Apple corrects two big App Store flaws

Apple has moved to correct two of the most common complaints about its App Store, over customer reviews and the way it sorted games by their release dates.

Previously, anyone could review an iPhone application, whether they'd bought it or not. This led to fears that developers could 'rate down' games by their rivals, but also complaints about the many one-star customer reviews complaining about pricing, from people who hadn't actually bought the games.

However, over the weekend, Apple changed its policy, so that now customers can only review iPhone apps that they've actually bought. In theory, this means reviews will be more reliable now.

The second change may have the most impact though. Rather than sort games by the release date of their last update, the App Store now sorts them by their original release date.

This means there's no longer an incentive to release negligible updates for games simply to send them back to the top of the New Releases chart (and hence get a spike in sales).

Apple has made it clear at recent events that games are now a high priority in its iPhone strategy. These App Store changes show that it's following that through with action to improve the experience for both developers and consumers.