Five Big Changes In The iOS 6 App Store (And What Developers Should Do)
Some developers are complaining that since the introduction of the Chomp-inspired App Store redesign in iOS 6, sales have noticeably dropped. Others say the changes are good for indie developers.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's iOS 6 App Store overhaul is the visible layer of a longer rework: the most important changes were under the hood when the new store shipped in September, and the August preview already showed a card-based search layout with Genius recommendations switched on by default. The interface borrows from Chomp, the app-discovery startup Apple acquired, signaling that personalized recommendation is displacing the ranked top-charts list as the store's front door.
The developer reaction splits along business models. Some report noticeably lower sales since the redesign went live, while others argue the changes favor indie developers — echoing Apple's earlier move in 2011, when it tweaked the ranking algorithm so raw downloads mattered less. The redesign is another step in that same direction, and whoever loses chart-driven volume is feeling it first.
First-order effects
- Developers whose installs came from top-chart placement lose that channel overnight, since the redesigned store surfaces cards and Genius picks rather than long ranked lists — hence the sales-drop complaints.
- Indie developers gain a plausible path around the charts: Genius and curated cards can surface niche apps that never cracked a top list, which is why some developers welcome the change.
Second-order effects
- App-store optimization shifts from chasing download velocity toward optimizing for search relevance and recommendation fit, forcing analytics and marketing vendors to rebuild their playbooks for the new layout.
- Publishers that monetized chart position — paid install campaigns aimed at rank boosts — see that spend's return degrade, pushing budgets toward search ads and featuring pitches instead.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the App Store's organizing principle moves from algorithmic top lists toward editorial and personalized curation, changing which apps win distribution and how developers budget for discovery.
- A discovery system where Apple's recommendation engine, not raw download counts, decides visibility concentrates gatekeeping power in Apple's own ranking choices — a structural dependency developers can only lobby against, not opt out of.
The trend: App discovery is shifting from download-ranked charts toward curated, personalized recommendation surfaces, with each iOS release rebalancing who gets seen.