Nine steps to the perfect mobile app store
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Apple has shaken up the mobile games industry in a good way with its App Store, which made traditional ways of selling mobile games look... traditional. Not in a good way.
But is it perfect? Over on PocketGamer.biz, we've been putting together the ingredients for the perfect mobile application store.
It's timely, because anyone who's anyone in the handset and operator world is working on their own app store. In brief, the key points we've highlighted are:
- Have both PC/web and mobile versions
- Be open to all developers
- Have effective filtering tools to find games
- Offer recommendation features
- Include screenshots, videos and emulator demos
- Have a proper way of handling free Lite demos
- Use a simple billing mechanic
- Have a Metacritic-style pro reviews element
- Offer better features for sharing game links
Apple has managed to nail a lot of those, but there are some ideas that aren't in the App Store - like the recommendations, videos, and the notion of logging in to an app store via Facebook Connect so your social network can see what you've been downloading.
The full article on PocketGamer.biz has much more detail on each point, so check it out and let us know what you think.
