AppGratis “Free” apps may be gamed

Apps are marketed as going from paid to free, a little research showed that this is sometimes a contrived marketing ploy.

Apps that were free switch to paid for a short time before they are featured, so that  they can say they dropped in price.

App Rankings for appHiFi Dock Enhancer – note the price INCREASE that precedes the price drop for AppGratis.

Apphifi rankings change

App Rankings for Turnacle – note a similar price INCREASE that precedes the price drop for AppGratis.

Turnacle iphone app rankins

Here is a short list of other apps that see a boost in rankings from AppGratis. 

AppGratis’s description of their service:

Free & paid-to-free apps daily.
Huge discounts on paid apps.
Every single app hand-picked & tested thoroughly.
One unintrusive push notification a day.

AppGratis just raised $13.5 for their app discovery engine from Iris Capital and the Orange Publicis Fund.

Even with the gaming of the system, there is no denying the success of the AppGratis platform. Featured apps spike in rankings, seeing a push into the top 5 or so apps in the Apple app store. Pretty sweet little bump.