When Apple announced the app auto-update feature with iOS7, I was not entirely sure if I wanted all the apps on my iPhone to be updated automatically. One one hand, I liked the thought of not going to the app store everytime there was an app update (there are lots) while on the other hand I also feared for the battery drainage such a feature will cause.
Fast forward a few months and my experience has been rather positive. While battery usage remains a concern, I really like the fact that all the latest updates are automatically applied to the apps and it saves me the effort of doing so manually.
However, I also realized that ever since I upgraded to iOS7 I wasn’t visiting App Store as often as i used to. That seemed strange because I am the kind of guy who likes to discover new apps and experiment. While I still download a lot of apps after I read about them on blogs or if a friend recommends one, my visits to the app store have reduced drastically. This set me thinking if my reduced visits to the App Store were a result of the iOS7 and more specifically the auto-update feature of the App Store.
Auto-update of apps on iOS7 reduces the need to visit the App Store
While it is still very much a personal hypothesis, I strongly believe that post iOS7 the visits to the App Store could have reduced drastically.
On a slightly different note, some publishers have shown frustration towards the re-designed Newsstand app as well. Here also, the key issues highlighted relate to how the app icon has been designed and the fact that the visual cues in the re-designed newsstand app are not allowing for more usage.
For me, the same is the case with the App Store. With notification icon in the App store reminding me to update the app store I had a reason to visit the App store to update and inevitably I will end up browsing the featured and the top apps. All in all, I would end up downloading new apps to try. With the re-design I find myself visiting the App Store less often and as a result, I don’t find myself discovering new apps
Are app developers witnessing a decrease in app downloads as well?
I tried to figure out if there was a way to prove my hypothesis that the apps auto-update feature could indeed be leading to reduced app discovery but I couldn’t find anything.
It will be interesting to see if app developers have ways to measure/track how their apps get discovered downloaded via the App Store. While it might be difficult to isolate if there indeed is a relation between low downloads as a result of apps auto-updating post iO7, I would love to know
If you are an iOS7 user or an iO7 app developer, please share your thoughts on whether you think app discovery has taken a hit post the app auto-update feature was introduced.
