More and more we see the news about the upcoming iOS8. Magazines and bloggers are excited about its new features and curious to discover what developers will do with the new APIs. Add to that the arrival of a new iPhone (here we go again with different screen sizes/ratios) and we are going to have topics to chat for a while.
It is not my intention to discuss the beta features, although I am very interest to check Continuity for sure. I will not discuss either the new APIs, after all Corona hasn’t provided any word on what will be added to their arsenal or not. So, you may be asking: “what is this posting about”?
I decided to share an article that I just read yesterday at the American’s MacWorld Magazine, page 34. It is called Restoring Order to the App Store (search in Bing or Google, for Restoring Order to the App Store and you will read similar content).
Many alterations will be made to support developers to better test, promote and sell their apps.
Search
As we all know, searching is not the best thing at iTunes Store. Sometimes, even with the full name of an app, the search results do not bring it. Not only we have to promote our efforts to customers but beg them to keep searching and searching when the official tool does not help. Not a good thing for anybody!
The new Store will offer Subcategories, which will facilitate the right place for your game/storybook. For example, instead of having just a separation by Ages, now your title may be positioned at Kids 9-12, Humor Storybooks. Apple also vows to add trending-search features, as well as a continuos-scrolling feature. Let’s say you did a great marketing campaign on Twitter. Chances are your app will trend there and get some attention from the AppStore as well.
App Bundles
I keep telling Kwik users that better than have a single app with 2 stories/games, it is better to have 2 individual ones. It provides better ranking presence and cross-selling opportunities (app 1 promotes app2 that promotes app1). With the new iOS version, developers will be able to combine multiple, perhaps complementary, apps for a discounted price, and users will be able to buy them all with one tap! Developers will also be able to create video previews to their AppStore entries too.
Testing
Some of you may know that Apple acquired TestFlight. The services has been used by millions of developers to invite users to test out their apps. It seems that Apple plans to incorporate the TestFlight beta service with the AppStore (there isn’t much data on that yet). In practice it means that you will be able to test your apps externally to your office, without needing to putting them for sale and get limited to 50 free promo-codes.
Like you all, I am also excited to hear Apple’s final announcement in September and learn what Corona Labs will incorporate in their next updates. Meanwhile, take the advantage the new store will offer and keep creating your Kwik apps!
