Phil Schiller on App Store Knockoffs in 2012: 'Is No One Reviewing These Apps?'Knockoff apps have long been a problem in the
App Store, with scam apps sneaking past reviewers to compete with genuine apps and steal sales, and back in 2012, Apple's
Phil Schiller was absolutely furious when a fake app made it to the top of the ‌App Store‌ rankings, according to documents shared in the Epic v. Apple trial.
At the time, Temple Run was a super popular iOS exclusive title, and in February 2012, a fake version of Temple Run hit the ‌App Store‌ charts. Schiller sent out an email to
Eddy Cue, Greg Joswiak, Ron Okamoto, Phillip Shoemaker, Matt Fischer, Kevin Saul, and others on the ‌App Store‌ team. "What the hell is this????" he asked. "How does an obvious rip off of the super popular Temple Run, with no screenshots, garbage marketing text, and almost all 1-star ratings become the #1 free app on the store?"
"Is no one reviewing these apps? Is no one minding the store?" he ranted on, before asking whether people remembered a talk about becoming the "Nordstrom" of App Stores in quality of service.
<div class="center-wrap"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">‌Phil Schiller‌ in 2012, after a rip-off app hit #1: "What the hell is this?????
.... Is no one reviewing these Apps? Is no one minding the store?"
pic.twitter.com/pNaozl6hv1</p>— Patrick McGee (@PatrickMcGee_)
May 3, 2021 <script async src="
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
Since that 2012 rant, ‌App Store‌ reviewers have continued to struggle with knockoff apps that mimic real apps. A second document highlighted Minecraft knockoffs that had made it into the ‌App Store‌ not once, but twice, and was eating up Minecraft sales, and in a third 2015 document, Schiller comments that he "can't believe" that Apple doesn't have automatic tools to find and kick out scam apps.
<div class="center-wrap"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">‌Phil Schiller‌, 2015:
â
Phil Schiller on App Store Knockoffs in 2012: 'Is No One Reviewing These Apps?'
