Talking about software #2 - Applications

 

Given the vast number of companies and products and uses for software, it simply isn’t possible to cover all issues. Instead, it seems far more sensible to limit ourselves, in form and function. Therefore, this case will focus on the marketing of what are popularly known as ‘Apps’ for mobile devices like Apple’s iPhone. What is an App? The name is an abbreviation for application – a piece of software with a set of capabilities and functions. Microsoft Word is an application, and so is the web browser Chrome. What the abbreviated name refers to though, is a relatively small [in terms of file-size] self-contained piece of software that has a very specific and focussed purpose. Most so called smart-phones come with several of these pre-installed. The calendar is an App, the contacts directory is an App, the web-browser is an App and so on. What makes Apps worthy of particular interest is the after-markets – Apps offered for sale by third-parties to smart-phone users.  Let’s quickly review some quite dazzling facts and figures.

How many apps – products – are there? No one knows for sure, and the number is growing too rapidly to get a good fix, but Apple have indicated that for their smart-phones and portable devices [iphones, iPads] there are at least 400,000 choices. The online store [which itself is a piece of software] only opened in July of 2008. Arithmetic tells us then that in somewhat less than a 1000 days, the Apps added to the list of choices to buy from the store increased by 400 a day, per day, every day!

Just because there are so many products to choose from, it doesn’t mean that people are buying them though, does it? Let’s check that out as well. How many of these applications have been downloaded from the store – and note the word downloaded rather than sold – an issue we’ll come to later? Apple do know that – they know it perfectly. They recently held a sales promotion with a large prize for the person who downloaded the ten billionth App (Apple, 2011). Some context for the figure – 10 billion. That digital music, marketed through software portals like iTunes has revolutionised the marketing and consumption of music is surely beyond question. The rapidity with which the marketplace changed beyond recognition from what it was even a decade below has been breathtaking. One research group has recently compared the growth in sales of digital music with the growth in sales of Apps (Dedieu, 2011). Music had a four year headstart over Apps, if Apps haven’t overtaken music yet then inevitably they will do soon.

Asymo.com

Apple (2011) The App Store has Reached 10 Billion Downloads From: www.apple.com/itunes/10-billion-app-countdown

Dedieu, Horace (2011) More than 60 apps have been downloaded for every IOS device sold From: www.asymco.com/2011/01/16/more-than-60-apps-have-been-downloaded-for-every-ios-device-sold/