App Store ratings are a valuable commodity, with each additional star worth a substantial amount in sales. No surprise, then, that less scrupulous developers like to try to game the system, but because of the way Apple links reviews to individual iTunes accounts, there’s not a lot of ways to really cheat the system easily… especially if the app is a paid app.
One way app devs can sometimes game the system, though, is by distributing promo codes, allowing their employees to download the app and rate it. No longer though: Apple has just eliminate the ability for anyone to review an app if they downloaded it through a promotional code.
It’s actually a bit ironic. Ostensibly, promotional codes are to encourage jokers like me to review apps. I can understand Apple’s reasoning here, but it does seem a bit rich that app reviewers issued promotional codes can review an app on their own websites, but not on iTunes.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
4 responses to “Apps Can No Longer Be Reviewed If Downloaded With Promotional Codes”
You can still review it. Just not on the itunes store.
Since the point of the promo codes is to get folks to go to the store to buy the app, it still works. Unless of course you think the app sucks.
Do people really go by reviews in the App Store? I can rarely be bothered to wade through a million unreadable and meaningless reviews by 12 year olds to get to the one or two reviews that might actually be useful.