MG Siegler at TechCrunch argued this weekend for a Genius feature for the iTunes App Store, similar to how the Genius feature for music and movies already works.
The problem is that while early on, it was pretty easy for small-time developers to make an app and get it noticed in the store, now with 50,000 apps, we’re getting to the point where you need to do something else to promote your apps. That’s good news for big time development studios like EA, which can throw marketing money at the problem. But for some smaller developers some of which are just one person that’s simply not an option. But there is one potential solution, and it’s one Apple already has built-in to iTunes: Genius recommendations.
So, like the music and movies Genius feature, the App Store Genius would give recommendations for other apps you might be interested in based on what you have as compared to other similar users.
What a terrific idea, and I find it hard to believe a) Apple hasn’t already thought of this or b) this isn’t in the works already if the Genius feature, originally only for the music store, was recently extended to the movie store. iPhone and iPod touch users knowing what other apps they might also like could open an additional stream of revenue, no? Hard to argue against instating a feature to bring more cash in.
I know I would find this helpful. I used to subscribe to a couple RSS feeds that listed new apps, but I quickly found I couldn’t keep up with the volume of new apps that came in. That volume is great for Apple, but bad for users who can’t keep track of the apps and bad for small-time developers who can’t get their apps noticed.
With a Genius feature, more apps will be exposed to more users, resulting in a win for users, a win for developers, and a win for Apple. Perhaps there’ll soon be an app for that, too.
(Nod: Just Another iPhone Blog)
