Developers use updates to revive iOS Apps on slide

A study says that developers make use of app updates in order to revive declining interest in their software and drive downloads.

The study has been conducted by a group of Italian academics observing how updates are used by app developers to attract attention, and effectiveness of this strategy on Android vs iOS.

The research paper, 'Updates Management in Mobile Applications. iTunes vs Google Play', looks at differences of performance between app updates on Google's Play Store vs Apple's App Store. It has been concluded by researchers that updates are a better approach for driving app downloads on iOS than on Android.

Over a period of six months, the researchers analyzed the top 1,000 apps on the iTunes and Google Play stores across five European countries. According to their findings, an update is most probably released when a developer observes 'a worsening' of the app's performance.

According to them, "Our results confirm that updates boost downloads and are more likely to be released when the app is experiencing a poor performance. We interpret this finding as evidence that app developers use updates as a 'bet for resurrection' strategy".

Updates are released by Android and iOS developers what they describe as 'an extremely high frequency'. However, updates are more common on Android; apps on Google Play are being updated on average every 28 days, and apps on iTunes are being updated every 59 days.

As per the authors, the lack of a 'significant impact' that updates generate for apps on Google Play might be attributable to the lack of quality review process.