User acquisition, the “dirty underbelly” of mobile apps

At our recent MobileBeat event, we caught up with W3i co-founder Rob Weber to talk about user acquisition, a.k.a. persuading people to download your app, a.k.a. the seamiest of underbellies in the world of developing and marketing mobile applications.

It’s been a topic of some significance around here, particularly since VentureBeat’s own Dean Takahashi wrote a two-part takedown of some of the nastier marketing practices some firms use — and the relatively innocent app developers whose creations get banned from app marketplaces as a result.

In his talk, which you can watch in the video above, Weber also discussed how you, the mobile app developer, can determine how much a user is worth to you. It’s solid stuff, man.