There’s a trend emerging on the App Store - applications that are really adverts. I call them “appverts”.

The first one I noticed was iPint, created by Molson Coors (and now embroiled in a lawsuit with the owners of iPint’s predecessor, iBeer; but that’s another story in itself).

And then there’s the James Bond 007, which according to reviews from App Store users is little more than a trailer for the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. Something you could view very easily at Apple’s trailers site or on YouTube or a dozen other places. It hardly qualifies as an “application”, and the official app description tells you nothing except for the movie plot.

One comment by Sindomian summed it up: “Promotional garbage dressed up as an app … the App Store is going to get pretty unusable real quick if this catches on.”

But will it? Who benefits from appverts?

The marketing people behind this were no doubt delighted when their app was approved to appear on the Store, but surely that sets a precedent, and now all movie producers will be wanting to do the same thing. Will Apple approve them all? And what’s more, does it really achieve much for the marketers? The iPhone has sold well, but not so well that an entry in the App Store is going to deliver thousands of extra box office tickets. From that point of view, it seems like a very expensive gimmick.

The consumers don’t seem terribly interested, either. The comments on the 007 app are almost all negative, but not, it seems because the app is an appvert; mainly, it’s because it’s a bad appvert. It doesn’t deliver much. Perhaps if it offered more, people would be more willing to give it higher ratings.

And the developers. What’s in appverts for developers? Well, probably some good money. And no need to wait for punters to buy; the dev gets paid up front by the marketing team. Building any app adds experience, so it’s beneficial from that point of view too.

But how would you feel about building an appvert? Do you think it’s OK for the App Store to host apps like this, and would you be happy to build one if asked?