Perhaps one of the most common complaints about the Apple iTunes appstore is that it is difficult to actually find applications, such is its poor directory system.
Sites such as Appolicious are praised for their better filtering, recommendation, list and category type listings, but still the iTunes platform is the place most users flock to in order to find different services.
But the importance of the iTunes store remains, especially in the travel sector with its enormous number of smartphone apps all vying for attention.
Here is why.
Tom Britton, product manager at TheTrainLine, the UK's consumer-facing rail portal, spoke today at the Travel Technology Initiative about the company's experience with mobile apps.
Launched in April 2010, TheTrainLine's app appears to be doing rather well, not least, he admits, because the company emailed millions of existing users to let them know the service had launched.
But getting noticed and then listed amongst the iTunes top apps is what has propelled the app to superstardom.
In TheTrainLine's experience, as soon as the app hit the top 100 travel apps the number of downloads was 2.3 times the original rate. Get into the top ten and the figure increases yet again to four times.
So, despite the obvious frustrations many have with the appstore, getting in the top charts is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It works.