Mobile Apps are the New Black

Comment: Fri 13th February 2009

It looks like mobile applications are the way future, not just for revenues, but also for mobile advertisers. First there was iphone's App Store, then Google's Market and now announcements of Microsoft's Bazaar and Sun's new JavaFX.
The future will see groundbreaking apps letting us use mobile phones in ways we've never imagined.

It all started in July 2008 when iphone App Store opened. Now it has over 20,000 applications available. Google soon followed the model with its Android Market, which is different to iphone App Store as it offers open-source distribution and because apps do not need to be pre-approved.

The news of Microsoft's Bazaar comes a month after the company launched its My Phone service which enables mobile users to manage content on the phone via the net, and which Todd Brix, senior director of mobile services at Microsoft hope will be "providing a true mass-market consumer offering". Of course we assume that Microsoft will link the online bazaar to My Mobile and aim to be an equally strong player in the apps world.

Whilst users are clearly paying for some Apps, there is also a healthy number of free applications available for downlaod. At some point developers will be looking to realise some kind of revenue from their creations. Ad servers for mobile apps, will give developers the opportunity to generate revenue in much the same way as Google's Adsense or banner servers offer for websites. Inevitably user expectations will grow, and putting out mediocre apps, even if free, will be unacceptable to smartphone users.

There are, however given the size of the apps market there are massive opportunities for advertisers and advertising agencies to reach consumers through great applications which are free but branded.

Article Links
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