There is an app for this. There is an app for that. Apple says there is an app for almost everything on the iPhone (or more correctly I should say the iOS devices). I’d like to modify that a little – There is app for almost everybody. Apple have no doubt been the pioneers of the ‘App Store’ and lead the market with over a million apps and a greater downloads.
Now let me not crib about other companies ‘copying, following or taking inspirations ‘ from the Apple idea ( Apple might now be used to it! ) but lets take a moment and realize that how the mobile phone applications are changing the way we use our phones, much the way applications did in the mid nineties (the era of Windows 95 and Windows 98) to the PC. Remember taking a ‘floppy full’ of those bow and arrow games or the Aladdin and Mario Games from your friends. Let’s see how this development affects the developers, the mobile operators, the handset manufacturers and most importantly us – the consumers.
Talking about the mobile operators. Airtel has an App Store, Vodafone has an App store and you definitely might have seen the Aircel ads recently. Excuse me for using the word ‘App Store’ – it is much like calling the (musical instrument) keyboard a CASIO. A store where applications are sold – the App Store for Apple , the Android Market for Google or the OVI (Ovee – the correct pronunciation) from Nokia . Even if you don’t have a handset which by defaults links you to the company app store or perhaps doesn’t have one – your operator is reaching out to you. Common, how does the presence of these operator app stores affect at all? Well there are more people talking about the features in terms of downloads instead of the ones listed at the back of the cell phone box. “Yeh feature to download karna padega”.
Next the manufacturers. I don’t have any access to the inside scoop of the policies being implemented by the manufactures but what you can definitely see is that there are more of the ‘applications store’ phones in the market than the ones which just focused on playing your music and taking pictures. The manufacturers have their own application markets. Nokia has one – the OVI store as I mentioned above, the Windows Market Place – from Microsoft for there Windows powered phones and others. The app store not only gets them more profits but reduce the burden of powering your handsets with different software. So if the Motorolla shipped a dedicated facebook app with their phone – Nokia doesn’t have to launch a new ‘Facebook’ phone.
The Developers. Here is an interesting calculation to show to you. An app popularly sells for $ 0.99. 1 Billion Apps were downloaded in just 9 monts on the Apple App Store. If you have great idea, and your app gets on the Top 25 List or tops it’s category or even makes it to the ‘App of the week’ section – chances are that you’ll sell say roughly a 4000 copies of your app worldwide. 4000 because the no of apps on the App Store are 2,50,000. So number of Downloads/No of Apps.
Now check this:
$0.99 x 4000 = $3960 or Rs. 1,82,160
A good developer would have is app on multiple platforms – Nokia, Android and Blackberry.
$3960 x 3 = $11880 = Rs. 5,46,880
Add to this the operator app stores. The value goes up further! ” One App gets over $11,000″. Though developers get only 70% of it on most app stores!
Yeah, these calculations are completely baseless. But you see if even some pie of that is correct, the amount is huge :P.
It’s not only about the money. There were apps earlier and there were no stores but some malicious websites that sold you these applications. What happened was most users were reluctant to visit these websites, download them first on the computer and transfer them to the phone. Application development for mobile phone had little space in the market. Who’d know if you made a Criss Cross app for the Nokia N72? With these application markets, developers just need to focus on developing the app. The application markets take care of the popularity.
Let’s see how it was buying a phone couple of years back.
– New phone launched in the market.
– Huge hype and excitement.
– Every 3rd person gets the same phone.
– The phone has some very basic features. You explore them within a week.
– Games. 4? 5? Pre-installed games. Take a couple of more from friends.
– 6 Months Later. Phone prices dropped by 25 %.
– No new games/applications.
– New handset, with new games and new applications.
– Get bored with your handsets, perhaps even before the warranty expires.
Now, with app stores on your phone, you can add more power to your existing handset with just a click. No going to the websites and transferring data through PC Suites. So you buy a phone today and keep adding new features to it every month!
What do you feel about the ‘App Revolution’. Let me know! Would love to hear from you…
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