One of the most telling statistics to emerge from GetJar’s inaugural App Meter survey is that only 21.6 percent of app consumers discover apps from app stores themselves.

As a result of this insight, the brains behind GetJar - the world’s largest open app store with over 1.5 billion downloads - have relaunched their portal, placing the emphasis firmly on social media.

By integrating Facebook Connect into its mobile site, GetJar enables users to share their download activity, recommend apps via like and dislike buttons, and post comments as part of a real-time 'Friends' news feed.

Too skool for cool

"Now that users can share apps with their friends on Facebook, recommendations are really a bit old school," Ilja Laurs, GetJar’s CEO, said.

"Our recent research clearly showed us that what consumers care about is what their friends are downloading and using, not what we as an app store think they should download."

Among the other changes to GetJar’s redesigned portal are a revamped user interface, which houses navigation tabs for fast browsing and an improved search function, and a personal downloads tracking feature called MyApps.