Making money with mobile apps outside Apple’s App Store
When I talk to developers about mobile application development, they all seem to think that Apple’s App Store is the only outlet where you can make money with mobile apps. Sure, Apple has done a terrific job making it easier for the consumer to buy and install apps on their iPhone but that doesn’t mean this is the only way. The iPhone market is also only a fraction of the total amount of mobile devices out there and people have been making money from mobile phone users for years now.
Here’s a little test. Turn on your television and tune in to any music channel. (Try to) Leave it on for half an hour and count the commercials for ringtone and application subscriptions you see. I’m pretty sure that after half an hour you’ve seen at least five for companies like the Ringtoneking, Jamster and Jamba. All of these (worldwide) providers allow users of just about any mobile phone to buy, download and install mobile applications. All it takes is a simple premium SMS that returns a download link. People have been doing this for years now and the Ringtonekings of this world are obviously making a ton of money from it.
Sure, it’s not the most ideal solution and again, Apple has done a fantastic job with the App Store. However, if these ringtone/app providers have been making money for so long, that means that people have been buying and installing ringtones, games and apps way before the iPhone was even conceived.
Conclusion: If you want to make money from mobile application development, why not do it for the broadest possible audience? And if you’ve made that choice, look in to Flash for mobile devices. It’s available on more than 400 650 (source: Device Central CS4) different mobile phones from just about all manufacturers including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, HTC, LG, …
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Not being one to care about flashy phones, that’s a bit of a relavation. So you could SMS a premium number, get a single-use download url, and download a Flash Lite application to your mobile from that?
Does that mean Flash Lite applications will work on the iPhone, if you get them on there?
Hey James,
Your assumption about sending a single-use download url is correct. However, the phone still needs to support the development platform. So sending that URL to an iPhone, does not automatically mean that you can install it.
Serge
I see at least 2 problems with the examples you mention:
1- most of these “applications” are just small games, ringtones, logos or stupid test services like horoscope and so on. This is not what I call innovative useful mobile applications or services. On the other side, the iPhone SDK makes it possible to write much higher quality and more useful applications. Yes it’s just for ONE platform, but what platform!!
2- it’s very difficult to develop and sell that kind of applications if you are on your own. You need to be a rather big company, a good friend of mobile operators (who won’t allow you to sell your apps on their network if they compete with their services), and you have to accept a profit margin that it rather low (SMS fee, certificate fee, etc.). On the other hand, the app store has a very clear and simple economic model: 70% for you, 30% for them, 80€ for a certificate, and even individual developers can sell apps.
I’ve tried to develop mobile apps using J2ME for years, without ever making it to the selling point. Once I even tried to buy a signing certificate and I was told that only companies could get such a certificate! I’ve been working on my iPhone app for 3 or 4 months, and it should be released in a few weeks… including the learning curve for Objective-C. So unless Flash Lite can run Flex apps one day, I think I’m gonna stick with iPhone for now.
Hey Sebastien,
What are you missing in Flash Lite that you do find in the iPhone SDK? If I browse through the App Store, I don’t really see how the majority of apps in there are any different then the small apps you talk about…
S
until there`s an easy to use, unified packager integrated into Device Central it`s just too much hassle. my favourite bit is the fact that the Adobe Mobile Packager .sis files are not compatible with Nokia Ovi, please sort this out (this might have changed, my info is a few months old). developers don`t want to know how much politics are involved behind the scenes, just get a working solution. having to distribute bare .swf-s is bad for the developers (0 protection, can even be decompiled) and bad for the users (very bad UX of having to navigate into an obscure folder where the phone decides to download .swf-s).
also, it`s good that we have Sony Ericsson Capuchin and Nokia Platform Services, but reaching down into device functions (GPS, accelerometer, file system, native apps, etc) from Flash should be somewhat standardised and Adobe should be leading this, otherwise each technology will bring their own solutions onto the table. Nokia Platform Services is actually done in a way that makes me cringe, they are hacking the Flash Player big time, introducing new, proprietary data types like the iterator which is horrible to use.