eCommerce in the News Week 3

Apple Tweaking iPhone App Store: Good News for Shoppers, Developers
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This is a follow-up article I found on CNN money about the same issue that I found last week. It seems like Apple is finally tweaking its App store to give the less popular applications a chance to compete against the popular ones. They are also separating free applications from "Most Popular" because they keep appearing on the list. According to the article, these changes help with the overall experience of the app store, but it still doesn't solve the problem with the $0.99 app domination like I mentioned in last week's post.

I think its becoming more interesting to track how Apple will act according to this issue. On one hand, they have all these talented developers who want to make top of the line software, yet the mass of consumers still prefer the free and $0.99 "ringtone" applications. The recent change of the store's appearance doesn't seem to reflect this issue, so perhaps Apple either doesn't care about their shop populated with low quality applications, or they simply cannot come up with a solution for it. One can argue that apple is just letting the market play itself, yet I think the way they display popular items creates a tendency for customers to download those only.

I'll keep looking for updates and see how Apple wants to deal with this situation. Meanwhile I'll just go ahead and download all the free semi-useless applications for my iPod.

eCommerce in the News Week 2

Trouble in the (99-cent)
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This article discusses about the issue with the apple app store for the iPhone and iPod Touch. As indicated by the diagram below, most of the app store applications are either free for download or $0.99. Due to this issue, programmers and developers are pushing to aim at the $0.99 category, sacrificing quality for low cost software. As a result, instead of having innovative and complex products, we see more and more low-cost, low budget turning the app store into "crap store".



Picture retrieved from the article. (Fortune)

As mentioned in the article, I think one of the best methods to tackle this problem is to change the way iTunes promote and display applications. Applications that are high quality and high priced should be given an opportunity to have more prominence. This could range from having a spot on the main page, or customized application description page or more screenshots. Perhaps users can also see a video sample of the application. If Apple wants to prevent their app store from hosting poorly developed programs, they need to show their support for developers and programmers by giving more attention to $2.99+ programs. Otherwise, this will only turn away developers from developing really good applications that is actually worth the price tag

eCommerce in the News Week 1

Sony's E-Book
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/12/03/turns-out-sony-e-book-readers-sell-after-all/

This article from WSJ pretty much talks about how Sony is selling their e-book well, despite having debatable unconventional features, such as lacking pages or having a feel of a real hardcover.

I have mixed feelings about e-books. While I see them as unpreventable replacements for our future books, it also kills our traditional interaction with these things. A book is simply not a book without its pages and binding. The ability to flip through pages, slide in funny looking bookmarks, or check progress by examining the remaining thickness of the book is what makes book reading so unique. With companies cutting down on marginal costs and making the world more techy and digital, I can see books slowly fading away, especially with the new generation of kids who will grow up with nothing but electronics.

So how will books fair with the emerging popularity of E-books? Will books die off like analog photography, or will its traditional features be distinct enough to survive the digital age?

First

This is gonna be my first blog. I have absolutely no idea how this is going to look therefore I'm just typing off into nowhere to get a feel of this whole ordeal.