Almost 3 thousand apps can be removed from the App Store

About 3 thousand applications can be removed from the App Store by next month, according to analysts from Sensor Tower. Old applications that have not been updated for several years will come under attack. To avoid their removal, developers will have to release updates within 30 days.

Since last weekend, indie developers have been receiving system messages from the App Store. In them, the administration of the platform asks to update “outdated” applications within 30 days. Otherwise, they will be removed from the store.

Sensor Tower counted 2,966 similar applications. However, their total number may be much more, because analysts took into account only applications with the number of downloads from 10 thousand and above.

System message from the App Store
Also, according to TechCrunch, some developers have received warnings from the App Store, despite recent updates.

Many indie developers expressed indignation. For them, old applications are finished products. The developer of the Motivoto game, Robert Kabwe, expressed concern about the requirements of the store.

“I am concerned that a fully functioning indie application can be removed without good reason, after one warning. This is an unfair barrier for independent developers. The same console games of the early 2000s are still available for sale,” he said on Twitter.

Kosta Eleftheriou, an iOS developer and critic of the App Store, pointed out the company’s double standards. According to him, Apple requires regular updates of programs from third-party teams, but at the same time it may not update its own for years. For example, the last update to iTunes Movie Trailers was released more than 4 years ago.

At the same time, updating applications for new devices is one of the points of the agreement that the developer must accept if he wants to appear in the App Store.