Open any paid application that has about 50 reviews, you are sure to see at least one review that says the application is over priced or is not worthy. This is the trend on the App Store actually. Are we all so cheap to expect all the applications on the App Store to be free? We are not advocating that the developers of  some of those worthless/funny paid applications deserve to be rewarded. We just want to see that reviews of applications reflect their real value. How can reviews be near accurate?

Our general observation is that almost 50% or more of the reviews are written by App Store casual visitors who have not purchased the applications. This is bad, too many assumptions goes into this and distorts the real value of applications. The rule here is let us not be tempted to write reviews if we have not bought the concerned application. Not sure, if we can restrain the temptation to write reviews. The review section has become a platform for sharing jokes, opinion and making predictions in some ways.

Here is one sad story of an application that was successfully defamed for getting bad reviews. The reviewers compared the application with a free application that has similar function but lesser features. Now the punch line is one of the reviewers suggest addition of features that is already there but is missing in the similar free one. What does this imply? The reviewer downloaded the free application, write a review for the paid application based on what he felt about the free version. It’s funny right?  Or is this a careless misplacement? Even then the mistake is irreparable. Sad indeed, we are are too ready to comment without really knowing what is what.

Here are some negative comments related with the pricing of applications (utility value ignored):

Price related complaints are more for applications that are more than $5, the content value comes last or is not considered at all. Higher priced applications also have more false comments. Many users tend to comment without purchasing and trying out the applications. This is how good and worthless applications become one and the reviews become confusing for those who really want to purchase.

How to stop all these nuisance? The simplest and most viable way is to accept comments only from those who have purchased the concerned application. Most probably Apple must be thinking of this, not sure though. If this is solved somehow, we are sure buyers will commit less mistakes while buying and deserving developers too will get what their applications deserve. To top all, even good and free applications are not free from getting bad reviews.