Though Schiller transitioned from marketing chief to “Apple Fellow” in 2020 to take a step back from Apple and spend more time on personal projects and friends, he is reportedly working close to 80 hours a week.
Schiller is known for responding to emails almost immediately, and answering phone calls at all hours. He testified during the Epic v. Apple lawsuit to ardently defend the App Store, and he is involved in Apple’s EU messaging as well. Schiller joined in on Apple PR calls with members of the media when the iOS 17.4 changes were announced, and he spent time explaining how the DMA will impact user privacy and security in Europe.
How would you say the App store is a nightmare?
Discoverability doesn’t exist beyond what Apple shows you. Search is Amazon level of random. Pending updates were moved to account settings to make space for Apple Arcade.
I don’t mind that last one truthfully, but I use Apple Arcade sometimes. I hate in app purchases enough to tolerate the paltry selection.
But that’s fair on the other two points.
I adore concept of Apple Arcade and use it as well (mostly for ad and IAP-free versions of classic mobile games). Regardless of this I think it should have been a separate app like other services. Apple compromised usability to promote AA which is weird because usually they have enough restraint not to do stuff like that.
I feel like my usage pattern isn’t bothered by that, but I understand.
I feel that way about the “sports” section on Apple News. It’s in the way, and they’ve moved so far from the magazines thing which is all I like that it feels like they don’t value me as a user of that specific App.
Really I just hate Apple News for so many reasons and I want to love it.
It’s “great” when you search for the name of an app verbatim and it is like #4 or #5 in the search results.
I recommend this shortcut for searching the App Store.
Lots of shovelware. Lots of apps that are just websites wrapped in an app wrapper. Stuff slipping through that are obvious copies of other apps. Malicious apps getting through the approval process. Piracy apps getting through the approval process. Support links on app pages that lead to nowhere.
What are some piracy apps that have gotten through?
My biggest complaint is all the apps without recurring costs that are subscription-based.
It has gotten challenging to find good and useful apps that aren’t just a bunch of the worst dark patterns mixed together these days.
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/03/26/movie-piracy-app-tops-app-store-charts/