It isn’t easy to weed out your app from the plethora of apps available. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of Apps on different app stores. If you consider that there are apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows and other app stores, you would realize how difficult it is to get an app noticed!
So how can developers make sure that their apps don’t stay hidden in the background and die a silent death? How can users avoid time – wasting searches to get to the apps they are really in need of? Is there a solution for both user and developer to cut through this clutter?
There are many apps that are trying to overcome this challenge and a few come to mind. These are apps that could help other developers.
Applorer
Applorer is by Stream Media. Theirs’ is a niche genre though – gaming apps discovery only. Through partnerships with app developers, they feature their game apps on their app so a user is easily directed straight to the app on the app stores. This however, is not a sustainable model because once it has say a thousand partnerships; it’s back to the same problem.
DiscovrApps
DiscovrApps you have to pay for and then, after search for the apps. I would recommend it to developers as it uses clever mapping to recommend apps based on the apps that a user already has. It’s simple and a user can start their search from any app and then recommendations follow after until the user gets to what they really want.
In my humble opinion, what DiscovrApps fails to realize is that when users are looking to discover an App, they are not looking to pay for one that will eventually lead to the answer afterwards. The other thing I find difficult to grasp about this search app is the fact that every developer or marketer knows for a fact that users don’t always know what they want until it’s been slammed in their faces. If someone had surveyed consumers 10 years ago if they wanted apps, the answer would have probably been no because this is an industry where production first and then sales after seems to work better.
The Solution
Until the app stores can actually cater for easy discoverable intellect for developers, developers will have to stick to good marketing strategies. Unfortunately not all developers will get access to funding or huge marketing budgets – and this is where developers have to make peace with the fact that their industry is not different to any other business out there. It takes time to break even and developers would have to partner with media platforms, sponsorships with brands, business loans and grants to make it. It’s no longer about having the best app that your creative and technical team believes in only; it’s having a bigger team that includes marketing, PR and social media experts.