Curtis Love

Curtis Herbert, Tough Love:

Instead of looking inwards at a lack of success I think we would be better served looking outside our community. If we look externally we’ll see that the App Store isn’t full of doom-and-gloom bad for indies, but rather markets at large are stacked against indies.

Absolutely right.

I’d add, though, that each market has a shape, and the shape of the iOS App Store is in Apple’s control. They can’t control the behavior of people, but the shape of the market has an impact.

I’d also add that a high volume of high-quality, interesting apps is good for selling iPhones and iPads.

Are there things Apple could do that would make the iOS App Store better for indies, so that we’re not rejecting iOS app ideas out-of-hand? I think so. There’s no silver bullet, but there are numerous good ideas that, taken together, could make a significant difference.

It’s still going to be tough for indies — there’s no way out of having to design well, work hard, and market effectively, and we wouldn’t want a way out; we like it tough — but every inch of lowered risk and every dollar of greater reward makes a difference.