What is the difference between total installs and active installs in the Android market?

Question

What is the difference between total installs and active installs?

I have 90 total installs for my app and only 47 active installs. What does it mean?

Answer 1

Total installs is how many times your app has been downloaded. Active installs are how many instances of your app are on (actively used?) devices -- i.e. not uninstalled. I imagine that if a user uninstalls your app, then re-installs it, your total download count would go up by two and your active install count by one.

Advertise! Create an ad campaign with something like AdMob (result will vary), find niche forums and android-specific forums like xda-developers, droid-life, etc., that would help more people notice your app. Inside your other apps, ad links to the app you want to promote. Put a share button in your app, or add in social networking. Perhaps promote your app on a 3rd-party app store like Amazon app store.

And don't forget that a poorly designed and rated app is far less likely to be downloaded.