iPhone apps: AppsFire and AppVee

I admit it: I have serious overload issues about navigating the App Store. (I even blogged about it way back in February, ) At this point, there are more than 65,000 entries in there. And that's just for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Factor BlackBerries, Android phones, and soon Pres, etc., and that's just a mountain of mobile phone software getting churned out.

When it comes to the iPhone, ReadWriteWeb says 46% of users rely on app recommendations from friends. That seems like a big proportion, given how many news outlets and blogs cover this (including ours, occasionally). But despite all those reviews, nearly half of iPhone users still depend on ?word-of-mouth? from pals.

Now, there's a new program that's designed to make this referral process easier (or at least more fun).

AppsFire
This program lets you share your favorite apps in just a few clicks. The service provides a link to a custom webpage that can be shared easily via email on the handset or a desktop browser, or from the web page itself via email or social networks.





When visitors hit any of the icons on the webpage's huge iPhone graphic, it launches iTunes and takes them to the product page in the App Store. (Hmm. I wonder how long it will be before having the coolest apps becomes a status symbol?) The service also has several top app lists to browse, in case you need other suggestions.



AppVee
This one may not be a new app (it launched last year), but it's still handy for checking out video reviews of other apps on the go. AppVee lets users search vids by category or keyword, or browse the Top 20 list. And it seems especially useful when an AppsFire link arrives from a friend.





Say I?m away from home while checking out a pal's favorite apps. If there's one I?m interested in, but want more info before buying, I can search AppVee for the hands-on demo before downloading it to my phone. Sure, I can wait until I get home, but chances are, I?ll forget by then. I?d rather just do it when I have a few minutes to kill (and, hopefully, public Wifi access).

Good stuff, both of them. But they?re not quite perfect. AppsFire requires a desktop download (Mac 10.5+ or Windows) and hasn't yet managed to catalog all the apps on my phone. As for AppVee, the videos are a little dry, and the selection doesn't cover everything I?m interested in. But for iPhone apps designed to help you discover? well, other iPhone apps, these aren't bad, despite these nitpicky issues. And they?re both free, which is always a plus.

To check out the iTunes pages for these, click here for AppsFire and here for AppVee.

[via Just Another iPhone Blog, ReadWriteWeb]