Doubts About Some iPhone Reviews

In the same way that reviews of most consumer products have come into question over the years, iPhone reviews have begun to experience problems as well. One of the features of Apple's online store for approved iPhone downloads is that people who have already downloaded and used the apps can write reviews and give them a rating.

But gradually, questions have come up about how genuine those reviews actually are. Was it possible that reviewers were somehow being paid or influenced to write good reviews by the companies or developers who had created the apps?

When Jeff Bertolucci did some research into iPhone app reviews in the app downloading store, he found that even with the safeguards Apple had tried to put in place to prevent the likelihood of deliberately skewed reviews, it was still too easy to slide around them.

Nick Santilli, who writes for www.theappleblog.com, told Bertolucci that it made more sense to talk to people on Twitter or in other user-friendly sites, to get genuine iPhone reviews from people who have actually used the apps. Many people simply don't think reviews at the site itself can be trusted.

Between new federal regulations requiring disclosure of payments for writing reviews, and the ability for developers to respond to iPhone reviews with accurate information, Bertolucci still thinks it's a good idea to let the reviewing continue at the App Store.

Certainly, in the midst of a bunch of rave reviews made for hire, a couple of negative ones will stand out and make the potential user take notice.

The new regulations, instituted in December of 2009, will help to reduce reviews written for a payment, and it's possible now that users may actually glean some accurate information from them.

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