Skich Aims to Challenge New Alternative App Store Market

With Apple's ecosystem now more open than ever, a wave of new alternative app stores has emerged on iOS, each vying to be the first to truly succeed. The latest to enter this competitive arena is Skich, an alt store with a laser focus on gaming, aiming to carve out a niche against established players like Apptoide by emphasizing gaming over other app categories.

Skich's unique selling proposition lies in its robust discoverability system, which is built around three key features: a recommendation engine, a swipe-based discovery interface, and a social system that includes lists showing what games your friends and others with similar tastes are playing. These features may remind you of Steam, which is not a bad thing at all. In contrast, the Epic Games Store on iOS, much like its PC counterpart, lacks the social and discovery elements that users of platforms like Steam and GOG have come to expect.

Big fish, small pond?

Skich's emphasis on these gamer-first features is certainly a strong selling point. However, the question remains whether this will be enough to make it stand out in the crowded altstore space. As I've noted previously, the key for these new storefronts is to draw users away from their established habits.

Epic Games Store entices users with free games, while Apptoide broadens its appeal by offering a variety of apps beyond gaming. So, can Skich achieve the success it aspires to with its gaming-centric approach? There's potential, but it's by no means guaranteed.

The landscape is shifting, with larger publishers like EA and Flexion teaming up to focus on alternative app stores. This could signal a future where these new entrants might overshadow the official app stores. Skich's journey will be one to watch as it navigates this evolving market.