you could do.

00:05:40 ◼   ► But I don't really like trials.

00:05:41 ◼   ► A lot of people ask for them.

00:05:43 ◼   ► In a thing about business models in the App Store,

00:05:45 ◼   ► I think a lot of people would have expected some talk of something

00:05:48 ◼   ► like software trials.

00:05:49 ◼   ► I don't like trials.

00:05:50 ◼   ► And most of why I don't like trials is because it creates kind of an awkward

00:05:55 ◼   ► thing for me as a developer.

00:05:56 ◼   ► Because with a trial, what you're doing is I'm giving you the app for free

00:06:02 ◼   ► and then asking you later to pay me for it.

00:06:06 ◼   ► Like that's the nature of a trial.

00:06:07 ◼   ► I'm giving it to you for free, and then I'm asking you for money later.

00:06:13 ◼   ► And while that sort of makes sense at some level, in terms of I want to try it out before

00:06:18 ◼   ► I know if I want to buy it, I always get uncomfortable with the expectations and the kind of the

00:06:24 ◼   ► marketing of that message of saying, "Here's this thing that I think is worth $5 for argument's

00:06:30 ◼   ► sake.

00:06:31 ◼   ► Here's this thing worth $5.

00:06:32 ◼   ► I'm going to give it to you for free, and then in two weeks, you're going to give me

00:06:35 ◼   ► $5 if you want to keep using it.

00:06:36 ◼   ► Which I can understand why that works, but I don't really like

00:06:40 ◼   ► the philosophy of that.

00:06:42 ◼   ► What I prefer, and it's a model that applies, I think, to most

00:06:45 ◼   ► other purchases we have in life that I think works very well.

00:06:49 ◼   ► And I think the typical customer is very used to, is when you go

00:06:53 ◼   ► to a store, you buy something, you hand them the $5, and you

00:06:57 ◼   ► know that if it turns out you don't want it, you can take it

00:07:00 ◼   ► back and you'll get your $5 back.

00:07:02 ◼   ► And it's a subtle difference.

00:07:04 ◼   ► It's not like a fundamental change in what's actually happening.

00:07:07 ◼   ► But I know a lot of people, a classic one is going to a clothing store, for example,

00:07:13 ◼   ► where sometimes you'll buy more than you actually want because you want to go home, try it on,

00:07:20 ◼   ► ask someone else's opinion.

00:07:21 ◼   ► There's a lot of scenarios where having that type of a refund policy that's very clear

00:07:26 ◼   ► and very straightforward to exercise as a customer makes me feel very comfortable.

00:07:31 ◼   ► And I think it makes me feel more comfortable in a lot of ways than having been at trial

00:07:34 ◼   ► would, where with a trial, I'm having to keep in my mind, do I want to pay for this?

00:07:38 ◼   ► Do I want to pay for this?

00:07:40 ◼   ► Whereas with the refund model, I've already paid for this.

00:07:43 ◼   ► I've already decided this was worth my attention, and I have an escape hatch if it turns out

00:07:47 ◼   ► I don't, which for me is anyway, as a customer, feels much less intimidating.

00:07:53 ◼   ► It's not something that, for example, I'm building up a debt essentially to a developer.

00:07:59 ◼   ► I don't like being in debt to people.

00:08:01 ◼   ► And so having a trial piece of software is basically that.

00:08:04 ◼   ► I'm putting myself in debt to them for a while.

00:08:07 ◼   ► And the App Store has a reasonable return policy.

00:08:10 ◼   ► A couple times I've used it, and it's gone fine and worked

00:08:14 ◼   ► as I would have hoped it.

00:08:15 ◼   ► You kind of go into iTunes Connect support,

00:08:18 ◼   ► or it's like report a problem.apple.com,

00:08:20 ◼   ► or something like that.

00:08:21 ◼   ► And you click the things.

00:08:22 ◼   ► And it's a very opaque process, though.

00:08:24 ◼   ► And if you asked, I think, most people

00:08:26 ◼   ► what the return policy for the App Store is, I imagine you'd hear very conflicting and

00:08:31 ◼   ► confusing results.

00:08:32 ◼   ► I think a lot of people have no idea what the return policy is.

00:08:36 ◼   ► And I think what all Apple needs to do is, because presumably they have some kind of

00:08:39 ◼   ► policy that if you ask for a return, you know, so many months after you purchased it, maybe

00:08:43 ◼   ► it's not applicable, or maybe you can.

00:08:46 ◼   ► And if that's the case, great, like, tell people about that.

00:08:49 ◼   ► Because the thing that I found is so complicated is I found it, I don't even really understand

00:08:54 ◼   ► the policy myself.

00:08:55 ◼   ► I haven't really found it anywhere.

00:08:57 ◼   ► And that I think is, that engenders that sense of, you know, it doesn't add that benefit,

00:09:04 ◼   ► even though it exists.

00:09:05 ◼   ► We don't, you, the developers don't get to enjoy the benefits of a return policy.

00:09:09 ◼   ► And with it, I think an increase in terms of users' willingness to buy paid applications,

00:09:14 ◼   ► to put money into something knowing that if it doesn't work out, I have seven days to

00:09:19 ◼   ► return it, or I have two days to return it, or I have 30 days to return it.

00:09:23 ◼   ► that very clear and potentially even making it a nice interface within the app store.

00:09:28 ◼   ► Or if you go into your purchased area in the app, if it's eligible for a refund, you have

00:09:32 ◼   ► the ability to request that directly from there.

00:09:35 ◼   ► I think developers would make far more money up from the increase in purchases, from people's

00:09:42 ◼   ► comfort of knowing they can return it, than they would lose from making that process of

00:09:46 ◼   ► returning it easier.

00:09:49 ◼   ► And honestly, even just the fundamental question of, I don't want people who don't like my

00:09:52 ◼   ► software to have given me money, that's negative advertising for me.

00:09:56 ◼   ► That's going to hurt my sales, I think, in the long run.

00:09:59 ◼   ► So if you don't like it, I'd far prefer to have gotten your money back so you can

00:10:03 ◼   ► move on, rather than if you ever encounter my application again, or you run into a friend

00:10:08 ◼   ► or someone, you have this negative thing in your mind that's like, "Oh man, I paid $5

00:10:11 ◼   ► for that and I never use it, and I hate it."

00:10:14 ◼   ► So that's the first thing.

00:10:15 ◼   ► I wish they would explain and make more obvious the refund policy that presumably currently

00:10:19 ◼   ► exists.

00:10:20 ◼   ► I don't even need it to change.

00:10:21 ◼   ► make it obvious and make it easy to access as a customer.

00:10:26 ◼   ► Next and number two, I wish there was slightly better policies around in-app purchases.

00:10:31 ◼   ► And this is something I'll link to a blog post I did about this several months ago.

00:10:35 ◼   ► But I think there's definitely a stigma around in-app purchases, especially consumable in-app

00:10:40 ◼   ► purchases in the App Store, specifically around a lot of the rise of these very kind of shady-ish

00:10:47 ◼   ► games.

00:10:48 ◼   ► And I was, like I said, I'm always trying to be careful about calling people names,

00:10:52 ◼   ► because sometimes I have some things that I think are cool, they, other people don't.

00:10:56 ◼   ► But I think there's a lot of, two main changes that could be done to the in app purchase

00:11:01 ◼   ► system.

00:11:02 ◼   ► It would make them just more honest and upfront with customers.

00:11:05 ◼   ► And I think being honest and upfront is all we have to do.

00:11:08 ◼   ► And ultimately, customers are responsible for their own actions.

00:11:11 ◼   ► And if they're putting money into a game, then that's their choice.

00:11:14 ◼   ► But I think there's two things that would make that much more straightforward.

00:11:17 ◼   ► The first is I think the app store should display

00:11:20 ◼   ► the average cost of a typical user or a median or something

00:11:24 ◼   ► like that on the purchase screen when you're buying it.

00:11:27 ◼   ► So when it says free, you understand

00:11:29 ◼   ► that it isn't actually likely going to be free,

00:11:31 ◼   ► that most users are putting money into it.

00:11:33 ◼   ► And I think that's an important thing both to set the user's

00:11:37 ◼   ► expectations correctly, but also to make sure

00:11:43 ◼   ► that there isn't quite as much of a differentiation

00:11:46 ◼   ► between paid and free.

00:11:47 ◼   ► Because right now, if you look at an app,

00:11:49 ◼   ► and one of them says free, and in tiny letters

00:11:51 ◼   ► it says offers in-app purchase.

00:11:53 ◼   ► And on the other app, it says $2.

00:11:55 ◼   ► You may end up actually spending the same amount of money

00:11:58 ◼   ► in both of those apps, but there's

00:11:59 ◼   ► a very strong marketing message communicated

00:12:02 ◼   ► by not having an average or typical price in the one case.

00:12:06 ◼   ► And the other one is on the purchase screen.

00:12:08 ◼   ► If you have consumable in-app purchases,

00:12:10 ◼   ► I think it should show your cumulative outlay

00:12:13 ◼   ► into the application as you're doing these purchases, just as a reminder of what's happening

00:12:18 ◼   ► and to make it clear to you how much you've invested into this application.

00:12:24 ◼   ► And that's for better or worse.

00:12:26 ◼   ► But being honest with our customers and being very clear about what they're doing seems

00:12:30 ◼   ► like a good idea.

00:12:31 ◼   ► And I mean, I remember Apple recently even got in trouble about this and had to change

00:12:35 ◼   ► some of their in-app purchase policies because of, I think it was the Federal Trade Commission

00:12:40 ◼   ► ruling or something like that.

00:12:42 ◼   ► a lot of peril and things that can go on with in-app purchases that I think doing those

00:12:48 ◼   ► the tooth making adding those two changes to the App Store not changing any of the policies

00:12:51 ◼   ► around them but just informing our customers better would improve. And lastly, and this

00:12:57 ◼   ► is a fairly maybe a bit more controversial is I think generally the App Store should

00:13:01 ◼   ► get rid of the top grossing list and replace it with I don't even know either just remove

00:13:06 ◼   ► it or replace it with something that potentially only included paid apps. The reason I remember

00:13:11 ◼   ► back a couple years ago that the top grossing list was added,

00:13:15 ◼   ► at least ostensibly, was to deal with the issue of high cost

00:13:19 ◼   ► paid apps not showing up in the paid apps list,

00:13:23 ◼   ► because those are based on volume.

00:13:25 ◼   ► And so if you have a low volume, high cost application,

00:13:29 ◼   ► you wouldn't show up.

00:13:31 ◼   ► And I think that's a great goal.

00:13:32 ◼   ► And I think that's something that

00:13:34 ◼   ► would be a worthwhile thing to show to users,

00:13:36 ◼   ► that here are some apps that are generating a lot of revenue,

00:13:39 ◼   ► and doing it by having a high price.

00:13:42 ◼   ► But I think those lists stop making sense

00:13:43 ◼   ► when in-app purchase is included in that, because they

00:13:46 ◼   ► immediately become so flooded with things

00:13:49 ◼   ► like these consumable games or things.

00:13:51 ◼   ► And perhaps you could even just differentiate and say,

00:13:53 ◼   ► consumable in-app purchase doesn't

00:13:55 ◼   ► count in the grossing list, or something like that.

00:13:57 ◼   ► But generally, I would even just be

00:13:58 ◼   ► happy to just get rid of them, because I

00:14:00 ◼   ► don't think they're constructive.

00:14:01 ◼   ► I don't think they're showing useful, actionable information

00:14:04 ◼   ► to the customer, necessarily.

00:14:05 ◼   ► They're just something that is an avenue for abuse

00:14:12 ◼   ► within the App Store.

00:14:13 ◼   ► All right, that's it for today's show.

00:14:14 ◼   ► As always, if you have questions, comments, concerns,

00:14:16 ◼   ► or complaints, I'm on Twitter @_davidsmith,

00:14:18 ◼   ► david@developingperspective.com.

00:14:20 ◼   ► Otherwise, I hope you have a great week.

00:14:22 ◼   ► Happy coding.

00:14:22 ◼   ► And if you're at Cocoa Con for this weekend,

00:14:24 ◼   ► make sure you say hi.

00:14:25 ◼   ► Bye.