In a harsh but honest review from Talking New Media, D.B. Hebbard says that the Apple Newsstand is starting to look like a “dumpster.”
Is it warranted?
His claim is that they’re not paying enough attention to the quality of the content so it’s getting harder and harder to find the magazines you want. This isn’t unlike the basic app store, where many apps can have almost identical names, and apps themselves can be nearly identical but still be included – making the user experience not user friendly. Not to say anyone is doing better than Apple, but we all know everybody holds them to higher standards.
His valid beef with the Newsstand is that there are many unmonitored fraudulent apps. “Many of the digital magazines in question are look-a-like digital editions that produce only one issue, yet attempt to sell annual subscriptions. Apple has known about the problem for a long time now, but chooses to do nothing about it. Other apps simply are clear violations of developer guidelines, pretending to sell one magazine title while actually offering soft core porn titles in their app libraries.”
Hebbard also says that the app store team has stopped maintaining the categories, even the “new” category, listing them in alphabetical order instead. Hebbard jokes that, “if you are thinking of launching a new digital magazine you might consider calling it Aaron’s Magazine, it will be forever front and center.”
Read the rest of Hebbard’s rant on Talking New Media.
[text_ad]
