Carrier Coverage wins week 3 of #thenextinstall, 10 new apps try to knock it down

Can our community help discover the next great Android app? Welcome to a new experiment called #thenextinstall where we try to see if we can find an Android app in the rough, and boost its installs and exposure to new highs.

AfterFocus daily installs.

Last week our community selected AfterFocus, which is a neat camera app used to create DSLR-style background blurred photos. After it was featured on our site, the daily installs spiked to a 30-day high, and total installs have passed 100,000. The developers listened to the feedback from new users, and they say a Pro version with more features is coming in May.

This week the goal remains the same:

Find an app with less than 100k installsCome up with a one or two sentence pitch that encourages users to install itSubmit your suggested app in the comments below or in this weekly thread

Browse over the new app suggestions and let us know if any of them make it onto your device.

Carrier Coverage daily installs

Once again, this week’s winner was an easy choice. Carrier Coverage was by far the most installed app last week among our community. The app attempt to answer the question ‘Which carrier is best for you?’, which is a pretty ambitious project.

The app is quite young with less than 10,000 installs, but we like the concept and think it can be a winner. In order for the service to become successful, it will need more users and that’s where you come in.

We reached out to the Carrier Coverage team to see if they could update us on the status of the app, and we got a pretty nice response from the founder Rob Jackson. If that name sounds familiar, he’s also the man that started Phandroid and AndroidForums. Rather than chop up his letter, I have included the full text below.

Thanks for featuring us in your weekly article. I was excited to hear we got included.

In terms of the app's progress, you can see on the bottom of our homepage that we have a roadmap, with our first goal of reaching critical mass in March 2012. While we consider our current 3,000+ users a modest success, we realize that isn't a critical mass. And to generate a critical mass, we'll need to have the best product. In our opinion, that all starts with properly curating the collected data.

When we first launched the app, we didn't allow rooted users to contribute data. Rooted users complained, and we quickly responded by working double time to push out a website and app update that allowed rooted users to submit and filter rooted data. We didn't originally plan that so many of our users would be rooted, and because this greatly affects the possible accuracy of data reporting, we've had to work long and hard to ensure the integrity of our data by way of manual moderation of devices, carriers, and combinations.

This has pushed back our release schedule, but we're confident that our decision to focus on data integrity is best for us and our users. We still fully plan to implement additional features such as 3G vs 4G reporting, data speed reporting, data visualization integration such as coverage maps, and much more.. so stay tuned. Heck... we could bump these bells and whistles to the top of our To Do list, but we think data accuracy should be priority #1. And that's why we think users will make Carrier Coverage their app of choice.

Android and Me has a tech savvy readership and we know some of them have complained about a few issues. We'd LOVE to hear from these users so we can help correct the bugs and release bug fixes and updates. We invite feedback in the Carrier Coverage Forums or users can e-mail us directly. As our promo video explains, we can't do it without the help of our users, so whether it's hate mail, fan mail, criticism, complaints, problems, issues, bugs, or a terribly cruel telegram sent by horse and carriage- we welcome it.

Thanks for the opportunity. We're happy to answer any and all questions (we'll be as transparent as possible), and our Lead Developer (Steve Albright) can answer any technical questions that you, your staff, or your users may have.Rob JacksonCarrier Coverage

Phonotto

Pitch: Tired of all the bells and whistles that come complete in today’s phones? Phonotto is the smartest way to convert a cheap smartphone in a simple phone for seniors.

Weatherwise

Pitch: Simply put, your weather forecast is now entertaining. Animated personas and moving landscapes replace cliché clip art and overused icons in this imaginative app touting weather with personality.

Photo Comics

Pitch: To be a comics creator is easy! All you have to do is take photos with your camera and add awesome comic pictures.

Ultimate Special FX

Pitch: Make your shots awesome! Take shots and turn them into stunning movie clips with TechCat’s Ultime Fx studio in no time.

Wave Control

Pitch: Control your phone with a wave of the hand. Uses the proximity sensor on your phone to allow control of your music playback and calls by waving your hand over your phone.

Kyte Phone

Pitch: Kyte Phone turns any Android into a kids-friendly phone with full parental controls and GPS tracking.

Phonedeck

Pitch: The cloud dashboard for your Android phone. Discover a new way of managing your mobile phone right from your computer.

Scalado Album

Pitch: Experience your photo memories and enjoy. The Scalado Album is designed for making your everyday photo experience great.

App Quarantine

Pitch: The ultimate tool for root users to FREEZE unwanted apps on your droid!

Suggested by: ramdroid

Shot Control

Pitch: A camera app designed to help serious photographers take better photographs. Shot Control allows photographers to better control, monitor, and manage the Android photography experience.

If you want to play along, then join the league of app addicts.

Over the coming week, we will continue to monitor all the apps and see which generate the most buzz. We will be watching the installs, download clicks, review scores, coverage on other sites, and more to see which app comes out on top.

Next week we will name the winning app, and then put it up against 10 new apps to repeat the process.