Apple Removes Apps Due to Accusations of Shill Reviews
iPhoneography reports that Apple's Phil Schiller has apparently taken action based on a complaint that one App Store developer was boosting their app's ratings artificially with fake reviews:
The practice of leaving positive ratings for your own applications is not an uncommon practice in the App Store, though Molinker's efforts appear to be on a much greater scale. Schiller's quick response is just another sign that Apple is taking recent App Store criticisms very seriously. Schiller has been directly involved in many of the App Store decisions and has even given interviews defending their policies.
Apple also recently reversed a much publicized policy to heavily restrict the use of any Apple hardware images within App Store Apps.
Please investigate for I have just looked at 44 of the reviewers who posted reviews for this Molinker Inc app "NightCam Pro" & EVERY Review except 2 of the 44+ are ALL FAKE 5 [star] reviews.
The customer suspected that the developer had used their 50 promo codes to leave these 5 star reviews on the iTunes App Store. This customer then emailed Apple's Phil Schiller notifying him of the findings which quickly resulted in removal of this developer's 1900+ apps.The practice of leaving positive ratings for your own applications is not an uncommon practice in the App Store, though Molinker's efforts appear to be on a much greater scale. Schiller's quick response is just another sign that Apple is taking recent App Store criticisms very seriously. Schiller has been directly involved in many of the App Store decisions and has even given interviews defending their policies.
Apple also recently reversed a much publicized policy to heavily restrict the use of any Apple hardware images within App Store Apps.
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29 months ago
ughh... i hate app farms... while this is good news, there are still many more "developers" who are releasing the same apps under different names and graphics, etc.
29 months ago
A good example is CleanMyMac app:
Check this out:
http://osx.iusethis.com/app/cleanmymac
There's a bunch of positive comments from FAKE users; most saying "great app, great support, etc".
I HATE TESTIMONIALS !!!
Check this out:
http://osx.iusethis.com/app/cleanmymac
There's a bunch of positive comments from FAKE users; most saying "great app, great support, etc".
I HATE TESTIMONIALS !!!
29 months ago
The developers simply found a way of making more money selling the same app under different names.
Heck, go to yahoo movie reviews and you see the same thing. Fake reviews galore, like,"this is best movie ever!No I haven't seen it or any movie ever in my life given the fact that I was blind since birth but this movie rocks!". There is just so much BS on the net it is crazy. Ever been to Engadget? Them clowns boaster every piece of Kirf and vapor ware tech that can be cranked out form overseas. And yes I do believe they too hype up product with fake posts. Meh!
Heck, go to yahoo movie reviews and you see the same thing. Fake reviews galore, like,"this is best movie ever!No I haven't seen it or any movie ever in my life given the fact that I was blind since birth but this movie rocks!". There is just so much BS on the net it is crazy. Ever been to Engadget? Them clowns boaster every piece of Kirf and vapor ware tech that can be cranked out form overseas. And yes I do believe they too hype up product with fake posts. Meh!
29 months ago
Whats phils email address so I can ask for a refund on the on a molinker travel app that was just wikipedia information and a half complete metro map?
29 months ago
Although the App store has hundreds of good apps, one wonders how much of the 100,000 is just utter crap like the apps mentioned here?
Most of my iPhone owning friends have less than 20 apps they use which they supplement with games (some of which are really good). This is one of the reasons why I think app volume by itself is a meaningless statistic.
Most of my iPhone owning friends have less than 20 apps they use which they supplement with games (some of which are really good). This is one of the reasons why I think app volume by itself is a meaningless statistic.
29 months ago
The number of apps is a useless statistic to people who understand but helpful to people who don't. Just like megapixels in a camera. It's a myth that more is better. Unfortunately, there is no metric for measuring the quality of apps...
29 months ago
For developers like myself it's very frustrating that all the time put in a app that might be interesting to people to check out, is flooded by these kind of techniques... :(
Its a shame that this way the App Store looses its charme.
Its a shame that this way the App Store looses its charme.
29 months ago
Wow, all 1900+ apps deleted? Doesn't that seem kind of harsh over some fake reviews on one app.
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