Brighthouse labs spamming App Store

drifter7508 · 04-21-2009, 04:19 PM

Anyone else than me that think this behaviour should not be accepted?!
Almost every category is spammed with crap apps from this developer right now! Wtf!!

dot · 04-21-2009, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drifter7508

Anyone else than me that think this behaviour should not be accepted?!
Almost every category is spammed with crap apps from this developer right now! Wtf!!

Wow, he has over 400 apps in the store. I wonder how much he's making.

noobAppDeveloper · 04-21-2009, 04:30 PM

Wow, 38 pages of it too.

refreshe · 04-21-2009, 04:34 PM

brighthouse labs

Yeah I'd say 38 pages of apps in what..a month or so? is a bit excessive

They have all the classics too: "X Sports Fan", "X Quotes", "X slide puzzle", "Supa Fan X"....where you replace "X" with a celebrity, animal, sports team.

I'm just surprised Apple let this all though...in such a short period of time.

Bostwick · 04-21-2009, 04:42 PM

The graphics used probably aren't even theirs.

This is annoying because not only are all of these apps simplistic, but if you combine all of the Slide Puzzles you get one app that is probably available by someone already for 1.99...and it has more features.

All these do is slow down the review process, I'd imagine.

**odysseus31173** · 04-21-2009, 05:19 PM

Wow, that is rediculous.

hrgpac · 04-21-2009, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by odysseus31173

Wow, that is rediculous.

And look the date 21/04/2009....

Clearly this is a deal with apple, just for the release date (and all of us know that we must take care of that)...

They have almost 7 PAGES, near to 80 apps released TODAY...

like 60 apps released yesterday

You must be kidding!!!

This has to be an arragement with APPLE, for the approval process and everything (look at the dates)....

we are complaining about approvals and everything....

apple should be clear about HOW MUCH IT COST:

GET FEATURED
GET APPROVALS ON TIME
....

gbh · 04-21-2009, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drifter7508

Anyone else than me that think this behaviour should not be accepted?!
Almost every category is spammed with crap apps from this developer right now! Wtf!!

Absolutely Crazy

hrgpac · 04-21-2009, 09:26 PM

But let's be honest... after the FART INCIDENT... a lot of people is playing with the system and is just question of money...

These guys (Brighthouse labs) should have a lot of resources (people)... and maybe a enterprise relationship with apple...

By just probability they are trying to get 1% or more of appstore downloads
( 40,000 apps and they have only more than 400)...

Since the appstore is a "meritocracy" (yes, you wish!), these apps are going to disappear with time, but with the side effect of let some small developers down...

Let's be honest about this, apple wants bigger firms supporting the device... From an enterprise point of view, they don't give a damn if "john doe" makes an excellent software, innovative or whatever.... THEY DO CARE THAT:

Lucas Arts
Konami
EA
Google
Disney
......

Support the device and even PAY for deadlines, launch dates (just remember the force unleashed), featuring the app (even in commercials and mac events)... Obviously, this is a business of a zillion bucks targeting the final consumer and "SELLING THE ADOPTION OF THOUSANDS of devs"....AND THEY EVEN PAY FOR PROGRAMMING FOR US...

Because they're selling the platform to the bigger firms... (june is coming

)

gbh · 04-21-2009, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hrgpac

But let's be honest... after the FART INCIDENT... a lot of people is playing with the system and is just question of money...

That fellow, Joel Comm, is one of the greatest internet marketers (before ifart, not after). The entire ifart app was just a experiment to try to get stats of sales to rank for his blog and books(Joel has a best seller marketing book).

but that being said, it showed apple (and others) that millions can be made from gum ball machine mentality apps (99 cents is ALWAYS disposable income). ifart is in the top 20 all time best selling apps. There is no point to cater to big corporations, that would require contracts that are not so one sided.

jdk2man · 04-21-2009, 10:41 PM

Seriously, Im surprised that Apple lets it, but lets be honest, do they really care? They are making a boat load off of every app that sales and sales are not going to drop due to over saturation. People will still buy an app when they want something new.
the only ones that loose are developers.

But if you look at it from their (the ones the OP is talking about) point of view, the more you have out there, the better your odds.
I mean, if you have 400 crappy apps that average 1 sale a day, thats $400 a day which adds up to $146,000 per year before apples bite.
And thats for doing nothing once they are out there.

Its really no different than cold calling people. If I am selling something worthless and 1 person out of 200 buys it, if I just call 2000 people, I will have made 10 sales (on average) That is the same thing they are doing.
There are millions of people out there downloading stuff, all you need is one out of, what (how many iphone, Ipod touch people are out there) buy 1 of your apps a day.
Ca-ching!

There are other doing the same thing on this board (not I, unfortunately I havent done squat yet) that are making (so they say) 7-12K a month. They have a few different types of apps, but multiple versions of each one.

Honestly, the people who are going to make lots of money are going to be the people that have many apps making a little bit each. There will be a few that make it big on one app, but most of the "wealthy" will have lots of apps.

johnqh · 04-21-2009, 11:45 PM

This is why I think Apple should charge for per app.

drifter7508 · 04-22-2009, 01:23 AM

For me this is the same spam as Viagra emails. And the people behind it
deserves a punch in their face.

Make 20+ apps - featuring the same stupid simple puzzle and just
exchange the background picture in it.

Worthless fan apps that "steals" a wikipedia web page for biography
straight off!

This really fucks it up for developers trying to get a start with
a new app or update drowning in this ****.

There is no thought or love behind these apps. The only idea
is to make money with "massive number spam".

Its amazing that Apple let this happen.

jtara · 04-22-2009, 01:25 AM

But then again, how big is the market for cow jokes?

john3478 · 04-22-2009, 02:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtara

But then again, how big is the market for cow jokes?

I think, the sales most likely one to none and being ignored. It might be good for the first two weeks.

jdk2man · 04-22-2009, 07:57 AM

While I totally agree that methods like Brighthouse is doing is no different than viagra and that Apple should do something, but what could they do?
I mean really, what can Apple do?
It would be totally different if the App store WAS NOT the only place to buy Apps, then they could pick and choose what they sale. But since they are the ONLY place, they really can't discriminate. No matter how bad the app is.

All they can really do is post guidelines an enforce those. There are probably over 40k apps out there. If Apple went through and cleaned up 15K of those, they wouldnt just have 25K apps, they would have 15k lawsuits. And they know it.

Lets look at the Fart Apps. How do you trim that down legally? How could you go through and say, "Yours goes, yours stays. etc..." They can't say one is better than the other, because that is really opinion. You cant go by the first one, because all someone has to do is say, "Mine is different because..." And you wouldnt want them to go by the first one anyway, then the place would be spammed with place holders that do barely anything.

They cant really tell you what you need to add to make it a better app because then there could implied business relationship between you and Apple (just like with contractors vs full time employees. Huge legal thing)

Ya, they can charge you per app, but then what would be the cost? They already take a huge cut. And would they go back and make everyone pay who already has something there?

To be honest, the only thing they could probably do to keep lawsuits from going haywire would be to let 3rd parties start selling Apps. Then they could start limiting what they sell. But as long as they have the Monopoly, they have to live by certain rules, and non-discrimination is one of them.

But then again, like I stated in my earlier post, why do they really care? They are the only place people can go. They have almost, if not already, 1 billion downloads. People are still going to download apps no matter how saturated the market is. And they are making their money.
Do you think Apple really cares what Fart application you buy? no. They get their same cut either way.

Thats just the nature of the beast.

**odysseus31173** · 04-22-2009, 08:46 AM

I've started reporting them as offensive and pasting "this is a spam app" in the comments

FetaBoy · 04-22-2009, 08:59 AM

Apple should charge $99 (or more) per app submitted, but increase our cut to 75%.

johnqh · 04-22-2009, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdk2man

Ya, they can charge you per app, but then what would be the cost? They already take a huge cut. And would they go back and make everyone pay who already has something there?

First, it is a total mis-conception that apple takes a "huge cut". If you have done e-commerce, you would know the cost of selling 99 cent product is at least 25 cents, probably close to 40 cents if you don't manage it right.

You can do a Windows Mobile app, sell it on your own website, and the cost will be close to 40 cents.

Wait, to build WM apps, the cost of signing the app is AT LEAST $5/each file, each time. Since you need to sign the .exe and .cab file, that's at least $10 for each release (assuming you don't have .dll to sign).

So, slap a $10/submission and we will see the spam gone.

jtara · 04-22-2009, 11:08 AM

It still took some considerable effort to put together 400 apps. (Even though there are only a handful of apps, which are cloned again and again, with different quotations, different puzzle faces, etc.)

They had to write copy for the store page (and not bad copy), have icons made (though, again, a lot of duplication between the icons), background images, etc.

Some of actually have positive reviews (Gandhi) but I suppose it's more the subject matter more than the quality of the app. Hey, if Gandhi gets you through your day, Gandhi gets your through your day. Do you have a Gandhi quotes app? (And if Christina Aguilara gets you through your day... well, they've got everything covered.)

Yea, it's kind of sad, and if lowers the already low level of standards. But they do apparently meet Apple's standards, even if there are some damn ugly apps there.

I hope the App Store doesn't turn into a free-for-all wasteland like domain names. But I think we are heading there.

But realize that the app store is not your only marketing vehicle. Shouldn't be and can't be. Did you really expect Apple to do it for you?

Will be interesting to see how this develops. Will these apps sink like we expect them to? And will it matter? Will the publisher still make enough to make it worthwhile? Will they continue to flood the store with low-quality, cloned apps?

Apple is in a no-win situation that they created themselves. And the timing of this huge release of crap apps couldn't have been worse for them. It comes right on the cusp of the 1 billionth app sold (did that happen yet?) (AND Apple's earnings release) and if the press picks up on it, they will dig into Apple like a rabid bulldog.

And well they should.

Apple's been touting number of apps sold, number of apps in the store, and we see now how those numbers (at least the second one) are coming about. It should (and probably will) be a huge embarrassment for Apple. This is the company in the computer industry best known for quality - reduced to this?

gizmotoy · 04-22-2009, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnqh

So, slap a $10/submission and we will see the spam gone.

You'll also see a reduction in bug fixes since it costs the developer money to fix them, especially for apps that aren't making a ton of money. If you're going to charge by App, the only way that isn't going to restrict smaller developers is if a certain number of submissions are included in the original $99 fee such that it allows a developer a reasonable amount of free submissions while discouraging this kind of spamming.

FlyingDiver · 04-22-2009, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gizmotoy

You'll also see a reduction in bug fixes since it costs the developer money to fix them, especially for apps that aren't making a ton of money. If you're going to charge by App, the only way that isn't going to restrict smaller developers is if a certain number of submissions are included in the original $99 fee such that it allows a developer a reasonable amount of free submissions while discouraging this kind of spamming.

Updates to an existing application wouldn't be charged. Just a new (different) application.

joe

johnqh · 04-22-2009, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyingDiver

Updates to an existing application wouldn't be charged. Just a new (different) application.

joe

I wouldn't care either way.

If updates are charged, the developers will quickly learn to make sure the app works well, and don't push some update like "changed the font".