The App Store's observed behaviour as of late has made people question Cupertino's intentions.
Last week, it was reported that Apple is revamping the App Store and possibly using a new set of algorithms to populate the digital store's search results. However, Sensor Tower, which offers services for developers to optimize their apps' ranking within the Apple App Store and Google Play, notes the bizarre behavior of the App Store's Top Free Charts.
The firm takes notice of how several Apple apps were placed within the top 10 list of free apps.
"Despite not appearing in the Top Charts for free apps within our Top Charts & Leaders product, several Apple offerings, including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote were in the top 10 free apps within the App Store app itself," Sensor Tower reports.
As Sensor Tower notes, the mentioned Apple productivity apps appear whether or not they are installed on the device. To their right are the "GET" or "OPEN" prompts, which vary depending on whether the apps were previously installed on the device. The image shown reflects this observation.
Once the apps get installed and App Store gets relaunched several times, the Top Free chart coincided with Sensor Tower's own tracking.
"It's worth noting that we encountered this issue on three iPhones we tested running the latest version of iOS as of this writing (9.1)," Sensor Tower adds while noting that a test using a device running on iOS 8.3 was conducted but the apps were already installed then. A test with the apps uninstalled for the device could not be conducted.
Following Sensor Tower's lead, TechCrunch also did its own experimentation and found that the App Store ranking varies from one device model to another. This was observed when the App Store was accessed from an iPhone 5s and iPhone 6s, which were both running on iOS 9.1. Although the list contains the same apps, the rankings got shuffled. For instance, iTunes U was listed as No. 11 on the iPhone 5s but dropped down to No. 13 on the iPhone 6s.
While it is possible that Apple is promoting its own apps through the App Store, the Cupertino-based company is yet to release a statement regarding the issue. Without word from Apple the possibility of a bug causing a disruption in the app rankings should not be discarded.
