Apple’s App Store is being quickly caught up on in popularity by rivals such as Google and Microsoft’s own-brand app stores, but it has been revealed that they are expecting to have an unprecedented 435,000 new additions to the store over the course of this year, though a report claims that a large majority of these will be lost in the dust with poor search systems and an over-crowding market.
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Mobile analytics firm Adeven have in their research claimed that the iOS App Store will be home to another 435,000 new apps released this year, an increase on the 359,764 new entries listed in 2012, but that due to it being such a large market, most will become ‘zombie apps’ – a term being given to releases that are unranked by Apple and as such have little chance of being ‘discovered’ by users unless actively searched for, while methods applied by the company also result in lower search ranking placements.
The researchers note that this phenomenon affected 64% of apps in December 2012, up from a 60% recorded in June, and is likely to increase further with more and more attempts at creating the next big thing in the store.
Adeven, however, did note the positive figures of the App Store, noting that November saw 2012′s biggest ‘spike’ in new iOS app releases for the year at 39,313, while the 22,483 recorded in July (the lowest of the year) would be a number not be looked upon too badly by rival companies either.
However, while only a select minority of apps will receive the full benefit of being on the App Store and it’s reported 52.2m visits every week, mobile marketing firm Surikate (who uncovered those figures) claim that unless there are the consumer will naturally only browse what is convenient rather than digging through extensive archives to find the perfect app for them.
A survey from Surikate summarised this stance, claiming that on the UK version of the App Store, 81% of users do not search the rankings further than the top 50 listings for each category, while a majority of those people do not look beyond the top 25. This approach from users strongly benefits the best apps as would be expected, with Surikate finding that 75% of users will download apps (presumably free versions) from the charts even if they had not heard of it before, though 85% still require positive reviews and additional information before hitting the ‘download’ button.
The research also indicated a would-be guide to the process, claiming that developers are more likely to be successful by being a new app released at the ‘peak time’ of 6-9pm during a Friday night, with a potential audience of up to 2.61m in the UK alone. It was also found that the average user ‘visits’ the iOS App Store 6 times per week, and spends 11-and-a-half minutes on each ‘stay’, while looking mainly in the categories of ’games’, ‘music’, and ‘entertainment’, but only have around 30 or less titles actually installed past the default apps.
Much of the research covers what many already know but in a little more detail, so will the findings have any effect on a hopeful app developer’s way of thinking, or do they have to play with the odds that they will most likely become a ‘zombie’ no matter what they try?Image may be NSFW.
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