Android Market has long been criticized for lagging behind iOS's AppStore in almost any comparison imaginable. Google, of course, has done quite a bit of work to improve it throughout the years. Introducing the Web front-end and a few redesigns have generally ironed out most of the glitches.
You see, the 'Just In' list served a dual purpose. Not only it showed the fresh newcomers, but more importantly it showed the apps that have just been updated. I guess the reasoning behind this was to highlight the active apps -- those which are supported and still in development. And also maybe to encourage the developers to update their apps. Whatever the reason, I have seen quite a bit of a spike in the downloads every time I published an update to some of my apps.
So at first I was quite excited when the fresh new update arrived and I saw the beautiful (no irony here) new 3D market icon on my screen. I tapped to see the praised new Android Market UI and my excitement turned into disappointment.
I am not going to discuss the design here. It's a whole new post. OK, OK, if you really ask, the short version is that I think it sucks.
Leaving the UI aside, what I really really hate about the new Android Market is the removal of the 'Just In' list. Of course, I have to disclose a massive conflict of interests here:
As a (mostly spare-time) mobile developer, I loved how this list provided a free limited spot for people to notice my apps.
What I mean is best visualized by a graph, so I quickly built one (amazing Paint skills, I know, thanks):
You see, the 'Just In' list served a dual purpose. Not only it showed the fresh newcomers, but more importantly it showed the apps that have just been updated. I guess the reasoning behind this was to highlight the active apps -- those which are supported and still in development. And also maybe to encourage the developers to update their apps. Whatever the reason, I have seen quite a bit of a spike in the downloads every time I published an update to some of my apps.
OK, I know what are you thinking right now -- it could be an easy way to game the system. Many agreed.
What you had to do was simply to introduce small changes (or even no visible changes at all), publish a new version and boom -- you're in the spotlight all over again.
While I generally agree with these comments, I would (quite understandably) stick to the point of view that this mechanism was critically important for small developers. It was an easy, automatic and free way to get some eyeballs.
Besides, the Market had a built-in mechanism to prevent you from cheating: your app wouldn't appear in the 'Just In' list if it was updated less than two weeks (or so -- I believe this term was never officially documented) since the last release. So it was not possible to spam the list by introducing hollow updates twice a day for example.
If you are a big guy that has raised $40M, if TechCrunch follows your every move or Robert Scoble interviews you twice a month, you would obviously don't care much.
But if you just don't have the connections, voice and money to effectively market your app, the 'Just In' list provided a priceless spot. A spot that some might have tried to abuse (again -- very limited due to the 2-weeks time-frame), but otherwise -- totally legitimate.
Pity it's gone now.
Update: Some argued that the new sections introduced -- Top New Paid & Top New Free are a good replacement for the Just In list. While it is true that the apps in these new lists are newly introduced (less than 30 days I believe), the word Top says it all. These are apps that are already gaining popularity either because they are from a well-known, usually big developer, or because they are being aggressively pushed via costly marketing campaigns.
So to me it all seems quite a bit of unfair game from Google's part. At the beginning, when Android was all new and was lagging behind iOS in terms of number of apps, Google wanted as many developers as possible. So they played uber-developer-friendly, up to a point of being ridiculous.
Now, when Android is effectively headed to dominate the smartphone market, they decided that they have enough muscles to stop caring about small independent developers. And it's all masqueraded as an effort to improve end-user experience by putting more top content in front of user's eyes.
It is true that Google controls the Market platform and they never promised to keep the Just In list forever. I just have the feeling that they just got too cocky and stopped caring about some things that they used to care about before. Android is already too big to be hurt by such a minor change. But small, independent developers will be hurt.
Damn, they are hurt already.
