Want to Sell Your App? Give Customers and App Stores What They Want

Even the most beautifully crafted apps won’t sell if they don’t meet customer demand. And if the app doesn’t fit the app store’s distribution strategy, forget about any sort of product promotion.

These are the conclusions that ABI Research (News - Alert) developed in a report called “App Discovery and Recommendation.” The report emphasizes how customers discover apps and how developers can capitalize on this with their launches and marketing strategies.

One major finding from the report is that app developers who want global distribution have to cater to customers in their native languages. For example, in countries like France, Germany, China and Japan, over 75 percent of all apps sold are in the population’s native language. In China, over half of the apps that sell are specifically designed for the local market.

“Our findings confirm that apps that fit into the local culture, or at least speak the audience’s native language, see a measurable boost in their download rankings,” said Aapo Markkanen, an ABI Research senior analyst.

“This means two things. First, domestic developer communities will always have a certain edge in winning over the consumers’ hearts and minds,” added Markkanen. “Second, larger developer houses with global ambitions risk seeing their expensive releases go unnoticed if they don’t localize the content properly.”

In addition to catering to customer wants, developers need to understand what app stores and device vendors want to showcase about their products. For instance, ABI Research practice director Dan Shey (News - Alert) recommends considering important trends like NFC. He also suggests leveraging the iPad’s Retina display or the Siri API. “Microsoft’s soft spot will be in live tiles, while RIM wants to see developers embedding BlackBerry (News - Alert) Messenger to apps.”

The ABI Research report also discusses opportunities that stem from challenges in discovery. The report makes recommendations for how different people in the value chain can profit from connecting users to the right apps. To order the full report, click here.

“If you publish your app in the right category, with a catchy name, a bright-colored icon, and skillful search engine optimization, this can go a long way in attracting downloads,” said Shey. “Smart developers also follow their performance in a very detailed level and some even use Android as a test bed for their launch and publishing strategies.”

“One plus side of Google’s (News - Alert) liberal submission policy,” he added, “is that one can freely try out which kind of choices work and which don’t.”