Apple Deleting Outdated Apps As iOS 10 Launch Draws Near; Samsung Rival Says 'Quality Is Very Important'

Apple may be preparing for the arrival of iOS 10 next week as the Cupertino giant is reportedly cleaning up the App Store and making its digital distribution platform for mobile apps a place sans outdated, non-functional and low-quality applications.

MacRumors learned this Thursday that Apple has already sent out notifications to developers about a drastic change it is imposing on the App Store starting Sept. 7 — the same day the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, Apple Watch 2 and the iOS 10 are expected to launch.

“Quality is extremely important to us. We know that many of you work hard to build innovative apps and update your apps on the App Store with new content and features,” the Cupertino giant opened its notification.

The Tim Cook-helmed tech company then continued by stating that it is implementing an evaluation process that would examine the different applications on the App Store and remove apps that are found to be non-functional or outdated when it comes to following the current review guidelines.

Apple also indicated in its notification that it is going to inform the developers of the problematic and abandoned apps before deleting them from the App Store.

Shedding light on the issue, Apple Insider said that the Cupertino giant is essentially dropping “abandonware” due to its new policies. The tech site also acknowledged that developers with outdated apps will be provided with 30 days to release updates for their apps in order for them to spare such apps from elimination.

Furthermore, Apple, which currently has over 2 million apps on its App Store, is strictly imposing that apps that crash on launch will be immediately removed. And while these removed apps would still be accessible to users who already have them on their devices, new users will not be able to find them on the App Store for download.

Finally, as part of these new implementations, Apple is said to be limiting the number of characters that can be used in an app’s name to a maximum of 50. In its notification to developers, Samsung’s rival company stated that apps with very long names are not fully displayed on the App Store and have no user value, adding that developers use this approach in naming apps just to secure a spot on search results.

Apple’s decision to clean up its App Store comes a week prior the expected release of its new mobile operating system, the iOS 10, which is rumored to come with new features, including the recently reported third-party app integration of Siri.