I trial a lot of iPhone apps, it's kind of part of my job (and I'm kind of a geek).

But only a very few make it beyond a first try out. Even fewer make it to active usage. And only the elite make it to my homescreen.

But the homescreen only feeds my active usage because it's easy to get there - no swipes required. So getting onto that piece of screen real estate is critical.

Some apps (like Simplenote or Instapaper) have worked there way onto there gradually, through sheer utility. Some are on there (like Path or Dialvetica) becasue I'm curious about them and want to force myself to use them more. Some get straight on there, demoting something else, because they've already been super-useful and fun on another platform (like Flipboard or Kindle).

It would be interesting if Apple would report the metric of homescreen presence for apps. I'm certain they won't.