While Apple likes to tout the number of available apps in its App Store, no one really talks about the visibility of those thousands of apps to iOS users. Mobile analytics and ad firm Adeven says that’s its really difficult for small, independent app developers to be discovered through the current app system, which favors bigger, more successful developer houses. Adeven says that almost 400,000 App Store apps get no downloads, are invisible to users and have no ranking. Adeven’s CEO, Christian Henschel spoke to GigaOM about this particular issue, saying that “The reality is there are only a couple of thousand apps that really make some kind of downloads. This is based on Apple’s closed system — it’s tough to discover those kinds of apps. You don’t have proper search, so the only way to discover new apps is through the top listing.” The data was collected through Adeven’s Apptrace tool which the company has shown to media. Because of the sheer number of apps available on the iOS App Store, it’s hard for newer apps to make a substantial impact in the crowded marketplace.
Source: GigaOM