Six great iPhone apps flying under the radar
The most popular apps in the App Store aren't always the best. Here are six cool apps you might not have heard about -- and why they haven't broken into the big time yet
Follow @infoworldIt's all about rising above the noise.
Some 150,000 apps line the Apple App Store's virtual shelves, yet there's not yet a good way to shop for them. The App Store's oft-criticized search offers little assistance unless you know exactly what you're seeking. Marketers have been accused of gaming the App Store's customer reviews, both in positive and negative ratings.
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What's left is the App Store's main Top 25 list, as well as the Top 25 list in every category. The bottom line is that many iPhone owners lean on these lists to tell them what to buy. "The Top 25 list is the thing that drives distribution," says Krishna Subramanian, founder of Mobclix, which operates a mobile ad exchange marketplace. "Other apps just don't get the exposure."
For starters, getting on the Top 25 list isn't easy. An app needs to be promoted through mainstream media, marketing, word-of-mouth and social media to increase downloads and make the list. Big app developers know the score, too. Microsoft, for instance, poured marketing dollars to promote the Bing app on the iPhone in December to lift the app on the Top 25 list of its category.
But app popularity is also a moving target, and it's easy to see how some good apps often fail to make the list and thus fall under the radar.
Here are six cool apps that currently suffer this fate:
