Apple App Store Downloads Sink in April

29.05.2012
Downloads from Apple's App Store declined in April as the cost of landing loyal users increased, according to Fisku, an app ranking firm located in Boston.

Daily downloads of the top 200 free apps in Apple's App Store dropped by 4.9 percent to 4.23 million, down from 4.45 million in , Fiscus Tuesday. The decline comes a month after Apple celebrated breaking the in app downloads at the store.

At the same time, the cost to app developers to corral loyal users climbed 12.3 percent in April to $1.46, from $1.30 in March.

According to Fiscus CEO Micah Alder, the April decline wasn't surprising. "April’s continued downward trajectory of app downloads was expected, as no major events sparked discovery during the month," he said in a statement.

“Additionally," he added, "app marketers continued to scale back their use of robotic install tactics in response to Apple’s policy on third-party marketing services."

In February, Apple they could get kicked off the iOS gravy train if they used third-party marketers to manipulate their app's ranking at the App Store. Apple's action was aimed at the deployment of "bot farms" and "" to propel an app into the Top 25 rankings by using paid mobs of users to download the software and give it positive reviews.