Could Subcategories Finally Be Coming To The App Store ?
October 22, 2010
While the App Store already boasts multiple categories to classify and help us find apps, many will agree that Apple is not doing enough in this area. Aside from games, which already have it, all the rest of the apps are just fitted into large general categories (or two if the developer wishes). For example:
That might work with just a few apps, but now that there are almost 300,000 of them, it just splits a big mess into smaller messes. Wouldn't it be much simpler to just be able to check out "To-Do" apps in the productivity section with two clicks?
This week, Apple gave us some hints that suggest they might be working on it. As you know, Apple is launching a Mac App Store soon. They have already published most of the details for developers. They are fairly similar to the iOS App Store guidelines, but there is one interesting difference.
As you can see (in the image at the top of the article), Apple will require developers submitting apps to attribute not only a category to their apps, but also a subcategory. On its own this is great, but we believe this suggests they'll be bringing these changes to the App Store as well. At the very least, it means they're realizing this is a real need.
This just makes sense. If they're doing it on the Mac App Store, they must be considering it for the mobile store. Also, that won't be complicated to implement, as both stores are very similar. The only issue will be, how do you get all the existing apps reclassified? But, that's just a detail.
What do you think? Please tell us in the comments below.
