Recently App World sent out a survey -- a very long survey, that took a lot more time than expected, and asked too much information.
What's the point of a survey when you don't even listen to repeated complaints about glaring issues that have been a problem since App World came out?
Let me bring up a few again:
1. SALES PRACTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE. If you hadn't noticed, every store in creation has some items ON SALE; this is a marketing technique. But at App World, it's a major problem to place something on sale, or take it off sale. We have to first change the description, then wait for it to be approved. Then it will gradually start showing for the users over a period of days or even weeks. When to change the price amidst that? When you do change the price, that also is a major problem -- it lists as the sale price, then bills them the full price. And that problem lasts for days to weeks. As a result, placing something on sale often just breaks the product's momentum. Sales fall despite the lower price, because people feel they are being deceived or tricked. When it's taken off-sale, there's another break in the momentum.
2. EVERY TIME A NEW PHONE COMES OUT WE HAVE TO EDIT EVERY RELEASE FOR COMPATIBILITY. How do you expect developers to go on doing that, as our catalogs grow? It's a waste of time and a contributor to our carpal tunnel syndrome. Why can't App World have a system like MobiHand, where each build is marked compatible with certain display resoutions and operating system versions -- and as new devices come out, or people upgrade their operating systems, they're automatically compatible with the correct file bundle? There's a model-specific override option in the cases where a build really is for a specific model, but who codes like that? Usually, the only reason there are different builds at all, is because of OS incompatibility. A well-written app can adapt to any phone model or display resolution, as long as the API's used are recognized by the phone. So it's just a massive waste of time. When submitting an app, we should be able to select just OS compatibility, and the rest should be automatic by default, with the option to override.
3. THE SYSTEM KICKS YOU OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF EDITING A DESCRIPTION. It should offer a pop-up warning first, or at least don't time out while we're in the middle of typing.
4. EVERY TIME YOU EDIT SOMETHING, YOU GET KICKED BACK TO PAGE 1, THE PAGE SELECTION CONTROLS ARE TOO SMALL, AND THE SITE IS TOO SLOW TO SWITCH PAGES. Come to think of it, under that 1-2-3-4-5-6, there should be A-B-C-D-E-F-G etc., so you can find an app by its name, not have to memorize which page each app is on, which changes as you add more. But kicking you back to page 1 after every edit, that's just a waste of time and another contributor to carpal tunnel syndrome and "I Hate This Platform" syndrome.
5. CUSTOMER SUPPORT REQUESTS DO NOT INCLUDE ANY INFORMATION AT ALL. Notice how App World doesn't allow anyone -- us or the customers -- to contact them without giving basic information. If you're going to dump all the front-line support on us, then you can include a form like that in App World so that when WE get a support email, it includes things like the customer name, THE PRODUCT, the OS version, phone model, version number of the app, whether it's a distribution/billing issue or an app issue, and then REQUIRE an explanation of the issue.
6. DISTRIBUTION AND BILLING SUPPORT SHOULD NOT BE DIRECTED TO DEVELOPERS. It is not our responsibility, and it is wrong for App World to just slap a single Contact Support button on the app that sends everythign our way, and gives the user no easy way to find a way to contact the App World store. There should be a selector, "does this relate to distribution, billing, or the app itself?", and then that Contact Support button should send the email appropriately to App World or the app's developer. It's ridiculous how much email comes in related to store issues.
7. NO ACCESS TO ACCOUNTS, AND NO FORWARD-TO-STORE. How are we supposed to support the issues you send our way, distribution and billing, if we cannot even look up the customer's purchase or forward their request to the store? When we have to redirect them to your web form, it's hard on the customers, and just ticks them off. They write an explanation and then have to write it over again. If everything is coming to us first, give us a forward. Why won't App World do that? Because it wouldn't contain the information in the form. Then you should ask all that information before sending the support request to us in the first place, it's a complete discourtesy to us not to.
8. STATIC TRY & BUY STILL DOES NOT WORK. As a result, we're forced to either use keys (which also don't work properly, there's a constant stream of support email over that), or else publish the trial as a separate product. That is detrimental, since the product does not list as "Free Trial Available", and therefore may not get as many views.
9. NO BUILT-IN RPN KEYING. Most of the problems with keying could probably be solved by letting us specify a RPN formula to generate the key, instead of having App World talk to our server to generate a key. It would eliminate a link in the chain. Every other store on Earth can do this, but App World does not offer this option. We can enter a single key, but should be able to enter a formula. There's just no excuse why that should not be there, it would be the solution that most vendors would choose if it were offered.
10. APP WORLD is contributing to developers not wanting to develop for BlackBerry, and that includes your beloved new baby the PlayBook.
So again, what was the point of that long survey, when you don't respond to what we've been complaining about for years?
