14 DAY TRIAL // A job opening for content management engineer over at Apple’s Santa Clara offices indicates that Apple may be looking to introduce its own version of AppGratis in the near future.
Known to frown upon services that replicate App Store functionality, Apple has recently commenced an iTunes wipeout with its torpedoes armed and targeted at discoverability apps.
The Cupertino giant says these service go against some App Store guidelines, while the developers of these apps (and some of their customers) disagree.
But no matter who is telling the truth, one job advert recently posted by Apple may provide more indication as to why all this is going down.
Apple is looking for a content management engineer who “will focus on web-based content management applications for iTunes.”
The advert is not very specific regarding this staffer’s actual role within the iTunes engineering division.
Apple only states that said team is “looking for a mid-to-senior-level software engineer [for] optimizing and improving our processing pipeline to deliver the highest-quality experience to our customers.”
And one of the key qualifications required for the job is “Experience building large-scale server-side systems with distributed processing algorithms.”
Going by this job advert we’re inclined to believe Apple is interested in providing its customer base with an application discoverability tool developed in-house.
Apple’s iTunes App Store is in some desperate need of such a service. Although Apple maintains and curates the venue to the best of its power, there are still lots of IPs that slipped through the cracks with features that go against the company’s guidelines.
And with over 800,000 titles available, customers are having a hard time finding just the right apps for them.
Frankly, after pulling AppGratis from iTunes, Apple downright owes it to its customer base to provide an alternative.