A few weeks ago, we celebrated 300 millionth download of 12.000+ applications written for iPhone and iPod Touch. For the developers of those 12.000+ applications, there is a serious mistake on Apple’s side. If you don’t believe in the importance users’ review scores for the applications, then you don’t need to continue reading. If you believe, let’s see what is wrong.

The problem starts with the question: What are the ways that people can leave review score for a particular application. To be fair for all app developers and also to all iPhone users, all applications (regardless of how great or silly they are) need to have equal chances of receiving a fair review. The two words are underlined, because Apple’s current iPhone firmware asks for a review score when a user uninstalls an application from her phone. Now, what is wrong with it?

It is very safe to assume that the major reason for somebody to uninstall an application is that she doesn’t like it. Therefore, if Apple takes a look at the review scores coming from the iPhone uninstall interface, I bet they wouldn’t be able to see a score above 3. If so, I would argue that nobody would have uninstalled the application in the first place. What is the implication then?

Equality: With this uninstall interface, uninstalled applications get disproportionate opportunities to be reviewed, compared to other applications that doesn’t get uninstalled. Please keep in mind that the score itself is irrelevant here. It can be good or bad for the developers of these highly-uninstalled applications. The problem with equality is that inequality decreases the credibility of review scores.

Fairness: The system creates an adverse selection problem, which is a very common psychological mistake we do every day. With this review screen right before the uninstallation, the uninstalled application receives (expectedly) bad scores. But the continuing users of that particular application might never find such an easy chance to give a review score. So, even though that application might be a decent one for the general userbase, the users who uninstall it would sink that application down and may inhibit the further expansion of its userbase.

Bottomline, it is not a life threat, but I would feel better if I were an application developer for iPhone. As a heavy user of these apps, I feel less confident about the review scores I see on AppStore.