Apple’s App Store, which is home to more than 1.5 million apps, could soon undergo some changes.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple has a secret team of 100 employees working on ways to change the App Store. One idea that’s being kicked around is a paid search model that would allow companies to pay to have their app appear at the top of a customer’s search results. For example, a dev could pay to have their game appear at the top of a “basketball game” search.
The team that’s said to be working on this App Store project is said to include many engineers that previously worked on Apple’s iAd advertising effort. That includes Vice President Todd Teresi, who leads the project and previously ran iAd.
This rumored move suggests that Apple is interested in making a bit more money from the App Store. The move could also help developers get more eyeballs on their apps in a huge and still-growing App Store. Paid apps may only be good for larger developers, though, as smaller devs may not be able to afford to pay Apple to boost their app’s placement in search results.
This paid search option isn’t the only App Store change that Apple is rumored to be considering. Today’s report also claims that the team wants to improve the consumer experience of browsing the App Store.
It’s not known when any of this team’s App Store changes will actually be rolled out.