Mikey Campbell
Apple on Monday officially killed Chomp's service, including its iOS app and website, after having purchased the company to obtain and imtegrate a number of app search and discovery assets into the iOS 6 App Store.
Following the September rollout of iOS 6, which includes the built-in Chomp-based App Store, Apple decided to kill off the app search engine altogether, evidenced by messages received by users saying saying the service has been discontinued as of Sept. 30.
Apple purchased Chomp in February for a reported $50 million to enhance its App Store, subsequently ending the service for Android users in April. Previous to the Android shutdown, Chomp powered Verizon's Android app search engine.
The Chomp-style App Store was first seen in August when Apple rolled out a pre-release version of iOS 6 to developers.
While the new App Store offers backend improvements, especially in app discovery, many users have complained the layout isn't as intuitive as the legacy model. Currently, the App Store features "cards" or "panes" which allows only one app to be displayed onscreen when using an iPhone, whereas the original design featured a scrollable app list. The new layout is well suited for the iPad, however, due to the extra screen real estate.
The end of Chomp comes on the same day as Ping's demise and a scheduled drop in free iCloud storage space temporarily granted to previous MobileMe users.
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10 Comments
And your point is, ``Apple now owning this business made business decisions for it's newly acquired assets. News at Eleven!''
K. Not much point to the service beyond what Apple bought it for.
I wasn't a fan of the new App Store layout, but it's grown on me.
It's surprising (or not.) Most of the things that *at first* irritated me with iOS 6, don't anymore.
Apple purchased Chomp in February for a reported $50 million to enhance its App Store, subsequently ending the service for Android users in April. Previous to the Android shutdown, Chomp powered Verizon's Android app search engine.
For pocket change Apple bought a company that very well would have sued them for the changes Apple wanted to implement in iOS6 app store. AND, as a bonus, got to nudge Android users and Eric Schmidt in the nuts for FREE.
And your point is, ``Apple now owning this business made business decisions for it's newly acquired assets. News at Eleven!''
This is being spun around the web as an 'anti-competitive move' and Apple again 'ripping away options from the consumer'.
I kid you not.
[quote name="Slurpy" url="/t/153054/apple-shuts-down-chomp-app-search-engine-following-ios-6-integration#post_2203020"] This is being spun around the web as an 'anti-competitive move' and Apple again 'ripping away options from the consumer'. I kid you not. [/quote] And had it been vice versa those very cries would be heard here.