An App for a Brand Makes the Whole World Blind

Thursday

Apr302009

Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 4:37PM

There is a growing trend in the App Store: applications whose sole purpose is to promote a brand. These fit into a variety of categories, but only one is really odious to me: the dreaded "local store business card app".

Flavors of Brand Promotion

Brand promotion is part of life in modern society, and it doesn't bother me so much when we look at something like the Coca-Cola "Magic Coke Bottle" application (iTunes Link). That application provides some entertainment in the midst of its brand exposure. They, at least, made an effort and clearly some folks find it entertaining.

Another category is "Today Show", one of a number of apps by the Zumobi Network which all deliver brand-specific news, footage, and the like. Others include "Snow and Ski Report by REI", "American Idol Season 8 Exclusive Videos", and "Sporting News Baseball (MLB news, scores, and stats)".

Some of these, perhaps, could just be web applications, but on the other hand there may be value to a streamlined interface to on-demand content. And die-hard fans of the show, team, sport, etc. might consider these great apps! So, these don't bother me that much either.

What really bothers me is apps like TurnerRealtors (iTunes link). This is not a national brand, or even a regional one. This is strictly a local business, and the application provides no value to users. It is merely a yellow pages ad.

A Tour Through Pointless App Hell

I'm going to break it down for you so you can understand just how hideous it is without having to download the app, heaven forfend. Lots of gruesome images here, and it's a bit lengthy, so feel free to skip ahead if you don't want to be tormented in this way - I'll understand :-)

The main screen of the TurnerRealtors app, which we are shown on launch, is the Contact screen:

Okay, some nice options there:

we can email you (opens up in the Mail app)
check out your web site (opens Safari)
or call you (opens the Phone app, obviously).

Hey, wait a second... these are just links to other apps! No, really, you almost had me fooled there.

Hmm... what about the Search function? Sounds great - search some properties and then do something cool in the interface with them, right?

Uhhh... where's the input box? I got a feeling you know Web button does, but can you guess what the Search button does? I'll give you a hint - it involves opening another app on the phone.

Yep, you were right - it does the same thing as Web button! That is, it just takes you to their website (after popping the following dialog):

Alright, let's keep moving. An About screen, eh? I have a feeling this is going to have some cool content about the company, maybe some images of the people, or some of the most recent listings they've won, or maybe just a picture of the agent and his family.

Nope, it's just booooring text:

Scroll-page after scroll-page of booooring text, to be precise. Not to mention insincere... "We're thrilled that you are using your iPhone"?!? And that About button next to Add to Contacts? Yep, you guessed it - opens in Safari!

I'm going to skip "Powered by" for the moment, because that's a different can of worms. So we proceed to the More button. In there, we have a couple of options:

Now we're getting somewhere! A Loan Calculator? Sure, I don't really want a different Loan Calculator for each of the local realtors I'm considering, but at least that's actual functionality! Too bad it's buried in the More page. And, too bad it's the 30th or 40th real estate app "Powered by" the same company and using the exact same Loan Calculator.

Perhaps we should look at Property Feedback, too. This, at least, takes advantage of Core Location to tell the real estate agent where you were when you "tweeted" your interest in something:

But then you just drop me in the email client with a geocode? Aww... MAN I'm getting tired of that! There was some potential, but it was completely unrealized. Pathetic.

The Perpetrators

Who, you may ask, is responsible for this functionless piece of garbage, er.. I mean adware? Well you should ask! They're not secretive - in fact, the very splash screen for all of their apps is an ad for them!

Yep, it's MobileAppLoader, LLC. And apparently, it's easier than ever to populate the app store with garbage!

By the way - if you go visit their site, why, you, too, can get your free Loan Calculator embedded in your fancy Real Estate iPhone app:

Ben Rants About MobileAppLoader

These are the types of folk who will fill the App Store with more junk than anyone else in the next nine months, if left unchecked. This particular company has already put up 56 of these applications, for all sorts of local business ranging from car dealerships such as "Robert Lane Honda" (iTunes Link) to spas such as "Zenza Spa and Massage" (iTunes Link) to local franchise locations of fast food restaurants like "Subway Henderson NV" (iTunes Link).

56 of these things from one little company! Their website boasts about how easy it is:

It's easier than ever !!

Submit your content: images, phone numbers, email address...

MobileAppLoader will build your App & upload it to iTunes.

Oh, god, no... please, no, please... don't! Make it stop! It's bad enough that there are a plethora of websites built by groups like this, now we need thousands of iPhone apps?

Remember earlier when I said this was a "growing trend"? The first MobileAppLoader (p.o.cr) app hit the app store back in October of '08, they were only up to 12 apps by the end of March '09. Which means that 44 of this company's apps were added to the store in the last month!

Honestly, this simply turns my stomach!

The businesses that are taking part in this really ought to be ashamed of themselves. But far higher on the shame chart is MobileAppLoader, LLC. They are demonstrating the most despicable form of capitalism - kill the communal golden goose as long as I get a couple of eggs out of it first. I mean, anyone can see this is unsustainable. Do the math - an app for every entry in your local yellow pages? How many is that? How many would it be if there were an app for every entry in everyone's local yellow pages?

Can We Make it Stop?

It's tempting to start a movement among iPhone owners to boycott any local business that hires a company like this - perhaps that would be a deterrent. Because it seems that Apple says "well, they got a Loan Calculator page so let 'em in". But that's attacking the problem at the wrong end, and probably wouldn't work anyway.

More realistically, maybe, we need to put more pressure on Apple to eliminate these apps and take the approval process a little more seriously. Perhaps the "approval clerk" should have to take a suspicious look at the company page in iTunes, seeking out companies who submit too many near-identical applications. Maybe look over the notes of the previously approved apps from that company to see if they have the same feature set. I don't know...

There just has to be a way to quash this trend. What'll work? Sending Apple email about the companies we feel are abusing the app store? Getting on your blog and ranting about them, maybe? Apple does seem to respond to pressure from public opinion.

A Brighter Future?

As many readers know, we're building a different kind of app store for iPhone app shopping. One questions this raises is whether we should allow apps to be "voted off the island", so to speak. I'm not sure how to handle this well.

My first thought is that, if enough people vote an app out of the store, we will hide that app from users and exclude them from our search engine. Then, in order to get back in our store, you will have to petition the user base publicly. If enough people vote to let you back in, you get back in, and the saga continues.

What do you think? Should we allow apps to "be disappeared" from our store, thus showing a smaller subset of the products on iTunes? Or should we stick to letting the higher-quality search engine help people avoid those apps, except in non-search screens (like "Latest Apps")?

If we do allow voting, I have a feeling not one of MobileAppLoader, LLC's apps will be in our search results after a couple months. And I'm having a hard time feeling bad about that. Hope that doesn't make me a bad person ;-)

12 Comments |

Reader Comments (12)

I agree, this is BS. It's basically just another form of SPAM. All it does is clutter up the AppStore for others who are providing actual applications with actual value.

May 9, 2009 |

Ken Seto

Or maybe the honest truth is that they are so damn cheap and effective that you are kicking yourself in the foot why you did not come up with the idea!. Granted that mobile app loaders app qulaity sucks and it is bringing the level down. But instead of 'voting them off" why not just let the best man win? Why not let the end user decide what they want on the app store? Remember, this is the mobile web..the next internet. That is like saying..lets clean up the internet and allow only what WE like!!!
At the end of the day, i do have to option of NOT installing an app , so what clutter are you really talking about?

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