App Popular 1.0 Released

With the new application App Popular, iPhone users can now share, monitor and track every iPhone application available in any of Apple's 77 online App Stores. Retailing for $1.99 (USD) the application developed by App Popular, LLC, and released today in version 1.0, is available in the Apple iTunes App Store. Features include social networking utilities to share apps via email, Facebook and Twitter; tracking functionality to monitor price changes, App Store rankings and App Popular rankings; and categorization tools like "Best App," "My Wish List" and "Worst App."

"We wanted to solve a problem every iPhone user faces," says John R. Haigh, App Popular Co-Founder. "One of the biggest complaints from users is not being able to quickly find, sort and track applications that meet their needs or interests. Unless they have time to search the entire App Store or a specific category, users typically limit themselves to the Top One-hundred and Featured lists. Our app makes it easy to search, track and share every app out there."

Created by Haigh and developer Nikita Logachev, App Popular delivers a variety of user tracking tools to monitor any app's popularity. In addition to sorting apps by country and category ratings, users can create and share custom app lists, wish lists and lists featuring their favorite and least favorite apps. To promote favorites and help guide their network of colleagues, friends and family, users can add short comments to their app selections.


Haigh explains that to facilitate social networking shares, a unique web page is created for each App Popular user's list and is hosted on the App Popular website accessible via a shortened URL auto-generated by the bit.ly service. At any time these lists can be edited, saved or shared. Default lists are "My Top Picks," "My Worst Picks" and "My Wishlist." App Popular also uses member default lists to create "Top Member Picks," "Worst Member Pics" and "Most Wished For Apps." These categories are updated every 15 minutes.

The application also uses Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 push notification service to help users track App Store price changes. Push notifications are currently available only for apps downloadable worldwide. To alert users to deals and trends throughout the day, the application also offers an app data "Stream" where users can view price changes of currently ranked apps, new #1 rankings, apps entering and leaving the top 10, and new apps added to the "Top Picks by Members" category. The Stream currently tracks the United States & United Kingdom's (Free & Paid) "Top Overall," "Top Grossing, and "All Games" categories.

For developers, programmers and iPhone App power users, App Popular offers a World Rankings list, updated six times daily, sortable by country and category. According to Haigh, this feature will help iPhone entrepreneurs follow market trends, generate new product and feature ideas and keep an eye on global iPhone app competition. However, Haigh doesn't see the application as all business.

With convenient access to all 77 App Stores and the chance for users to share newfound apps, he hopes to see a wider exploration of the app universe. He says "Whether users are addicted to the App Store or just obsessed with international trends, our app can help users unearth, stumble upon and save money on the apps they want, or don't even yet know they want. It's a great way for them to align with the pulse of iPhone app lovers across the globe."


Pricing, Availability and Updates:
App Popular(TM) 1.0 is priced at $1.99 (USD) and is available exclusively from the App Store in the Utilities category. Updates will be frequent and driven by user feedback.


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