App store recommendations and searches — Fair game?

The app store is great. It revolutionized they way you would sell software. It enabled the birth of new millionaires and opened up avenues that were unthinkable 5 years ago. The app store was the rebirth of how software was distributed and sold. Price points took a colossal hit, hell it even forced Microsoft to change how it looked at the ecosystem as a whole.

But as with all things new and shiny, this too had problems. App store search is a well documented problem. Startups like Quixey are well on the way to trying to crack that particular problem. Others have tried to aid discovery via deal a day app discounts which lead to initial spikes but an eventual plateau. Apple moved quickly to quash these “feeder” apps but eventually admitted defeat with the shutdown of its own Genius feature. We cant solve discovery and search today. It has always sucked and it will always suck unless people find a brand new way to discover and use apps. Pivoting to “near me” from Genius seems straight out of a commerce based incentive rather than a thoughtful need to solve a potentially very hard problem.

So what next? How do you discover apps?

1. The old way, word of mouth. A majority of apps I use have come recommended from someone who waxed eloquent about that particular app. Examples include TuneIn Pro or Circa — which btw is my favorite news reading app on the iPhone.
2. Pre-loading apps — Instead of having to browse Reddit or TechCrunch for their must haves, why not pre load a bunch of apps based on your history at the app store. Not a “full” backup but a preferred one. And for those new to the cult of iDevice, pre-load the top 3 apps in each category.
3. Discovery as a Service — Marketing seems too aggressive, PR is misplaced. Deals are for one time users but they usually dont stick around for Rev 2s and 3s when you actually clear out all your bugs. There is still a need for a new front of app installation and discovery that would enable those willing to take risks as well as what is trending. Like this or this but a better executed mashed-up version that cut out the trivial pursuit. Discovery should not just be inherent to the apps that one uses but also the kind of data is being used inside an app. There is still space to experiment and do well here. The go to market for this could even be to build something out on the Android store and test that out as a proof of concept before launching or asking for a dozen permissions on the iPhone.

So there you have it — Discovery as a Service — as a focus of the next year of app store marketing and launches