MWC: Tapping into the App Store craze

Flurry launched its analytics service last September and has had more than 300 developers using its free service within the first 60 days of launching its Beta. The analytics service is available to all iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Java Mobile Edition developers and provides live consumer-usage data at the app layer. Farago said that from the developer’s perspective, they cannot support every app store and every fragmented handset on the market today, especially considering they are often going up against 15,000 other apps in one storefront. He said that a carrier could launch their own store, but it would be a much different package to assemble.

Some carriers are talking about entirely revamping these WAP stores and turning them into app stores, according to Avi Greengart, research director of mobile devices for Current Analysis. He said that some are likely to get it wrong by assuming the problem was the ease of the browsing experience when really it was necessary to entirely restructure the backend. “People will try, some will learn, some may even do better than Apple,” he said.

The influx of new app store entrants are ultimately all banking on their ability to imitate the success of Apple’s iPhone app store, which earned $30 million in revenue in just the first 30 days after the launch, followed by 300 million downloads in the first five months. The industry must give credit to Apple for making the app store table stakes, Greengart said. Smartphones have long supported feature-rich and sophisticated applications – that is their literal definition after all--but only in the past year has the app become something that has caused consumers to want to invest in a platform with the expectation that functionality will be added down the road, Greengart said.

“[Apple] created the app store, and they made it clear to consumers, this is the only place you go to get an app,” Greengart said in an interview on the Palm Pre. “At the same time, they went to developers and said if you want to build an app, here is how you get the customers--no distribution channels, very clear revenue share….You have to give them credit for creating this channel and doing it extremely well.”

NOKIA, MICROSOFT LAUNCH APP STORES

Confirming expectations, Nokia unveiled its Ovi Store, an online app and media portal. The widget-based storefront will be pre-integrated with on the Nokia N97 to begin with and available for download for existing S40 and S60 customers in nine countries by May. The storefront is differentiated by its ability to make recommendations based on past selections, social discovery and geographical location and draws upon Nokia’s services Download!, MOSH and WidSets. The developers’ site also promises a 70% revenue-share business model.

Also, Microsoft’s launched Windows Marketplace, its new storefront for the 20,000 Windows Mobile apps available today, launched alongside a new mobile operating system, Windows 6.5. From a unified mobile screen, consumers can get the apps directly from their mobile phones. Developers will have access to new and improved tools for WinMo development.

With software increasing in importance, what app store triumphs may come down to whether consumers are more comfortable getting their apps and services from a name they already know, most likely the software provider or handset maker, or the company they interact with the most, the service provider. Developers, too, will make this same decision when it comes to what platform they will develop for, Greengart said. “If you are going to invest however many weeks or months to build an app, you want to be sure there will be a pay off.”