Downloads of iPhone apps down in March

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 27 (UPI) -- Downloads of iPhone apps were down 30 percent in March, the lowest since the launch of the iPhone 4S in October, a mobile app marketing firm reports.

Fiksu said iPhone mobile app downloads decreased by about 2 million downloads last month, with the Top 200 free U.S. iPhone apps seeing 4.45 million downloads a day in March, down from 6.35 million per day in February, PC Magazine reported Friday.

Fiksu called the decline in app downloads predictable.

"With the novelty factor of the iPhone 4S launch and the holidays well behind us, and no other events in March to spark discovery, March's download dip was expected," Micah Adler, Fiksu's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Part of the decline is attributable to a change in policy on Apple's part, Adler said, as the company cracked down on the use of so-called download bots -- automated programs that repeatedly download an app to increase its ranking in Apple's App Store.

Apple has warned app creators that using such programs could get them banished from its developer program.