People delete apps from their devices for all sorts of reasons: maybe they didn’t “get” the app, maybe it just wasn’t for them, maybe they want to make room for a different app. Regardless, they just want to get rid of the app, and then they are prompted to rate it, not realizing that this rating cue is coming from APPLE and NOT the developer. Now annoyed, people are likely to give one star without any regard for what their rating would have been otherwise. The result is apps that work perfectly fine and have had loads of care, energy, and time put into them are having their ratings unfairly skewed negatively. Not exactly good motivation for your developers, Apple.

Solutions:

• Add a rating cue when an app has been on a device for a set period of time, let’s say… a month.

• Remove the rating cue altogether. This is preferred as people should review only when they are personally inclined to, not in the middle of trying to use their device.

• Provide some sort of “key” or guidelines for what each star level represents:
- 1 star being reserved for apps that are broken, crashy, poorly designed, or just sloppy
- 2 stars for apps that you just didn’t like even though they functioned perfectly well
- 3 stars for mediocre apps
- 4 for apps you like but could use improvement
- 5 for apps that are awesome in their novelty or execution and you couldn’t live without

iTunes link

Version 1.1 coming soon with a few tweaks and a bug “wah wah wah” fix.

Since the app we are starting our venture off with is summer oriented, we are really, really starting to get frustrated and are chomping at the bit.

We signed up under Keston’s business, Fauxmachine LLC in order to expedite things – Stone Gears LLC was not yet decided on as a name at the time. Figuring switching out the name later wouldn’t be that big of a deal, we went ahead in order to be able to dev and distribute betas. That was a big mistake. We waited for weeks for Apple Legal make the switch.

Finally the Developer Help line people suggested just applying from scratch under the new LLC. Now we are into 2.5 weeks with that process.

What GIVES Apple Legal? You are going to kill our business before it even starts. Then we have to wait for the app to get approved too. Sheesh.

Lessons:

1. Have seasonal based products in the bag and ready to rumble at least a season before
2. Don’t EVER plan on switching anything in your developer enrollment at Apple. EVER.

After a decade of preparing, whether we knew it or not, the culmination of experiences, skill sets, and expertise of this small group of talented artist-nerds has led us to this point. A mashup of interests and individuals, our goal is to use technology to bring new ideas and services to market from a fresh and hopefully weird perspective.

Keston Helfrich of Fauxmachine and Chris Harvan of Skipstones Media are the primary operators, but there are a host of other associates who are called up for collaboration. More StoneGears’ driven web and software based projects to be announced soon.