ICS Mobile readies its ProjectX platform for app discovery

ICS Mobile, the creator of the FreeAppADay.com promo site, is readying a new platform for app discovery. The new app code-named ProjectX has been approved by Apple and it will help apps spread among friends and families in an organic way, said Joe Bayen, chief executive of ICS Mobile, in an interview with GamesBeat.

FreeAppADay.com has generated a community of more than 10 million users who go to the site on a daily basis to get paid apps for free in one-time promotional deals. But it is the kind of site that Apple tolerates but doesn’t really like, because it is the kind of site that developers could use to pay to boost their apps in the App Store. Apple prefers apps to get to the top of the charts in more organic ways.

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Bayen said that the new app will introduce a compelling twist on the app discovery problem, which has plagued developers. Those developers can publish easily on the App Store, but their apps can easily get lost among the 889,354 live apps in the App Store.

The app, whose official name isn’t being revealed yet, will debut this fall with a number of major partners from a variety of industries, Bayen said. More details will be provided during the summer.

French startup AppGratis hit a roadblock when Apple pulled its successful promotional app in April. As app promoters shift away from artificially boosting apps, Apple should be happier. The promoters have a chance to create their own networks where users can promote apps to their friends and family in a more organic way, much like what happens on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Bayen said the new app will let users create their own favorites and share them with friends and family instantly. He also said that the company has figured out a way to monetize the app, and it will shift its FreeAppADay.com users over to the new app.

“We’re going to use this to help developers with user acquisition by getting them quality users,” Bayen said.