Staying Afloat in an Ocean Full of Apps

            How does an app maker or an app-making company stand out in sea filled with hundreds of thousands of apps in the market? With Apple boasting it has over 500,000 apps available for one to choose, their tag line ‘there’s an app for that’ makes virtual sense. They realized that with so many apps it’s hard for apps to stand out, let alone users scroll through all of them, that they even had to create software in order to help solve that problem. With their Genius software, it helps you decide what apps you may like by providing recommendation based on apps and other downloads you already own. And in case you were wondering, Apple isn’t the only high volume app market out there. In order to stay competitive against Apple, the Android market needs to provide the same amount of selections they have of apps. According to an article written back in January, the Android market had just made it to housing 400,000 apps.  It may still be a hundred thousand away from Apple’s total, but we all know that in today’s digital day and age that number can catch up in mere months.

http://www.cultofmac.com/76993/app-is-the-word-of-the-year-according-to-americas-linguists/

            With so many apps out there, developers have to ask themselves, how are we going to get noticed? There’s a solution for that (no app pun intended); at least Electronic Art’s founder, Trip Hawkins seems to believe so. In an article written by Eric Caoili for Gamasutra.com, Mr. Hawkins believes that the only solution for apps to be truly successful out on the market is by having a publisher work behind the brand. He believes a shift in the app-gaming industry is inevitable. App games may take note from their platform and console cousins to get a publisher behind them in order to have a shot at success.

            Mr. Caoili points out in another article on how a small developer named Spry Fox had to partner with a Disney subsidiary. With Spry Fox’s Triple Town title getting low usage marks when compared to other games on Facebook, they were worried it would not survive out on the smartphone market. They decided to let Playdom take over publishing for this title with aim of attracting more users and making their gaming a viable success. Since Playdom already has around 15 million monthly users on their gaming website, it’s going to exponentially increase Triple Crown’s reach from the 150,000 users they had originally on Facebook.

            Future app-makers don’t get discouraged. While it’s inevitable that some app-making companies out there will begin to partner with publishing giants in order to stay afloat. It doesn’t mean that app industry will close its doors to the indie and one-man-show developers. After all, that’s the beauty of this platform, the fact that anyone can make a game and put it out there and can still produce a giant hit is wonderful. Not every app is destined for greatness, but a great app can come from anywhere. What apps out there do you think are going unnoticed in today’s gaming society? Share with us by commenting below and let us know your thoughts on this issue as well.