App discovery company Appsfire launched its OpenUDID initiative, intended to provide developers with common tools to track iOS application usage after Apple’s decision to discontinue support for its own UDID implementation from iOS5 onward. According to Appsfire, UDID (Unique Device Identifier) is a “critical tool for analytic or CRM purposes.”

Following Apple’s decision to “depreciate” its existing UDID, several groups have introduced their own proprietary solutions. This prompted concern of a “fragmented market where UDID management was operated by multiple providers with no cooperation between them,” leading Appsfire to promote the OpenUDID initiative as an industry-wide alternative.

Acording to the company’s blog, the intention is for OpenUDID to support Android as well as iOS, potentially creating the potential for developers to use the same tools to track users across platforms. It also intends to include, from the outset, a system that will support user opt-out.

The ability to track users can provide developers with a number of useful metrics, such as the amount of time spent on free apps before upgrading to paid titles, and for providing data related to mobile ad campaigns. The company argues that “proper tracking and funnel conversion is what has made the web a better place, with healthy competition and quantifiable metrics.”

Apple announced plans to phase out access to its UDID for iOS developers from iOS5 onwards last month, removing a way for developers and mobile advertising networks to identify users and track usage. While the move was welcomed by some privacy advocates, it was less welcomed by legitimate app developers looking for a way to assess app usage, in order to inform future product development.

There was also speculation that while Apple may lock to block access to UDID for third parties, it may continue use for its own products and services. This would give its iAds network a significant advantage over third party alternatives, for example.

OpenUDID has been published on github as a “simple Object-C class that provides a one-line replacement to take advantage of the OpenUDID.” It said that an immediate benefit is that it will retain the current UDID for all existing installs, “ensuring a smooth transition for when Apple pulls the plug” – users will be seamlessly assigned a new UDID once this takes place.