I've been meaning to link to this for a few days now. A great piece by David Smith on how to improve the App Store. It's actually a summary of a series of podcasts he did on the topic. I've complained about the App Store before, and I'm not overly confident it's going to get fixed anytime soon, but David Smith has some great ideas. Coincidentally, it was actually one of David Smith's apps for which I was searching—Pedometer++—when I was last complaining about the App Store. Apple just hasn't shown an ability to make great web services. I'm not sure if they can't or if it's just not their priority.

David Smith:

#1: Apps should be required to pass approval on an ongoing basis.
…The important thing is that it would create a Store where any app a customer purchases would be assured of meeting and complying with the current set of guidelines. The stated goal of the Guidelines is to “ensure [apps] are reliable, perform as expected, and are free of offensive material.” I believe every app on the store should meet those criteria.

This is just one of many good, well-thought-out ideas that he presents. I particularly like this one. It would keep all the apps reasonably up-to-date with the latest guidelines and versions of iOS, and it would eliminate a lot of stagnant junk that bloats the App Store.

The whole article is worth a read. I haven't listened to the podcasts yet, but I'm going to.