Apps download falls
By Asha

Mobile app user acquisition platform Fiksu has published its research revealing that mobile app downloads plunged by 30 percent in March, returning to pre-iPhone 4S launch levels.

The Fiksu App Store Competitive Index (which measures the average aggregate daily download volume of the top 200 free U.S. iPhone apps) dropped by almost two million daily downloads to 4.45 million daily downloads, down from 6.35 million in February.

"With the novelty factor of the iPhone 4S launch and the holidays well behind us, and no other events in March to spark discovery, March’s download dip was expected," said Micah Adler, Fiksu CEO. "An unexpected contributing factor could be the decline in the use of robotic install tactics by app marketers responding to Apple’s new policy. The decline in competition and steady costs definitely presented app marketers with a ranking opportunity in March, driven largely through the cost-effective conversion of organic users into loyal users."

Just how much of these 2 million fewer Apps downloads in USA was the result of Apple cracking down on bots used to download Apps to make them seem more popular than what they really are?