By Janet Maragioglio | Fri Feb 24, 2012 11:52 am
Apple plans to acquire Chomp, an app search and discovery company, to revamp its App Store and stand out in a crowded marketplace.Chomp, which makes a tool designed to help users find apps, provides search results based on an app's function, rather than its name.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company's move comes on the heels of an announcement to overhaul its iTunes and App stores. Apple is aiming to make it easier for users to find apps among the more than 550,000 its App Store offers, and the Chomp acquisition will help it reach that goal.
Best-selling offerings are often most visible in the App Store, while newer or less popular apps get buried. It's difficult and time-consuming for users to get at those deeper offerings, especially if they don't know the name of the app or exactly what they're looking for.
With its Chomp acquisition, users will likely discover lesser-known apps that appeal to their unique tastes and usage patterns. As a result, Apple will enable App Store users to find what they need more quickly and easily, competing more successfully for users' eyes and downloads in an increasingly crowded app market.
The tools are also good news for Apple's developers, because they will help new apps break in and get more visibility.
Apple's acquisition comes as apps begin to help companies draw in advertising revenue. For example, Google's new privacy policy, which allows it to cross-market between all its sites and services, will open new advertising routes based on users' Android app activity.
Likewise, social network Facebook now targets ads to users' precise interests and tastes based on their mobile app activity, in the hopes of raising conversion rates.
Apple's purchase of Chomp hints it plans to jump on this trend as well. The ability to harness app use as a revenue-boosting tool hinges on users' ability to ferret out apps that suit their individual preferences from a sea of competing offerings.
Once it integrates Chomp's search and discovery tools with its App Store, Apple will ease that process and gain a new way to market to users, as well as widening the appeal of its apps.
Apple also expects to release new products this year, including the iPad 3 and iPhone 5. These devices are expected to incorporate faster 4G LTE technology, making them especially suited for using apps to perform a host of data-hungry activities.
Rolling out new search and discovery features in the App Store before its new round of products hit the market will help Apple bolster increased app use, as well as ensure Apple gets exclusive use of Chomp's innovative technology for an edge in the marketplace.
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