Two thirds of all iOS applications – that’s 400,000 – are so-called ‘app zombies’ with zero visibility in search on the iPhone and the iPad. That’s according to mobile analytics startup adeven which has today launched its new app analysis product Apptrace, a tool enabling publishers and developers to discover what is happening in real time so they can make informed decisions about their own apps.
The startup, which is based in both Berlin and London and provides data for mobile advertisers, received a seven figure investment from Munich based VC Target Partners back in May.
Apptrace is a free service which shows users what the top ranked apps in various categories are, what is popular in a given week, and what iOS platform the app is trending on. The service also breaks down information by country, and whether or not the app is free. Users are able to create their own tailored reports by selecting criteria that is relevant to them.
A huge amount of data is sourced from the 155 countries where the App Store is available and is then aggregated into a digestible format. According to edeven, this makes it useful to companies wanting a clearer picture of what is happening in the market before deciding when and where to release an app.
The data is updated daily, and on average is about six hours old; this makes the analysis effectively real time, the startup says.
Christian Henschel, CEO and co-founder of adeven, believes that Apptrace is a vast improvement on the app ranking competition: “Having worked in the industry for a number years my co-founders and I became frustrated withwhat we saw as broken offerings. We’re delighted with Apptrace, the way it looks, what it tells the industry and our plans going forward.”
Alongside the zombie apps, which aren’t visible and hold no position in the App Store, Apptrace has also discovered that there are 1,899 flashlight apps on the market and 47 percent of the top 1,000 games in the US are free, and
Apptrace will soon extend into app comparison, allowing developers to compare their own apps with competitors.