There’s something seriously messed up with searching the iTunes app store from an iDevice. I’ve found at least two consistent examples of applications that are searchable and downloadable via iTunes-on-a-desktop, but are not even visible in search results from an iDevice like the pad, touch, or phone.
Nike+ GPS
Brion Gysin: Dream Machine
It’s an odd error condition, my guess would be it’s caused by having a separate search index for the mobile devices. What is particularly annoying about the error is that auto suggest will start to fill in the name of the apps correctly, but then gives you no results. Following a direct link to the app from safari just gives you an error once the device switches from browser to store mode. Another great job of QA there apple.
UPDATE: Darshan the useless, why does Apple pay you? Then again, at least you could get email, even if you couldn’t understand basic english enough to do your job (or maybe you understood just fine, and have taken an American attitude towards your job); nike’s app support page just sticks you in a never ending loop if you try to submit feedback to them.
UPDATE2: If you want to send feedback to Nike, ignore the big orange button that says “feedback”. Look for the smaller link that says “contact us”…that one isn’t broken.
UPDATE3: “resolved”
It turns out the problem is the lack of synchronization on iOS 4.x availability. In their infinite wisdom, apple decided to have search pretend an app doesn’t exist, if your device isn’t running the required OS version. Seems like the smarter, more user friendly UI design would be to return the items marked unavailable with a reason why, but I guess someone wanted to make sure the call center in India had enough pointless work to do.
