The app store that Apple has set up is a very closed system that is filled with many perils. As a developer for the iPhone and iPod touch, I have seen many of these woes. From the build process to the actual approval process, no area is without its problems. The ‘recently released’ area, which can be found by drilling down a category while in the app store app on the device, is one of those problems. This list was also the main area that developers were actually guaranteed to be in upon the release of their app. The loophole was closed a few weeks ago and now the list only represents the recently released apps that are brand new to the store. Below is my story about how I stumbled upon the change.

The app store ‘Release Date’ list was recently frozen and in severe disarray. By frozen, I mean that the list was filled with apps that had dates ranging from November 12th to December 1st. The mayhem started on thanksgiving and appears to be settled now as the recently released list has its normal assortment of apps from the current day.

On November 25th, an update for an app of mine that is on the store was approved. Upon receiving the “Application ready for sale” email, I rushed to log onto itunes connect to change the availability date to the date of the email (standard procedure for releasing an app). After the date was changed, I waited a few hours for the app servers to sync and then I checked the ‘Release Date’ list like I normally do after the release of an update… it wasn’t there. This is when I stumbled onto the yellow brick road of change that Apple had so graciously laid out-silently, without hesitation of notifying the developers.

I clung to a small glimmer of hope that it would show up the next day; I couldn’t have been more disappointed. That night I began to notice apps from a myriad of dates on the ‘Release Date’ list. The app store was now frozen and things on the inside were changing, for better or for worse. I assumed that the freeze wouldn’t thaw until Monday when Apple returned from their turkey day exodus. Monday came and went and the new release list was still frozen. I had another update approved on December 1st… it was unfrozen the next day, but things had changed and my updated app was lost in the fray.

I changed the date of availability like I normally would, but my app didn’t/wouldn’t show up. Upon further investigation, it turns out that they had fixed a loophole that caused every app that had been recently released, to be tumbled into the ‘Release Date’ list. It was changed to reflect only apps that are new to the app store that were recently released. This is a good thing and a bad thing. It is a good thing because now the useless updates should slow to a trickle and it should help to cut out some of the “clutter” apps. On the bad side of things, it cuts out another avenue for apps to be seen.

Another possible negative side effect, that a fellow developer brought up, is that now spammers will more than likely be releasing multiple versions of the same app, just so that they may stay on top of this list. These brand new apps will probably be pulled after their sales begin to plummet and then re-released as a brand new app. The brand new app will be a mirror image of the previous version and will only have a different ID on Apple’s servers. The user will see this new app on the ‘Release Date’ list again and (more than likely) assume that it was an update and download it again, giving no thought to paying again because they are under the assumption that it is an update.

Another good change to the app store would be to have a ‘recently updated’ list so that apps that get updated can be seen. Although this list should have a filter on submissions. It is widely known that apps are being scanned for the use of private api’s. Why not compare the submitted version to the previous version and check for changes. This would cut out the ‘fake updates’ -updates that didn’t change the app itself, but exploited the ‘Release Date’ loophole so that they would stay be on the list more. With this change, the app store would once again allow little developers, that have a tiny market penetration, a chance to have their diamond in the rough, be bought by the masses.