Apple blocks uninformed App Store comments

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 30 September 2008 04:13

Opinion and Analysis

But bona fide user reviews can be very valuable. We can really benefit from the experiences of our peers. Someone might point out that an application is good except for a particular aspect, and then you can decide how important that feature is to you.

Still, there's always a danger that people will be too quick to criticise. I've seen people claim an app doesn't work when all that was wrong was that they completely misunderstood how it was supposed to work.

Once a fellow user had pointed them in the right direction, their opinion changed dramatically. If they've posted an early review, the product would have been unfairly criticised.

Of course, you could argue that in this case the problem was an inadequate description or documentation, but that's a far cry from a product that doesn't work.

Yes, it will still be possible for developers and their associates to download software from the App Store simply for the purpose of posting unduly positive or negative reviews, but involving real money to the equation should eliminate the worst excesses.

Free apps will still be open to comment abuse, but arguably that's not such a big deal.

One problem is that you don't need to have downloaded the latest version of an app in order to post a comment. That's another improvement Apple could and should make sooner rather than later.