With millions of mobile subscribers craving for apps that make life easy with a single click, developers are working overtime to cater to the glut
Around four years back, at a time when the term ‘mobile applications’ (or mobile apps as they are better known) was not even bandied around as tech jargon in the country, software veteran Amit Goenka set up a company in Noida called Ariose Software. He wanted to provide software consultancy in the field of telecom and mobile technologies. His move made sense. The telecom space was hotting up, with around 8-10 million mobile subscribers being added each month. Moreover, the value-added services (VAS) market was growing at a rapid pace. And the mobile app space, a VAS offering, tasted first blood.
Goenka’s bet proved right. Apart from the other work his company does, he has released more than 40 applications (apps). “The time-to-market equation changed for developers overnight, with operators and handset vendors encouraging third-party programmers to create apps on their software platform,” says Goenka, co-founder and director of the company.
The latest from Ariose is a location-based app called Hobby Lobby that enables like-minded users (with common interests and hobbies) to find individuals nearby. The company plans to tie up with mobile device manufacturers and operators to distribute the app in India.
Ariose is just a case in point. Even Persistent Systems, a software product development services company, seems to have found faith in mobile apps. The company recently uploaded two new apps to the Blackberry Appworld — Stockfolio and mGuardedWallet, which are available for download from the Appworld for over 17 BlackBerry models, according to R Venkateswaran, chief technology officer and head of telecom business unit of Persistent Systems.
The company has also invested in a Centre of Excellence (CoE) to develop apps for the Android and iPhone platform. It has over 400 dedicated engineers working on various mobile platforms and recently released two apps for Google’s Android platform — Knight Tour and World of Web (WoW).
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Knight Tour, an online chess game that also has audio and custom themes for the user to personalise game play, has recorded over 1,800 downloads by G1 (Google phone) users. The other app, WoW, provides users a new browser experience.
The app market, meanwhile, is set to grow by leaps and bounds. ABI Research expects that with over 30,000 applications now available, over 800 million Android applications will be downloaded in 2010.
App developers have been quick to realise opportunities in this space. They are leaving no stone unturned in reaching out to the close to 600 million mobile subscribers, hungry for services on their handsets.
Apps such as games, chat and social networking are most popular among the mobile phone user base, according to data from Smartmobi.in that tracks app usage in India. iPhone apps are a rage among iPhone users. And developers can market an application from the concept stage in less than a month at times.
The potential of the market has not been lost on Indian telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Aircel too. To create a mobile app ecosystem, they have started aping their western counterparts to create app stores. For instance, Bharti Airtel announced it had clocked 2.5 million plus downloads just within 30 days of the launch of Airtel App Central — its mobile application store. Vodafone, too, unveiled a mobile application store with 800 apps, priced between Rs 5 and Rs 30. Already app stores from Nokia, Apple, and Research in Motion (RIM — developers of BlackBerry) have become a norm.
There’s good money in the business too. Even if 25 per cent of the apps on Airtel store is free to download, the top five popular apps are subscription-based (paid). Downloading at the rate of more than one app per second in last 30 days, Airtel has seen its customers from cities like Surat, Pune and Udaipur turn app savvy.
The revenue model, too, is appealing to developers with 70 per cent revenue going to them while the operators keep the remaining 30 per cent.
Apple iPhone app developer Sridhar Bhatt, founder of iRemedi, couldn’t agree more: “By the time the iPhone was shipped in June 2007, there were already over 100 million iPods shipped and the global smartphone sales exceeded 100 million phones. With Apple’s iTunes store sitting on each iPhone, even a potential 5 per cent of the smartphone market meant a potential 5 million customers to sell to.” Bhatt went on to launch over 175 iPhone apps and is now going after iPad users with a digital publishing solution called Ethermedia, which has exclusive rights for Amar Chitra Katha comics in India. “We now have over 110 comic apps available on the App Store,” adds Bhatt.
Rahuldev Rajguru, co-founder and CEO of Aquilonis, on his part, created a mobile app that enables users avoid unwanted calls. “Xblockr crossed 25,000 downloads in less than two months, even as the Indian user had to pay Rs 349 per license whereas the International price is $19.95 (around Rs 890) per license. We now expect downloads to touch at least half a million over a period of one year,” estimates Rajguru. The application is currently available for download at app stores such as Airtel App Central, Nokia’s Ovi and Microsoft marketplace for windows phone. “Our belief got validated when without any promotion or marketing, we had over 5,000 downloads of Xblockr from app stores in its first week of availability. We expect more network service providers to offer the app and thousands of new users to sign up,” Rajguru says.
Ramesh Krishnan, COO, 2ergo India, cautions: “As developers and marketers one must always keep in mind that the Indian consumer is very value conscious, and so if we were to sell a service or an app for a price, we need to be very sure that we are providing that value, and more.” 2ergo has created several apps for its clients like the Guardian, Arsenal and Rightmove. Going ahead, developers are hoping that volumes of smartphone users will help to accelerate the use of apps.