Apple 'community review' patent puts retailers' needs ahead of their customers'

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 04 January 2011 17:05

Opinion and Analysis

Apple has applied for a patent for the "community review of items in an electronic store". I reckon it has a major failing.

US patent application 20100332296 (inventor Sam Gharabally, assignee Apple) describes "systems, computer-implemented methods, and tangible computer-readable media for community-based ranking in an electronic store. The method includes receiving a predictive ranking of an item in an electronic store and feedback about the item from each of a group of individuals, the predictive ranking being predictive of item performance in the electronic store. The method further tracks an actual ranking of the item over time based on item performance in the electronic store, provides an incentive for individuals in the group of individuals whose associated predictive ranking coincides with the actual ranking of the item, and presents in the electronic store received feedback from at least one individual associated with the predictive ranking that coincides with the actual ranking of the item."

Let's try to simplify that.

The idea is that a people would be asked to predict how well a specific product will sell. The more accurate an individual's predictions prove to be, the more that person is rewarded either tangibly (cash, store credit, etc) or intangibly (credibility scores, etc).

This arrangement serves the retailer's interests far more than it does those of potential buyers. Online outlets such as Apple's iTunes Store and App Store already suffer from a positive feedback loop that gives prominence to popular items.

Asking people to forecast how well products will sell and then devoting marketing resources to the ones they tip for success smacks of a self-fulfilling prophesy. But if you're going to propose spending $100,000 to promote a product, you'll look good if it turns out to be a big seller - never mind that it might have sold just as well without the promotion.

What do you need from a review? Please read on.