Which app discovery method is the most effective?

With the Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store recently surpassing 500,000 apps and Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Market quickly catching up with around 400,000 apps, the problem of application discoverability is more acute than ever. In most app stores, the apps that get the most exposure are the apps that are already popular. In fact, digital marketing and advertising agency DigiDay found that 36.2 percent of users only look for apps on a mobile phone's home screen (just 27.6 percent look in the app stores for new apps). How can this problem be solved? Should the app stores take the initiative to make app discoverability a more manageable process (as with Apple and Chomp) or should this be a focus for carriers, device markers or even other developers? FierceDeveloper has taken a look at some of the major players in app discovery, highlighting their strengths and inevitable weaknesses. Special report