Weeding out the apps

Published: 2009-01-07

I need an iPhone app to help with a fairly specific task, a quick search results in 55 apps, some seemingly fitting the criteria and some completely off topic. Which one do I choose? How do I quickly filter through 55 applications to determine which apps are worth considering let alone buying, installing and evaluating?
 
The review system seems flawed for all but the most popular due to the biased reviews of App creators and their competitors for Apps with 5(ish) or less reviews. Some could argue popularity alone is a strong enough factor but that won't help me find the newer Apps launched daily.
 
Is the self containment of Apple's App Store ratings system its biggest limitation? If Apple were to extend App ratings beyond the store itself out to blogs, news sources and online communities it would find more accurate results for niche Apps and gain a broader understanding of trends and the true effectiveness of the most downloaded Apps.
 
If nothing else it would mean all the 'Top 10 iPhone Apps' articles would be put to use.

More from this section