TechCrunch, together with the analytical company aveden, tried to figure out how much the mechanism for ranking applications has changed in the new version of Apple’s mobile OS.
There were rumors that in iOS 6, ratings now rely more on the number of sessions, social activity and the number of search queries than on downloads. But as Paul H. Müller, the founder of aveden, notes, so far all the collected data indicate no or minimal changes in the operation of the ranking algorithm of the main ratings. Most of the changes in the top itself, which do not occur for natural reasons, are now associated with changes in the work of the search and a new kind of charts.
“In the event of a change in the ranking algorithm, the consequences would not be long in coming,” Paul explains in his email. – “If it, for example, were based on sessions, Facebook applications would not be pushed out of the top.”
But do not think that if the mechanics of rating has not changed, then everything remains the same. Firstly, Apple has started aggressively promoting its own applications among users who have just bought the company’s device. Secondly, in the new version of iOS, a serious place is given to the Genius recommendation service. And, thirdly, it became clear that Passbook-compatible applications are much better off in the tops than the rest.
As for promotion, Muller advises not to discount the “keywords”: their role in exposing a particular place to the application is still not entirely clear. For those who focus on marketing, Paul recommends targeting. He also noted that Genius and search results now often flash applications with strong network support, but not with record download rates.