Research from Oxford University shows that consumers have a herding instinct to "follow the crowd" once a clear winner is established. However, this instinct appears to switch off almost entirely if the product fails to achieve a certain popularity threshold. The study concludes that while some books and films are highly advertised by their producers, that element is only a small fraction, leaving the great majority of books and films exposed to the forces of social influence.
The study concludes that social influence had a key role in whether apps became flops or hits.
They discovered that once an app had reached a rate of about 55 installations a day, its popularity then soared to reach stellar proportions.
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