I disagree. I do think it can be better, but blaming your apps failure because of it isn't a good excuse. Granted, I work with an app that is on these leader boards but it wasn't always that way.
We started out having maybe 5-60 downloads a week for quite some time (1+ years). Now, we're at several thousand downloads per week and have been for the past several months. From the surveys we've done we've found at most about 5% stumbled upon our app and used it because they saw us in the app store. The rest? from continued press, advertising and word of mouth about what we are providing and how our app adds value to a users phone/life.
The reason why apps get to the top is because usually they're providing something novel, or at a minimum, provide something that no one else does well. It's something that happens in every industry. Are you really filling a need of someone other than you? Are you doing it better than the competition? (UI, Design and so on) Are you listening to your customers? There are exceptions, no doubt, but if you're building a killer product and advertise it elsewhere, I do think you too can make it.
With all of that being said, is the app I work on perfect? not in the least bit, but we're continually improving it, making our customers happier with each revision. (And when we don't, we act quickly) The list of todos for our app is 10x longer than what is done, but that's because we see so much potential. Is our app better than our competitors? certainly, our reviews, # of downloads and so on show it.
> Just because an app was the most popular six months ago, doesn't mean it
> should be the most popular now. But a leaderboard model is a self reinforcing
> action. The most popular stay the most popular. The new upstart doesn't stand
> a chance at unseating the aging category leader.
I don't think this is actually true. Having had many apps make it into a category leaderboard and then fall back down, it's pretty clear that simply being on the leaderboard doesn't give you enough momentum to stay there.
The apps that stay on the leaderboards are being promoted in additional ways (word of mouth, advertising, App Store features, website reviews and plugs).
I encountered the same issue just this week when I released a new app and noticed that the Recently Released list no longer exists. It used to be you would get an initial spike in sales from that list, then gradually drop off. If the app was good it could maintain some of that momentum and grow from there.
Without an easy way to browse or search deeper within the store new apps are lost without much of a chance.
Outside marketing is crucial. I am waiting for someone to create a really good App recommendation service that is widely adopted so that it can be an alternative to the App Store listings.
We started out having maybe 5-60 downloads a week for quite some time (1+ years). Now, we're at several thousand downloads per week and have been for the past several months. From the surveys we've done we've found at most about 5% stumbled upon our app and used it because they saw us in the app store. The rest? from continued press, advertising and word of mouth about what we are providing and how our app adds value to a users phone/life.
The reason why apps get to the top is because usually they're providing something novel, or at a minimum, provide something that no one else does well. It's something that happens in every industry. Are you really filling a need of someone other than you? Are you doing it better than the competition? (UI, Design and so on) Are you listening to your customers? There are exceptions, no doubt, but if you're building a killer product and advertise it elsewhere, I do think you too can make it.
With all of that being said, is the app I work on perfect? not in the least bit, but we're continually improving it, making our customers happier with each revision. (And when we don't, we act quickly) The list of todos for our app is 10x longer than what is done, but that's because we see so much potential. Is our app better than our competitors? certainly, our reviews, # of downloads and so on show it.