Apple has added another 'app channel' to its toolbox today, with the launch of app pins on Pinterest. Forbes' Parmy Olsen has taken a closer look at the mechanics of the App Pin, and how anyone clicking on an app pin will have an app automatically installed without leaving the Pinterest iOS app, rather than kicking off a long series of clicks through the iTunes App Store towards installation.
It's a simple idea, and one that I'm sure everyone can agree is worth doing. Naturally Apple will be using Pinterest to continue its efforts to curate chosen apps in the iOS ecosystem and exert a level of control over the apps that become popular on its closed platform, through it's own 'App Board', which is surely destined to become a popular destination.
App pins featured in this board will naturally be 'curated' by Apple. If a developer wants the benefit of Apple's Pinterest community, then they will have to hope that Apple anoints their app. That simple process will likely create a huge rush of interest in a single app, and that process is controlled by Tim Cook's team.
Only 'Apple approved' apps will get access to its gold mine.
Apple's use of Pinterest follows on from the launch of its iTunes Tumblr site in December last year. itunes.tumblr.com focuses more on traditional media such as TV series, films, and books. Right now I can see promotion for Game of Thrones, Neil Gaimen, and Sam Smith on the front page. All nice, safe, commercial names, that keep the record labels happy, keeps the money flowing back to Cupertino, and focuses iTunes
I expect the same 'safety first' approach will be taken with Apple's app selection on Pinterest. The strong freemium games racking in a million dollars a day, they need to stay popular for Apple's revenue. The big name production companies need to keep thinking Apple first and the easiest way is to show them the money and the ways money can be channelled towards their apps and not others.
Will "the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently" get a look in?
With the loss of Apple's long-running free 'Single Of The Week' in January, Cupertino removed a vital route for smaller artists to be noticed, as it ramped up the mainstream artist visibility on Tumblr. Is the same going to happen for app developers?
The carefully curated App Store (image: Ewan Spence)
As every developer knows, the key to success in the App Store is getting that initial kick. With the huge volume of applications and games available in the store, the problem of discover is a monumental one (and it's not helped by the increasing number of titles released every day). Getting that kick into the bottom regions of the Top charts (be it downloads or daily sales, in the global list or just the genre category) is everything.
While Apple does not 'magically' place titles in these list, through the use of soft power in advertising and social media it has the power to organically push the app into the right place to deliver the result that Apple would like to see.
When you can influence the visible channels that promote to the public, you have a powerful lever to use, and you all know what they say about what comes with great power. There will always be scope for a left-field choice to suddenly appear (who remembers Flappy Bird?) but the creation of highly visible social media channels, alongside the eye-catching graphical spots inside the iTunes store itself gives Apple an impressive toolbox to curate and control both the application and media experience around the world.
The crazy ones can still break through, but Apple can stuff the ranks with above average and competent hand-picked apps that show off the handset in the way that Cupertino wants it to be seen.
Update: Pinterest would like to stress that "Just like any other type of Pin, anyone can Pin from the App Store or repin an app you see on Pinterest. Similarly, anyone can see app Pins as long as they're on an iOS device. We even created our own board of app Pins... Apple has launched a Pinterest presence as one of the many ways to start seeing and pinning app Pins, but it is not the only way app Pins will get in the system."
