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March 10, 2010

Rob Glaser, Real Networks CEO, on mobile discovery

The industry needs to make discovery easy, which means once people have access to digital content, they need to be able to find their stuff and new stuff they will like using semantic data.
via gigaom.com

Thank you Rob :)

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Filed under  //   discovery   mobile   prediction  

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February 24, 2010

Everything is in little details: new, now AppsFire VIPS automatically presented according to your country

You may have not noticed the change, but we are now presenting VIPs according to the country from where you are browsing.

If you live in France, you'll see now first VIPs from France then the others.

This should add more relevance to your discovery experience, as you ll immediately relate to people leaving in your country. 

This is a little step in a long list of steps coming. 

Hope you like it

ps: yesterday we asked the question on twitter but no one really noticed :)

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Filed under  //   appsfire   discovery   vips  

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February 7, 2010

AppMix: Discover the best apps to discover music

Apple just released a selection of 10 apps for discovering music. But 2 important one are missing: TuneWiki and Deezer. We've added them in the selection below (here if you're reading from RSS). Of course this selection is also part of our Mixes on AppsFire new site

 

 

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Filed under  //   AppMix   discovery   music  

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February 3, 2010

★ AppsFire is heating up with a first round of funding!

Today we are thrilled to announce that we just closed our first round of financing with some of the best and most successful web entrepreneurs in Europe. 

Namely we are proud to receive support from Marc Simoncini (meetic CEO), Xavier Niel (Iliad/Free CEO), Jacques-Antoine Granjon (Vente-Privee CEO), Jean-David Blanc (founded Allocine.com sold to Vivendi - the Europe IMDB and recently invested in Square). A-level investors.


AppsFire is a French company with split operations between France and Israel but our reach is worldwide. Our investors built very successful businesses from France with international reach. This should be inspiring to us.

When we first started AppsFire, we had no idea that this simple idea would become a full-time operation with proper funding. Everything we did so far was done with very little time and resources. Starting today, things are going to change and this is rather a good news for us but mainly for you our readers and users.

Since we launched AppsFire, we generated more than 10 million app recommendations and download intents. Those recommendations converted into hundreds of thousands of clicks and the pace is accelerating lately at a very significant speed. We also launched an app built in 10 days that reach the App store top rankings for which a new version is coming very soon.

We are aware that AppsFire was a great experiment so far, meaning it was far from perfect. We are now equipped with the means to bring you the most innovative platform for mobile apps discovery; we are hiring today to that effect! 

What it means specifically is that nearly everything that you are seeing today is going to change. A new iPhone app will come soon, new discovery mechanisms, breakthrough features and tools, extending Appsfire to new OSes and not just the iPhone/iPad. Oh and did you notice our refreshed website?  (thanks to Nicolas Dengler for the graphical design)

We firmly believe that mobile apps is one of  the next new big things (do we need to convince you?) and that they (whether desktop or web based) will be the format of choice for consuming the internet and content on the go. We also believe that the app discovery issue, a critical one, has not yet been cracked. As users, we remain frustrated despite the large range of attempted solutions out there, and despite Apple's efforts that are clearly going in the right direction. We are frustrated even with our own solution!  

So in short, the challenge is exciting. In the meantime we want to thank you all, our users, for your support and love. We would not have been where were are today without you.

Keep watching this space for upcoming updates. And keep spreading the love for us! Thanks. Ouriel & Yann.


update: TechCrunch has a post on the funding

 

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Filed under  //   appsfire   discovery   funding  

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February 1, 2010

iPhone app discovery: how it is approached today, online. Full map and observations

We like to map the complex iPhone ecosystem (we did it for analytics and app creation), because it is important for us to understand where we move. One of the key issues of the iPhone world is app discovery: finding the right apps for you.

 

It is an issue for both developers and users. 

iTunes is doing a decent job at organizing the app catalog but, let's face it, the browsing experience, the absence of internal marketing channel to the App Store and the explosion of the number of apps (will reach 300/500k by year end) is making the discovery and relevancy of the process painful. 

This is then, no surprise that lots of services and companies are trying to solve that issue. We wanted to map those players and although Appsfire has not really started implementing what we are planning (this is called a teaser - more on that later), we also find ourselves in that map. 

There it is (click to zoom). Note we put aside the App store/Google and the blogosphere/TwitterSphere that plays an important part too. We focused here only on services that specifically aim at solving the discovery of mobile apps for the iPhone

What we can learn from this map is that the attention of iPhone users is split between many sorts of discovery opportunities from the most traditional (app catalogs like AppStore HQ) to the most complex (Flurry is an example), from personal initiatives (like appstore-appstot.com) to funded startups (a bunch in our map). And none has really taken the lead to mainstream although some have reached a decent size already (like AppstoreHQ)

App discovery is far from being solved. All those players, Apple included and soon many more players like Google/Android, Mobile operators, probably some publishers, will try to bring their own solution. This is a very hard problem to solve correctly. We tried ourselves with a few discovery mechanisms from which we learned a lot and gave us the vision for our next steps.

One more thing to mention is that the discovery of Apps for many users does not take place online. It takes place offline, while discussing and comparing apps with friends. Apps are the new playlists and the new mobile glue. People like to talk about them in real life. If you have an iPhone you know what we mean. And this part cannot be underestimated
This is definitely a hot space and one that requires monitoring.

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Filed under  //   app store   apple   apps   appsfire   discovery  

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November 11, 2009

Joe Hewitt, ex-Facebook iphone app creator, on the App Store app discovery [video]

via gigaom.com

Joe has created one of the most popular iPhone app. He just decided not to pursue this app because he's against Apple app review process and approach. Fine. Someone else is taking the lead. It is probably a big deal for a complex app like Facebook. I am sure Apple will improve it over time.

But in this video interview at the very end (jump to 8min) he says something highly interesting about the App discovery issue.

"I hope Apple is goingt to come with some solution for app discovery. If not Apple then some sort of third party infrastructure..."

Joe [smile!] welcome to Appsfire

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Filed under  //   app store   apps   discovery   facebook  

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November 4, 2009

@om (OM Malik) on the 100k apps and the discovery issue

As the number of apps continues to grow, the company will needs to focus on the discoverability of the applications. App discovery is vital for developers who need to sell applications in order to make money. If they don’t make money, then they shift loyalties to other platforms including Android, which is not going to be a pushover.

So what is Apple going to do next? It’s going to increase the “personal” quotient on its App Store. Think the genius feature on steroids! More app recommendations and more automatic discovery of apps based on our usage might be in our future.

via gigaom.com

Om, start keeping track of AppsFire

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Filed under  //   app store   apple   appsfire   discovery  

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November 4, 2009

100k apps, announced today (only) by Apple. Not a word on the VERY long tail

Not sure why Apple has waited today to announce 100k apps in the App Store, which we and other announced  about a week ago

Of course this is a fantastic achievement and Apple does not forget to quote top success like T-Pain app

But what Apple is missing in their PR is the fact that the BIG majority of apps don't enjoy that success

Please take again a look at this stat we provided regarding the %of apps that are installed in more than 50% of the users...The conclusion is obvious

The store is built for hits. Not for the rest.

Don't look too far for the explanation. it is mentioned  by Apple

Apple continues to improve search and discovery with new features including Genius for Apps, App Store Essentials selections, sub category listings and more valuable customer reviews

So let's see how they play it out. At Appsfire we believe the solution is not in the App Store or even the Genius. And this is why we are growing day after day. 

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Filed under  //   app store   apple   discovery   long tail   pr  

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October 1, 2009

AppMix: upgraded from Apple pages - Apps for Music. Which one should we add?

Here is a nice selection inspired and upgraded from Apple's Apps for music page. We added a few apps we like TuneWiki, I am T pain, Deezer and Midomi

Who should we add?

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Filed under  //   AppMix   apps   discovery   music  

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September 29, 2009

Apple improves discovery with "Apps for Everything". Appsfire improves "Apps for Everything"

Good to see Apple trying to solve the discovery problem. They created "Apps for Everything" thematic sections. Unfortunately it seems it is more of a repackage of already highlighted apps in other sections. So it is unlikely you find there the next gem. But this is a great step forward

Much of the apps featured seem to be ones that Apple has featured in the past in the App Store or even in its commercials. It should be no surprise that developers who have been a part of this attention in the past say that the spotlight has helped drive sales through the roof. (from TechCrunch)

One aspect not addressed also by Apple is how often those selections will be refreshed? and how will users know? well...we ll see

At Appsfire we believe Apps should be discovered via your peers and contextually rich mechanisms. We created AppMix a while ago for that, so you can find thematic selections of what  needs to be known in a very specific theme (for example best camera apps or branded apps). Apps For everything should address every particular need. Which is what we'll be doing here.

But since Apple has helped us a little we are going to release regularly nice widget of those Apps for Everything. Starting today with Apps for Cooks where you can see below a nice clickable widget with the total price of those apps

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Filed under  //   apple   AppMix   apps   discovery  

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