Three Newspapers’ App: Highly Ranked But Not Highly Rated
Regarding the three newspaper companies’ iPhone/iPod app “Allatanys” that was covered in my previous post, it is at the top of the free app section in the Japanese App Store. But it has attained only two stars in the five-star-rating system. Why is this?
The App Store’s ranking list is based on the number of times each iPhone/iPod app is downloaded, and App Store users are forced to download an app, and try it before rating it. So, if an app has a catchy title with a very impressive explanation, this will encourage users to download it, causing it to reach a high ranking. But it does not always get a high rating if the app itself is worthless.
In the newspaper app case mentioned above, people tried it at first but they complained that it was not very useful. Contrary to the Sankei Shimbun’s iPhone/iPod app, the newspaper triad’s app does not allow users to read the full text of the papers, only some headlines and abstracts. In order to read the full text, the user is forced to visit the newspaper company’s website after clicking a link provided in the app. Some users concluded that it was unnecessary to develop the app, because a website designed for the iPhone/iPod web browser would be enough. On the other hand, Sankei’s app enables you to download all pages of the paper and read the full text without visiting its website.
Some people think that this iPhone/iPod app was only developed as a catalyst making users visit Allatanys’ website, and they are concerned that the AppStore will be filled with worthless apps in the future.
(Proofread by: Sean O’Hagan)
Author Information Masaru IKEDA has co-founded several system integration companies and consulting firms in Tokyo. He has been contributing serial columns to nationwide newspapers and IT periodicals, also he's currently serving as tech consultant for several web companies. See this for more bio.
His private blog is here. 5 Responses to “Three Newspapers’ App: Highly Ranked But Not Highly Rated”
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and compare the coverage of news stories by the different papers all within one single interface. Some Problems The application is not without its faults, though. Although it sits at the top of the free apps section in the Japanese App Store,it’s not very highly rated. This is because the app doesn’t provide the full text of the papers, only abstracts. In order to read the complete article, users must click a link to go to the paper’s main web site. That extra effort probably frustrates users, leading to its low
Some Problems The application is not without its faults, though. Although it sits at the top of the free apps section in the Japanese App Store,it’s not very highly rated. This is because the app doesn’t provide the full text of the papers, only abstracts. In order to read the complete article, users must click a link to go to the paper’s main web site. That extra effort probably frustrates users, leading to its low
and compare the coverage of news stories by the different papers all within one single interface. Some Problems The application is not without its faults, though. Although it sits at the top of the free apps section in the Japanese App Store,it’s not very highly rated. This is because the app doesn’t provide the full text of the papers, only abstracts. In order to read the complete article, users must click a link to go to the paper’s main web site. That extra effort probably frustrates users, leading to its low
and compare the coverage of news stories by the different papers all within one single interface. Some Problems The application is not without its faults, though. Although it sits at the top of the free apps section in the Japanese App Store,it’s not very highly rated. This is because the app doesn’t provide the full text of the papers, only abstracts. In order to read the complete article, users must click a link to go to the paper’s main web site. That extra effort probably frustrates users, leading to its low
[...] Zeit zu den am meisten heruntergeladenen Programmen des japanischen App-Stores avanciert. Bei den Bewertungen sieht es nicht ganz so gut aus. Das liegt wohl daran, dass man keinen Artikel-Volltext lesen kann, sondern nur Zusammenfassungen. [...]