Apple has recently announced that it would soon remove old, outdated and non-compliant applications from its App Store.
However, it’s not yet clear what qualifies as “outdated,” since they didn’t specifically detailed criteria for purging old apps.
According to a TechCrunch report, Apple says that they’ll be “implementing an ongoing process of evaluating apps, removing apps that no longer function or haven’t been supported with compatibility updates for “a long time,” with newer iOS versions or iDevices.
However, it is yet not clear that how long would this 'long time' be.
There are now 2.1 million apps available in the App Store, and of course, there’s just no way that all of them work right. Many of them could be out of date, buggy beyond belief, or simply abandoned by their developers and unable to run on up-to-date iOS software.
According to data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, 328,000 iOS apps haven’t been updated in three or more years. It wouldn’t be surprising to see all of those put on notice.
According to data from app intelligence firm Adjust, 50 percent of all apps have been abandoned by developers since May 2015. With half the App Store potentially up for deeper examination, Apple’s marketplace could soon look a lot different, following the upcoming purge.
Though Apple’s actions will likely remove a great number of mobile applications, those that disappear largely won’t be missed.
