Jake Przespo

To say the App Store has become a huge success for Apple would be an understatement. It has surpassed 3 billion downloads with over 100,000 apps in its catalog. The iPhone has done amazingly well with the help of the App Store. I was talking to a friend at work and him and I both think there is something else they can add to it to make it even better.

The problem with apps

So you find something you want to do with your iPhone and you start browsing through the App Store. Let’s say for example you need a camera app with a little more functionality. You need one that zooms, takes three shot bursts, and does video recording so you can replace the included camera app. You find an app that has zoom and video recording, but doesn’t do three shot bursts. Or you find one that has zoom and does three shot bursts, but not video recording.

You can either make the decision to download two apps that do the things you need, or you sacrifice some functionality and choose just one app. Not to mention the original camera app is now stuck on your phone and will collect some digital dust because it can’t be removed.

The Patch Store

The idea of a “patch” store would be to download small pieces of functionality for an already existing system app. For our example, we could download the zoom patch and the three shot burst patch and add them to the existing camera app we know and love. By doing this, users will stay familiar with apps they already use and would only have to get used to a small additional interface element.

A quick example of a “patch”

I believe this could also help the economy of the existing App Store as well. A lot of articles came out saying developers aren’t making any money on apps because so many of them were either free or $0.99. This was ruining development. If “patches” were only $0.99 and not a full blown app, developers could charge more for apps with a lot of functionality.

Obeying almighty “Steve”

We know Apple is very anal about keeping the design and functional experience similar across their entire device. This is part of the reason the App Store approval process has upset so many developers. The Patch Store would have to have very tight guidelines to follow considering they are adding to apps already developed by Apple. This is understandable and not that big of a deal because the amount of time spent on patches would be considerably less than full blown apps.

I know I would like to buy additional functionality and keep my beautiful Apple apps. Would you buy “patches” instead of a couple fully built apps?