Google Play’s Unique Mobile apps ranking system

Google Play’s Unique Mobile apps ranking system

The Google play store has been and still remains the ideal hangout for kids and grown up adults alike. Its presence can be felt all around you, weather at the airport or in a hotel. You are almost certain to come across people playing a game or fiddling with an app on their android smart phone, possibly to get rid of boredom. On an estimate, an average kid spends around 3 hours daily on android apps.

Google play store allows users to download android games and apps on their smart phone with ease, whereas its main competitor the Apple’s app store only caters to apps for its key products like the iPhone and iPad. Considering that Apple enjoys just a miserly share of 14% of the world smart phone market, Google play has a larger and bigger user base to cater to. Google play has managed to catch up with Apple after humble beginnings in 2009, in terms of download as well as in popularity. A gap still remains between the two with regards to revenue earned, where Apple ranks much higher.

But brushing aside the official facts and figures and competition, the number of applications available with Google play, are a whooping 700,000 ready for download, as per the official statement of Google, issued in October, 2012, almost at par with Apple.

Now a question that arises is as to how does a user determine and choose the app or game of his choice, of the 700,000 that are available? For user convenience, Google play has divided apps into categories, like Games, Apps, Movies, Books, Devices etc. further divided into sub categories like top free, top paid etc., as Google play offers both free as well as paid apps. But still, despite the categories and further sub categories, it is no child’s play to carefully check out and choose between 700,000 apps, although playing a game might be.

Taking into account the app developers view point, whose main goal will be to bring his app at the forefront and steer clear of competition, it becomes important for him to get his app noticed. In order to check user dilemma and encourage more user downloads, Google play has an efficient rating system, wherein each app is rated in stars and users can choose the right app by reading other users reviews on that particular app. Now the question that arises is that how does Google play rank or rate Apps?

Let us try to examine a few ways by which Google play ranks Mobile apps, although it is a well guarded secret.

  1. User Reviews and Ratings:

    Perhaps the bottom line and ultimate acid test for any app. Users which download an app from Google play are asked to rate and post reviews on the game. These users rate the apps in stars, from 0-5. An app which receives 4+ stars from users has to be good. Reviews related to bugs and technical glitches in the game are also posted on Google play by users. These reviews are to a great extent responsible for increasing or decreasing the popularity of an app. After all you don’t want to download an app which does not work properly on you smart phone. This clever in house user rating system is more reliable and accurate to rate any app without any bias. The highest rated apps also feature in the Editor’s choice category on Google play, making them the most sought after with maximum number of user downloads.

  2. Retention of the app:

    Not much is clear as to how Google play tracks this, but ranking of an app is influenced by, for how long it is kept installed in a user’s phone after installation. A common phenomenon which we all experience is that we download an app and then after trying it out for a few minutes or hours, uninstall it, if it does not turn up to our expectations.

  3. Number of Downloads:

    Contrary to common belief, achieving higher ratings on Google play does not cost money. An app requires a minimum of 15,000 downloads a day to reach the top 20 list and around 25,000 Downloads a day to feature in the top 10.

  4. New App advantage:

    Most recent and latest apps attract the most attention, as curiosity drives users to download and try a newly launched app.

Author Bio:

Katie Stanfield is an Android App specialist in Xperts Infosoft, who has created many unique apps for Android as well as iOS platforms. She is a self confessed gadget freak and likes to review every new device which is introduced in the market. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook to catch up with her latest views and reviews.

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