So, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but these iPhone app things are a pretty big deal. With the iPhone continuing to sell in record numbers, more and more new users are exploring the App Store everyday to find the apps they want. One of the most popular type of apps are Twitter apps. And the obvious way to find those is to type “Twitter” into the iTunes search box. This query brings up a couple apps called “Twitter.” The only problem? They are in no way official Twitter apps, as the name might imply. And one of them isn’t even actually called that.
Over the past couple of weeks, we must have been pinged a couple dozen times from people pointing this out. Some of those people were unfortunately tricked into buying these apps, which are not free. Looking at the top paid apps list in the social networking area of the App Store, sure enough, both the app called “Twitter” and the one called “Twitter Pro” are top sellers, at #5 and #9 respectively.
Undoubtedly, Twitter, the actual company, would have every right to ask Apple to remove these apps, or force them to change their names. But it would seem they haven’t done that yet. So these apps go right on tricking people, and presumably infringing on Twitter’s name. And that’s too bad.
At least one of these apps doesn’t seem that bad either. I downloaded the one called “Twitter” to test it out. It’s not great, but it’s not half bad either. It’s kind of like a Google Reader for tweets, where you can mark all as read. Still, it’s not on the playing field with the best Twitter apps: Tweetie 2, Echofon (which presumably changed its name from TwitterFon because it didn’t want to make Twitter upset), and Birdfeed.
Just to be clear: The app listed as “Twitter” is actually called “TwitBird.” But not only is it listed as Twitter in the App Store, it’s listed as that when you install it on your iPhone. Humorously, even the TwitBird name will likely raise concerns from another group: Leo Laporte’s TWiT, which has the rights to that name.
Meanwhile, the app known as “Twitter Pro” is really called that, and by all indications seems to be a bad app. For that reason, and the shady naming techniques, I’m not going to link to either of these. But if you want to find them, just do a search in the App Store, both will come up in the immediate results.
How did this happen?
Aren’t apps screeened rigorously before hitting the app store?
Sometimes yes, and sometimes no.
Is it a good app? Then heavy testing! Is it shit? Then its all good!
75,000 apps, and 100% of them are complete shit
LOL says the person with the name ‘facebook’.
Welcome to the internet – enjoy your stay.
First things first, get the hell off Facebook.newbie. It’s crap/
Enjoy your failure
Sorry dude, but it’s 85,000 apps that are 100% total shit.
This post only goes to show that people who use twitter are stupid.
I thought they always did though. I’m pretty sure someone told me that, but maybe I should have not believed that person. They really need to start looking at every single app otherwise the stuff will continue to happen over and over again.
Absolutely dump on Apple’s part that they go about creating problems for other reasons then the obvious trademark issues. Sleazy on part of the developers who get away with this kind of thing.
“dump”? That’s dumb!
This reminds me of the old META keywords hack back in the early days of SEO. This is just a way (sleazy as nustik pointed out) for these app heros to rank up on a search term, i.e. Twitter.
Twitter is on a bend lately to clamp down on the Twitter name (I know because I had a domain with “twitter” in it that I had to kill). So it won’t be long before this is sorted out with Apple.
The company selling the second ‘twitter’ app, iApp Ventures produces many rubbish apps. They same to sell dozens of apps that are almost identical, and I can a test to their poor quality as I purchased one before and it worked once and never again no matter how many reboots or reinstalls I did.
It’s sad to see them in the top paid as they will certainly be making a lot of money that high up and from the quality of the apps I’ve tried by them and your comments on this one they certainly don’t deserve it.
Using the company name like this to sell applications (by both companies) is certainly a cheap shot and an insult to the other twitter app developers. Twitter should certainly go after them for this.
+1
yea, I came across this iApp Ventures site awhile back and definitely appears to be a shady operation. Check out their Web site and you’ll see – just a shell with no company information. Ironically they have a copyright notice.
At one point they literally had thousands of apps listed in App Shopper, but that’s been pared back to a few hundred so wonder if Apple has already started policing them.
MG, you’re usually pretty quick to pick up these stories and all so I’m going to let you post it, but I covered this story back on the 16th.
http://www.best...-the-app-store/
heh nice. yeah we’ve been getting pinged on it for a while, but didn’t realize how big of a problem it was until i saw both were top selling apps.
Since my team just released a Twitter app, we have been focused on the problem you mention for some time. We watched the numbers for “Twitter Pro” climb from when it was first released. The uptake was really high even though the reviews were horrible. (you can verify this via Mobclix site and the app store.)
The two apps featured in this article are definitely getting a lot of traffic just because of the name. Yet honest developers are kind of stuck in the weeds. We approved the name Tweetery with Twitter ahead of releasing our app and are really trying to figure out why we chose to do so at this point. As of right now, it seems like it’s a penalty for honest people.
Our app and other apps that follow Twitter guidelines fail to get the viral juice that these two are getting. Personally, I think that Twitter and Apple should do something about it.
Of course the funny thing is that now, thanks to this article, these two apps will probably get even more revenue and higher rankings
Best,
Don
well after this techcrunch post i am sure apple will make them changed their name or take app down
yeah right. apple approved them in the first place. they’re the ones really tricking their users. also if there was more than barebones basic info when buying an app there might not be this problem to begin with.
I am surprised that you didn’t mention Twittelator among the “best Twitter apps.” For one, it is a lot more capable than Echofon.
As to the name squatting thing, yes, these guys are trying to get away with robbery, but just about everyody is a little bit at fault here. 1) Where is Twitter itself in all this? This is a threat both to their brand and to their developers. They should be jumping all over this. 2) What about Apple’s strict enforcement of copyright, decency, motherhood and… 3) There’s also a certain amount of caveat emptor that applies here, too. Do the people who buy these apps read the reviews?
In any case, “time will heal… “
First everyone complains that Apple is too stringent with app store rules.
Now everyone complains that they’re too loose.
That said, I agree with MG here.
“The Wild West” of apps sounds fun, but look what it did to Facebook.
i guarantee that this will be fixed by end of day today. i feel like once things are brought to attention like this, apple acts FAST to avoid looking dumb…
Since Techcrunch wrote about this, we should see action from Apple soon
I’m glad we’re even able to have this discussion. It seems that we’ve all become comfortable with Apple’s App Store discretion in as far as it pertains to their quality offerings and standardization. This is a good thing and I hope the spirit of the company continues to shun proprietary marketplaces that serve no purpose other than protection of revenue streams.
Actually, you need to see action from Twitter. Apple won’t touch it unless the owner of the copyright complains.
Apple’s submission process says that Apple assumes you have rights to all trademarks, graphics, etc. that you use in your App. Apple doesn’t go around and make sure that an App submitted to them isn’t using some copyrighted graphic or trademark. And, anyway, it’s up to the trademark owners to protect it–not Apple.
Not totally true. I had an app for a sports team get held up because they wanted a letter from the logo rights holder. At the same time I know of developers that did the jcpenny app and didn’t get annu questions dispute be a design firm and not jcpenny.
So if someone submits an App named “Apple Computer Inc” or “Macintosh”… then it gets approved? At what point do you favor common sense over bureaucratic idiocy? Please advise.
I’ve been using TwitBird for a while now and it quickly became my favorite app for Twitter. It’s not as pretty as some – which is typically #1 of my criterion – but it’s much more functional. I’ve since switched to cult favorite Tweetie 2 because I’m fickle. I just wanted to point out the biased review of an app that is great be it not for its unpolished looks and controversial “name.”
It’s impossible to “trick” anyone into buying an iPhone app. The button to buy it is labeled with the price. Anyone stupid enough to be confused deserves to have their money taken from them.
The trick is in labeling the app in a way that it appears “official” and released by the “Twitter” company.
It is a trick, and it’s dirty pool. Imagine buying a “Coke” only to find it was only a sticker on a can of while label soda.
I guess that the great thing this does for anyone releasing a Twitter app is that unless Twitter defends their name, they will eventually lose the trademark and we can all be “Twitter” some day.
Alas.
I don’t think that Apple is playing fair. While a lot about the iPhone is dumb and farcical, just look at the market it’s in… Phone companies… Apple is competing against phone companies. It’s not fair. Apple may only have half a brain, but these phone companies haven’t got any sense whatsoever. Apple should pick on some industry of it’s own stature. What next, is Apple going to take on the Cable companies? It’s like the big bully on the playground stealing lunch money from the little kids.
Are you kidding with this? You clearly used my tip, from this tweet here a couple of days ago: http://twitter....atus/5090970388 — right? No link back? Nothing?
wow
This doesn’t reflect well on the average iphone user does it now?