Analysis: Apple's own apps rank first in 60%+ of App Store test searches; Podcasts, which had a 1.7-star rating before its reviews were removed, ranks #1 in US
Tripp Mickle / Wall Street Journal :
Context & Ripple Effects
The WSJ's test search analysis lands in the middle of a running argument about how Apple's storefront treats its own software: the company's apps take the top slot in over 60% of searches, and Podcasts holds #1 in the US despite sitting at 1.7 stars before its reviews were pulled. The scrutiny worked — weeks later Apple said it was handicapping its own apps in App Store search results, an admission the ranking had been tilted.
The Podcasts side of the story has its own arc: the app's score later jumped from 1.8 to 4.6 stars after Apple began prompting users for ratings, and by 2024 a study of podcast consumers found just 12% using Apple's app against YouTube and Spotify, a fading dominance the search ranking no longer masks.
First-order effects
- Third-party podcast and utility developers competing in App Store search lose the top result to Apple's own apps regardless of quality — Podcasts ranked #1 in US tests while carrying a 1.7-star rating.
- Apple faces immediate reputational and legal exposure: the test methodology gives developers and regulators concrete evidence of self-preferencing in the storefront Apple both owns and operates.
Second-order effects
- Apple responds on two fronts — adjusting search rankings to handicap its own apps, and later publishing a report it commissioned from Analysis Group arguing its iOS apps are rarely the most popular of their type, shifting from conduct change to counter-narrative.
- Ratings mechanics become a battleground in their own right, as Apple's in-app rating prompts inflate Podcasts from 1.8 to 4.6 stars, blurring the quality signal that search rankings and storefront placement rely on.
Third-order effects
- If self-preferencing findings keep accumulating, App Store search faces structural scrutiny — either regulatory pressure or Apple's own ranking rules — that separates the storefront operator's placement power from organic popularity signals.
- The gap between search placement and actual usage (12% of podcast listeners on Apple's app by 2024) points toward app discovery decoupling from default placement, with third-party apps winning on cross-platform gravity rather than storefront rank.
The trend: Platform owners' self-preferencing in their own app storefronts is moving from invisible default to documented, contested practice that forces ranking changes and commissioned defenses.