Apple App Store Adds New Categories

It seems like everyone has a problem with some element of Apple's App Store in iTunes. Developers, most notably, have been having a hard time getting Steve Jobs and his crew to approve the applications they've developed and placed in the store. Yesterday, Craig Hockenberry posted an open letter to Steve Jobs on his blog, Furbo.org, stating that some developers were producing cheap apps to get good placement in the App Store.

Turns out Hockenberry, who has created the products Frenzic and Twitterrific, might have actually effected some change. Today, a slight tweak has happened over at the App Store, separating paid apps from unpaid, with rankings for each.

Hockenberry discusses the development process of producing a new application for the Apple's iTunes App Store, noting the disparate costs for apps developed both quickly and ones that take longer to gestate.

Hockenberry feels, essentially, that some developers are taking something of a shotgun approach to the App Store, turning out $.99 price point ringtone apps that customers buy without regard to what they do or how long they'll last.

Maybe, Hockenberry posits, the clutter these apps are creating will stifle innovation on the iPhone, stalling out the process of taking the mobile device to the next level. Well, I guess Hockenberry raises some good points about development costs, innovation and the shotgun approach. But it seems like Hockenberry's open letter to Steve Jobs has a faint whiff of sour grapes about it.

Twitterrific and Frenzic are good products, I won't dispute that, but the App Store is a marketplace. People like shiny, cheap things, even if they are applications for the iPhone. Apple is trying to make money, hence the cheap apps. Hockenberry wants to continue to innovate -- but points out that he has to be fiscally responsible.

If there was a solution that spurred people to spend a premium for better developed products over the urge to spend less money on sometimes inferior quality products, Wal-Mart might not be coming to your town. See also: GM, Ford and Chrysler of the 1980's versus Honda, Toyota et al.

Still, it appears as if something spurred Apple into action. The iTunes Apple store is now hosting two small columns living on the far right side of the App Store. One is for Top Paid Apps and the other for Top Free Apps.

Whichever side of the coin you fall on, you have to admit Ocarina is still a pretty cool app.

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