Accessible to everyone is the Apple App Store where iPad, iPhone and iPod touch applications are available. $ 400 million is what Apple is expected to make off of this annually. Also, that number is the lowest any estimates put it at. Despite the fact that Apple is making a ton of money, Steve jobs hasn’t done anything to help make the App Store more honest in its dealings. Makers spend a ton of time making their products look better with fake reviews so they’ll sell more. This strategy is called Astroturf marketing and seems often. Knowing which applications are worth your time is much harder. This means it is even more difficult to pick applications. According to the New York Times, the Federal Trade Commission has had to intervene.
Astrosurf case needs to be settled by Reverb Communications says FTC
California marketing business Reverb Communications and key executive Tracie Snitker have agreed to remove all fake app store reviews from iTunes. Reverb faced charges of deceptive advertising as a direct result of the company’s policy of encouraging its employees to write and post good reviews of its clients’ games from November 2008 to May 2009. In turn, Astroturf reviewers were paid for their reviews. Digital Leisure, Harmonix and MTV Games were a part of the 60 game production clients Reverb had. The Times reports that Reverb and Snitker are forbidden from “making similar endorsements of any service or product without disclosing any relevant connections,” because of the FTC.
Snitker claims Reverb’s actions were legal
. .
Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain says the FTC’s move will promote truth in advertising online. “This case sort of shows that what they have in mind is not the individual blogger or Twitterer, but rather a professional endorser. When a client says ‘Where are my good reviews?’ you can say, ‘We can’t do it because it is illegal.’”
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NY Times
nytimes.com/2010/08/27/technology/27ftc.html?_r=5
