We recently had discussions about who was shaping this market with John McCarthy of Forrester Research looking particularly at what was required to make a significant impact in the ever expanding App Economy.
See his views and our response.
Dominant Forces in the App Economy
We recently had discussions about who was shaping this market with John McCarthy of Forrester Research looking particularly at what was required to make a significant impact in the ever expanding App Economy and who had had the greatest impact so far and the prospects they had for the future.
His view was that in the aggressively fast moving world of the App Internet where App growth is at 85% per annum the battle to maximize market share means providing the best App experience over the greatest range of devices. No single company or development team will ever dominate this market on their own without developing and growing an influential eco-system of partners and vertical solution experts to deliver the core and mission critical Apps that are increasing in demand.
He commented on what he felt were the current key eco-system players :-
Apple – has multi-device and form factor support and its own App store and massive number of partnering organizations that are building on its platform.
Google – has rapidly built a major eco-system around Android and its market. Although they like the web interface for the generation of advertisement revenue and therefore are a little HTML5 centric they also understand the App Internet and its direct internet connection of powerful devices to cloud based services, of which they continue to deliver more and more. The only weakness to their eco-system is its continued tendency to fragment with multiple variants of Android devices.
Amazon – is an interesting player, originally delivering highly focused devices and content to support specific needs but rapidly widening that eco-system to offer a broader appeal with the Amazon Fire that although hasn’t come close to an Ipad 2 is still regarded as a highly cost effective device and is loved by a majority of its users. They offer massive reach to an established user base and have the content and channels to feed them.
Microsoft / Nokia – is our late entrant in this context. We can’t count them out because the Windows platform as it moves to Apps and their relationship with Nokia means that they have massive residual appeal if they can deliver on their promise.
Our View
Obviously we’d broadly agree with John’s view adding that Microsoft has also still got a tremendous foothold in the Enterprise market and that that legacy could be transferred as they develop new offerings.
We’d also add that a lot of our clients still regard Blackberry as a strong player. Blackberry may offer more of a niche but still an innovating and significant one with the emphasis on enterprise App Portfolios and significant regional strength, shown for example by the relatively large market share in the Netherlands, and so we would add them to John’s list.
Our Advice
Service2Media realizes that delivering a portfolio of Apps that spans a number of these eco-systems and thus delivers to the widest possible audience is a complex business, and that predicting winners and losers has proven hard to predict, and so it’s best to keep the options open and keep agile without excluding anyone.
We’ve also understood that the App Economy requires a wider set of partners than some people are considering when developing their App Portfolios, aiming at only one or two eco-systems is unlikely to be enough. You also need to understand the strong regional differences and the advice offered should not be totally set by what’s happening in the US.
That’s why we have not only developed an App Lifecycle Platform to build Apps for multiple-environments and we truly embrace the need for leveraged portfolio management, extending our network, as well as building App Centers with our major global customers, systems houses, consultancies and vertical specialists. Service2Media’s Global Alliance Network offers an eco-system that already has six major device manufacturers and a number of key consultancies involved.
