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CrunchBase Should Rollout An iPhone App Section (CrunchApps.com)

In response to the ongoing, back-and-forth dilemmas between iPhone App developers and Apple, Crunchbase.com is perfectly setup to rollout a bridge that could play an integral role in in the current App Store/iPhone App setup.

As the website itself states, “CrunchBase is the free database of technology companies, people, and investors that anyone can edit.” The website proves extremely handy for many publications everyday as they rely on CrunchBase to quickly find information about companies, individuals and certain services they can’t find elsewhere. A quick search for nearly any digital startup, web service, or tech related product returns a few different companies, often times individuals associated with those companies, their products, and funding partners (if any). This is all important information that ultimately helps organize and categorize our industry.

Michael Arrington, Founder and Co-Editor of TechCrunch, is entirely setup to deliver a much needed service to Apple, the Apple community, iPhone developers, and the industry in general. Not only would this new addition to CrunchBase be aiding in the organization of the iPhone development platform, it would of course launch CrunchBase into a daily “go-to” for many iPhone developers around the world. They would constantly be checking back to see what is happening in the iPhone development community, which applications are being launched, the number of times they’ve been downloaded, and all of the pertinent information that CrunchBase currently serves up for the digital world.

Unlike most “free” databases that are open to the public, Arrington’s CrunchBase is highly visible and in the spotlight. New companies, individuals and services are being added every day. And above all else, TechCrunch is an authoritative, credible publication.

The Proposed Solution

In a nuthsell: Rollout an entirely new section relying on the same technical framework as CrunchBase, only focus it entirely on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch development platform. A spinoff section, on either a subdomian like http://app.crunchbase.com, or an entirely different domain like www.crunchapps.com. I registered crunchapps.com and I’d happily transfer it over to Arrington. The benefits for both CrunchBase and CrunchApps, and the Apple community in general could be immense.

For CrunchApps: Beat Apple to their own game. Show them that they’re not needed all the time. They’ve done their job in developing the iPhone, providing the industry with tools to create wonderful applications, and maintaining the integrity of the iPhone’s performance. When it comes to the development community, and managing the App Store, Apple clearly doesn’t care. In all fairness, their efforts with reorganizing and categorizing the app store have been futile.

What the iPhone development community needs is a “go-to” resource for credible information. As we’ve been able to tell, it’s currently a mess. While this space may seem niche, there’s no denying the iPhone’s rank as the top handset, with the best platform in the world. For this reason alone, Arrington should feel compelled to help drive the community, if not influence its potential.

CrunchApps could allow the same embeddable widgets for iPhone development teams, iPhone app specific companies, and of course the applications themselves. Bloggers both large and small in reach could rely on CrunchApps for quick reference when it comes to comparing apps and researching information.

For the Apple Community: Besides the immediate benefits of having all of that information in one place, sharing, collaborating and managing the integrity of the development platform can be done hands on, by the community itself.

Without a doubt, every iPhone app developer wants as much visibility as possible. There’s absolutely no
reason to believe that iPhone developers won’t submit or claim their products on CrunchApps. The public wiki formula has been proven successful with CrunchBase, and on the largest scale with Wikipedia. This would ultimately be a scaled down version of both. Just as on CrunchBase’s homepage, there would be a constantly updated feed showcasing the latest submissions, recent edits, funding information, download count information, ratings. If there’s no way to integrate into the App Store’s statistics information and get the actual App Store ratings, then start from scratch. Within the first few days CrunchApps would be populated with mountains of information.

The iPhone development platform in its current stage is extremely fragile. As we’ve seen since its launch, every rejection, every questionable approval, and every time there’s a lack of communication, it gets scrutinized by the community, and by the developers themselves.

Apple is usually good about listening to its customer base, and in some occasions they will adopt what the masses are asking for. In this case however, little has been done by Apple to help alleviate serious concerns being shared in the dev community. With CrunchApps, Michael Arrington could utilize his existing setup, replicate the minimal infrastructure needed, and deploy an organized, well managed and well maintained staple in the industry.