App developer launches analytics company

Farago said that the biggest benefit of the cross-platform nature of Flurry Analytics is that it will let developers bypass the individual device and get right to the consumer. At launch, Flurry will provide analytics for Java ME, adding the iPhone and Android operating systems within the year and Symbian and Blackberry in the first quarter of 2009. Flurry’s main competitors – Media Lets and Pinch Media – are focused solely on the iPhone, although Media Lets has announced plans with Android as well. According to Farago, Java may not be the sexiest name in application platforms, but it does make up more than 70% of the market compared to the iPhone’s 1%.

“It’s really complicated to get the data we have and to get the footprint of the agent really tiny so that it doesn’t take up too much room in the code; there are a lot of nuances and 1,200 plus devices,” Farago said. “Whereas to do an [software development kit] for an iPhone is about three weeks work. For us, we are looking at attacking the market cross platform and have already solved by far the most relevant piece of the market today and, frankly, the most difficult.”

The goal of Flurry Analytics, however, isn’t just to track app usage, but to attract advertisers to both for third-party applications and for Flurry services itself. The analytics vendor is also in the process of building out an ad-insertion technology with this in mind. Rather than becoming an ad network, Farago said Flurry plans to partner with big brands and ad networks instead. Neil Strother, Jupiter Research analyst, said that if Flurry can achieve scale, they have a chance at drawing advertisers to the applications, which in turn should build an audience over time. Conversely, from an app developer’s perspective, everyone is looking to monetize their apps and advertising is likely the most viable way to do so.

“It’s hard to get anyone to subscribe to applications on a regular basis,” Strother said. “Some will, but most have not. What’s happened is so many people are used to playing it for free online, so they are in that same mindset that it should be free on mobile. After they are paying for data and what not, trying to get them to pay for mobile apps is very difficult.”