Let’s start with the blog series How to get into the New and Noteworthy on App Store with a paid app: The case of Photo Stats app. In the following days we’ll share our experience in more detail so feel free to share your thoughts on the subject in the comments.

Newsflash: According to 148apps there are currently 459,923 active apps on the iTunes App Store and each day 744 apps are being submitted for review. This also means that there are probably more than thousand to-do lists, more than five thousand reminders and clocks and probably several hundred Justin Biber apps alone. So if you are making just another app which has the same functionalities and same user interface as the apps which are already there you can stop reading this post – making such an app is a good practice but it won’t have any chances of getting into the New and Noteworthy section. So, you are probably better reading How to make your first iPhone app or something similar.

If you really want to be featured as N&N, you have three options:

1) Make something completely new – as we did with Photo Stats

It’s the first infographic creator for iPhone after all!

It might be hard to find a completely new niche, but our experience is that after a couple of good brainstorming sessions, we found several cool things that haven’t been made for iOS yet.

However, this doesn’t mean that you should do all these things since if it hasn’t been made could have a really good reason – perhaps no one needs this. You would only be losing your time making an app which, for example, simulates Symbian interface on iPhone. It hasn’t been made, but no one will buy it.

2) Take some boring app and create a really cool/creative interface for it

Create cool interface for the same old features. A new music player? No please. A new music player which shows your albums as galaxies and songs as planets? Mmmm, sounds interesting – I want it. If there is one thing you can learn from Planetary – it is that if you are creative enough you can pack the same old features into an attractive interface and earn a decent amount of money (or exposure for your company) from it.

3) Take some interface idea you liked and find new features to present through it

Yes, it’s the opposite from the previous point. No need for further explanations – just reverse the previous process.

Tomorrow we will continue the series about how to get featured on New and Noteworthy on App Store and we’ll talk about what you need to do after you finish coding and before the app hits the store. So stay tuned.