One of the most pressing questions facing developers hoping to make another Angry Birds or Doodle Jump is one of exposure.

With so many developers and publishers fighting it out to catch the consumer's attention on app stores at any one time, is the freemium model the only way to increase the chance of getting those 10 million downloads, without sacrificing revenue?

That was the subject of the PR and marketing panel at Mobile Games Forum.

GetJar's director of marketing, Berenice Kalan, was adamant that her company's free-to-play direction was the right choice over the traditional app store for developers to make money with their products, saying that, "The freemium model is a great model. With pay to play, our customers are aware they have to do this, and they're willing to pay.

"Ad-funded is a great opportunity. Go out and test it - free's going to be a way for consumers to discover you, but you can monetise."

Rowan Corben, business development director at Bravo Game Studios, was less enthusiastic, calling the model 'interesting' but labelling negatives such as the amount of post-launch support needed to retain the customer's interest, thus extending the development time and cost for each title.

Painful discovery

"Our observation is app stores are painful. They're necessary, but they're painful to users and developers," stated Ouriel Ohayon, co-founder of app discovery service AppsFire.

According to Ohayon, it was the lack of relevant information for the consumer that's stopping titles from being seen, rather than necessarily the pricing model, which in turn opens up opportunities for company's such has AppsFire to take up the baton, "The discovery process will take place more and more outside the App Store."

"If you're able to create a viral experience with your app, you can dramatically increase how much your app will be downloaded," he said.

Jumping out from the crowd

Igor Pusenjak, co-founder of Lima Sky, was not so certain that it was necessarily the App Store's structure itself that was holding companies back from being seen by customers, "I think Apple's doing a fantastic job in finding apps or games...that are worth the promotion,” he said

"Of course they miss something, but this is where you, as a developer, need to contact Apple and make them aware it's there... Remember it is not Apple's job to promote your game. It's your job."