Apple's App Store, it turns out, sells a lot of software. However, it's got some flaws; one of the most serious is its "Winner-Take-All" nature. Once an app makes it high enough on the best-selling charts, it tends to stay there. The best sellers account for the vast majority of overall store revenue, and newcomer apps--regardless of quality--have an uphill climb breaking into the best-seller charts.

"Winner-Take-All" itself isn't a new phenomenon. For example: the introduction of the phonograph triggered a similar effect. A singer who earned a decent living as the best singer in their village was suddenly competing against the best singers in the country. If a villager can listen to the best singers in the country by buying a record, why would they need to listen to their local only-above-average singer? Suddenly the local singer needs to find new work, while the best singers in the country Win And Take All.

There's a great book called The Winner-Take-All Society that covers this topic in more detail. It was published in the mid-90s, so it thankfully doesn't cover the internet, exploring Winner-Take-All in pre-internet times.


So Winner-Take-All isn't itself bad. However, the on-device App Store design encourages apps to stay in the top ranks. I worked on the Sidekick's on-device app catalog many years ago, so I understand some of the challenges involved in creating a completely new digital delivery service. However, it's been 2+ years since the App Store opened for business and some flaws have been apparent for a while now...it's time for change.

Let's walk through a purchase and see the ways the App Store encourages the top-ranked apps to stay in the top ranks.

All right, I'm a big strategy game fan, so we'll start off the purchasing process by navigating to Categories->Games->Strategy. The main Strategy page is the top of a list:

Right away, I'm presented with the top 5 games in Games->Strategy. It isn't clear here whether "Top" means sales or revenue. App Annie tells us that this must be by sales; so right off the bat, $0.99 apps have an advantage.

Well, I've seen these games before, what else is available? I keep scrolling down, and stumble across:

 
Wait...what? Why was the list only 25 games long? Why do I have to tap to see more?

Speaking from experience, list-style info can be transmitted, on average, for 100 bytes per app. It's app name, developer name, star rating, number of ratings, and price. That's it. Maybe a couple of years ago the App Store was pulling down HTML pages to just stuff into an HTML view, but at this point the layout is known ahead of time and doesn't vary; grab the data in a binary/compressed form! If it's only 100 bytes per app, then the device is downloading 2.5kb for each list section. Images are 57x57 icons, so likely 2-4kb each, and only need to be downloaded if they're actually shown on-screen. And the App Store will need to show them if the user tapped "Twenty Five More..." anyway, so why not just provide a longer list of apps here? Why not groups of 100 or 200 for 10kb or 20kb?

OK, tap "Twenty Five More..." and get:

It looks like the next app was filled in, I guess. The only indication this is a short or long list, and my location within the list, is the proportional scrollbar that shows up on the right-hand side when the list is in the middle of scrolling:

Also notable: I already own Vanguard Storm, along with several other games in this category, but nothing indicates that here. Games I already own are presented as fresh potential purchases in this list.

I scroll to the bottom of this list, get another "Twenty Five More..." area, tap it. I still don't see anything new, I've seen most of these before. Keep scrolling, get another "Twenty Five More...". How far down am I now? No idea. The scrollbar keeps getting longer, but I don't know how far I am unless I've been counting taps (3 taps means I'm seeing the Top 100).

Keep scrolling, and get:

Wait...what??? That's it? The top 100 is all we're allowed to see? Why?

So in order to browse more in Games->Strategy, I have to browse "Top Free" or "Release Date"? Terrible!

More on that later. For now, I scroll around and see a pipes-ish game toward the bottom of the list:

There are only about a million versions of this game, but what the heck, I'll give this one a try for the sake of example. Tap the row and get the app page:

I browse the game's info, take a look at the screenshots; great, I'm ready to buy. Tap the price button, which changes to a "Buy" confirmation button. Tap "Buy", and I'm asked for my iTunes password. I'm now kicked out of the App Store and dropped onto the main nav screen:

So now I have visual confirmation that my purchase succeeded, I know the app is downloading, and I know the app's location on my nav screen. Great!

I'd like to buy another app, though, so I tap on the App Store. It shows me:

So I'm back to the app's info page. The price/Buy button has changed to a greyed-out "Installed", reinforcing that I already have the app and don't need to try to buy it again.

I really like strategy games, though, and I'm ready to buy more, so I'd like to browse some more in Games->Strategy. I hit "Back" to get:

Gah!! I'm staring at the top 5 again? You've got to be kidding me! I just spent a ton of time downloading the list in batches of 100, and now I have to painfully scroll down & tap again? Terrible!

Where was I in the list? I just bought that one game....where was it in the list? How far down will I have to scroll to get back to where I was? No idea.

Sadly, this would be even worse if I was browsing by "Release Date". That list can be significantly longer; again, retrieved in batches of 25. So if I go down to the 200th-most-recently-released game and purchase it, I have to painfully scroll & tap 7 downloads' worth just to get back to where I was in the list.

Which means: if an app isn't in the top 100, and wasn't recently released, it can only be browsed to if the user has the patience to retrieve dozens of "Twenty-Five More..." sessions to make their way back in release-date time.


Recapping the suggestions:

1. Retrieve batches of apps in 100 or more at a time.
2. Indicate in the browsing list how far down the user is, with something more than a scrollbar. This could be done with a little number in the upper-right of the app's list box showing its ranking in the list. In the Release Date listing, the upper-right indicator could show the date the app was released.
3. Allow the user to scroll through the top 1000, at least. If the user wants to delve that deep, why stop them? If they're a huge fan of, say, strategy games, then let them dig deep to discover those hidden gems.
4. On an app install, consider not kicking the user out of the App Store app. Show a dialog, or show an icon in the upper-right--i.e. next to "Strategy". If this has to be set via a Settings->Store switch, that's fine. Why disturb your power-purchasers' flow? Let them stay in the store and keep buying, rather than kicking them out and getting them out of buying-mode.
5. Save the user's scroll location in any list of apps when they exit the App Store app. Seriously.
6. Cache any lists retrieved from the App Store. It's bad enough that the user's scroll location is lost, but losing the previously-downloaded lists & images is really painful. Again, the goal is to keep things snappy for the power-purchasers.

Anyway, these are just a few suggestions. The App Store might continue to be a Winner-Take-All environment, but the design of the App Store app doesn't have to encourage it.

More suggestions to come later!

The demo version of the Business Traveler's Passport series on iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch is now available in the App Store. If you're like to check out what you'll get with the full version of any country, check out the Sampler first, free of charge.

Land of Legends just shipped on the Sidekick! This has been a long long time coming, and it's great to finally see it out for folks to try.

Check out the Land of Legends page for more screenshots & info!