PreApps

A small industry is sprouting up to help developers with promotion and marketing long before they submit anything to the application storefronts. Special report

Last month, PreApps, a small Boston-based startup, said it would soon be offering the first platform on which developers could use social media techniques to attract consumers before their products hit app stores.

While Apple tends to create a lot of buzz when it launches a new product, the same cannot be said for mobile developers. Even large companies like Zynga and Rovio Entertainment don't enjoy this kind of pre-launch buzz, leaving the average developer to wonder how he or she could ever generate advance interest in his or her apps.