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Media Supplier of the Year: Apple App Store

Apple App Store

Garden of Eden

It changed everything. In less than five months, the Apple App Store served more than 300 million downloads and broke all the existing rules for mobile media and ad delivery. The carrier's garden walls were clipped to the ground.

In a relatively open marketplace, any iPhone or iPod Touch user can peruse a catalog of 10,000 programs and download them directly to a device. Media and even brands could name their own business model (free or fee) and run networked ads. No wonder everyone from CBS to AOL, Amazon to Sega rushed in with dazzling mobile programs. Suddenly, mobile gaming, geo-located services and even video looked appealing. Web radio provider Pandora, the most popular app of all, has registered more than 2 million users and delivers more than 1 million ads a day.

At last, here is a mobile platform and a distribution model that lets brand marketers be of real use to consumers - and without the carrier roadblocks of the past decade. Audi, Warner Bros., Target and even Carling Beer were quick to market with a new breed of "branded apps" that entertained, promoted and stayed ever-present on home screens. The App Store's robust user-reviews give developers deep, immediate feedback and insight into how users engage mobile media. "From the first day the store opened, we have seen tremendous uptake of the Mobile News Network, and the ability to track user feedback has been vital to shaping future releases," says Jeffrey Litvack, general manager, mobile and emerging products for The Associated Press.

With staggering success comes the flattery of imitation, e.g. similar marketplaces for Google Android, BlackBerry, Nokia and Windows Mobile phones. By simplifying development, creating a frictionless distribution mechanism, and setting the model for brands to make money (or just new friends) in this more open garden of opportunity, Apple single-handedly rewired our thinking about the potential for mobile media.
1 comment about "Media Supplier of the Year: Apple App Store".
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  1. Paul Collins, January 14, 2009 at 12:52 p.m.

    Yes, its a breakthrough in mobile media. This again shows how Apple is very much a consumer products company in addition to being a computer company (although that biz still going very well, thank you).

    On the other hand, this is also a big departure in the other direction from the completely wide-open computer software marketplace. Software developers who've moved from Mac to iPhone have sometimes felt a little chafing from this new, dazzling collar. But overall its still a tremendous opportunity and success for quite a few developers.

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