There was an auto migration that occurred today in relation to the new devices in 2.3.5 You'll notice your version number now has -upd at the end. Nothing strange, just an auto-migration.
Being amongst us for ever indeed, but I still think it's an error though that the app gets shifted to the last page when you update... it just doesn't make sense.
With just a normal update by the developer, the same thing happens, and you get put at the end of "most popular". With Auto App Migration, it's a new version as far as the store is concerned, and is pretty much the same thing, just not based on a developer's action, and hits many apps at the same time.
The thing that happens is all the existing users get that update, so the ranking you had usually comes back fairly quickly (maybe a day or two). I just checked the va3, and BigTime is back on the 1st page already for example.
I would be nice if a manual update or auto update didn't impact the ranking, but I assume there's some reason the store does it this way.
Auto App Migration happens more often than I think most people notice. with the f5 family, it didn't as there were no similar devices in the store. It did happen with the 935, as CIQ wise, it's like the f5. With the Approach S60, it didn't, but then it did with the va3, as it was similar enough to the S60. The D2 Charlie is "like" the f5x, so it did and same with Descent. Then there are APAC devices when they get added, which tends to go unnoticed. This time, in 2.3.5, an APAC version of the va3 was added, so it happened.
Hermo and I have both had apps where auto app migration was a bit to generous in what got migrated. For me, it was semi-rounds, where I had a different app for 1.x and 2.x devices, and the 1.x version was getting auto migrated to 2.x devices, and the 2.x version, to 1.x devices. So I turned off auto migration for those apps.
when I manually update them in the next few days, the same thing will happen and they'll be moved to the end of "most popular" until they come back
I don't believe this will change in the short term (it's been discussed a lot in the past in various threads), but there are designs for the app store to address this (e.g. a trending apps section) since we know the way popularity is currently done isn't necessarily ideal.
