In Focus: Technology June 19-25, 2009 Page 33
Trend Spotlight Killer apps Area software developers hope to capitalize on the mobile phone applications craze
Left to right: Weatherbug’s video forecasts, contact-sharing service Dub and TroubleSpots, an app to help report wireless mishaps.
By Darlene Darcy with them. A growing legion of so# ware connectivity issues such as weak signals, much was spent to create the application. Staff Reporter developers, including a sizable talent pool dropped calls, failed call attempts and failed ! e company will gather data on how in the Washington area, are competing to data service. ! e so# ware also allows users people begin using the app before deter- ! e smart phone craze that took o" with capture a piece of the burgeoning market to view incident reports. ! e data Global mining a marketing budget, he said. Global the introduction of Apple Inc.’s iPhone in for mobile so# ware “apps.” Wireless Solutions collects is provided to Wireless Solutions expects that as more us- 2007 is heating up, and businesses involved Apps, short for applications, are small mobile operators to optimize performance ers download the free application the com- in the mobile-device industry, increasingly pieces of so# ware that give smart phones of their voice and data networks. pany will be able to derive revenue by pro- including so# ware developers, are seeing a the computerlike features unavailable on a “IPhone applications for $ nding Wi-Fi viding better data to customers. huge opportunity. standard mobile phone. hot spots or tracking signal strength are Sales of smart phones have continued to Revenue from the mobile apps market is common,” said CEO Paul Carter. “But until rise, eclipsing the growth of standard mobile expected to exceed $25 billion globally in $ ve now there has been nothing that can help phones as new operating systems and faster, years, according to Juniper Research Ltd. mobile users report problems with the wire- Dub more functional models hit the market. Around the Washington area, both start- less network.” By internal mobile developers at Sales of smart phones accounted for ups and established companies are going ! e idea for TroubleSpots came from Vienna-based DubMeNow Inc. more than 13 percent of all mobile devices mobile. ! eir main objective is to increase Global Wireless Solutions’ core business, in the $ rst quarter and are forecast to jump the usefulness of smart phones, especially providing benchmarking data to the wire- DubMeNow’s free social networking ap- nearly 30 percent this year, said analysts for for businesses. less industry. ! e company collects network plication, launched publicly in November, industry research company Gartner Inc. in Here is what four local mobile app devel- data by driving nearly 3 million road miles creates an electronic business card that can a March report. opers are up to: per year with wireless handsets, recording be added to mobile address books. In June, two of the newest smart phone and analyzing performance data. ! e application — available for Black- models were trotted out by Apple and Palm ! e new app allows Global Wireless So- Berry, Windows Mobile, Google Android Inc. Apple previewed its latest iPhone 3G June lutions to collect data from cell phone users and iPhone — has been downloaded from 8 at the Apple Worldwide Developers’ Con- TroubleSpots where it doesn’t physically test networks. app stores more than 22,000 times in about ference. Palm introduced its Palm Pre June By developer Rick Daugherty for Rick Daugherty, the developer, said peo- seven months. 6. By June 15, some iPhone retailers reported Dulles-based Global Wireless ple can log incidents and see where other ! e idea came to CEO Manoj Ramnani pre-sales orders exceeding their allotment of Solutions Inc. phone users experience problems, enabling on an airplane while he was trying to enter the phones ahead of the June 19 release. them to determine whether a problem might information from a large stack of business But the opportunities for revenue are not TroubleSpots, a free application designed be network related or caused by their phone. cards onto his laptop and his battery died. limited to the device manufacturers and the for the Apple iPhone, allows users to alert ! e application went live on Apple’s App Business cards don’t work anymore, said telecommunications carriers that partner Global Wireless Solutions in real time about Store June 8. Carter would not disclose how Chris Hopkinson, [CONTINUES ON NEXT PAGE]
Related » The growing market for mobile apps Page 35 IStrategyLabs CEO catches the buzz Page 36 Telecom service providers Page 37 Software developers Page 38 34 IN FOCUS WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL JUNE 19-25, 2009
[CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE] that include contact information for social downloads. David Pranata, Mobomo’s lead developer networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. While some of those applications are free, for mobile applications on the new Palm Pre, Dub’s director of business development. Going international also is on the docket WeatherBug is selling its enterprise version said many of his ideas occur while driving. Our goal is to “alleviate that problem so this year. of the app for business users. In March, he and Mobomo co-founder that people can connect mobilely a lot easi- “I get three or four direct e-mails a day #at app, called WeatherBug Elite, costs Barg Upender were headed to a client meet- er,” he said. from folks overseas ... and even tweets say- 99 cents per download. #ere have been ing in Baltimore when they spotted a $re Now, a!er launching several versions of ing, ‘cool app but not available in Europe,’” about 150,000 downloads since the app’s re- along the highway and wondered whether the free app for various smart phone mak- Hopkinson said. lease in April. anyone had called 911. Tra%c was slowing, ers, DubMeNow is working to create more #e free apps bring in revenue from ad- but “Google’s [tra%c] app was still showing value from the contact information people vertising that appears in the application. the route as green,” Upender said. #at’s share with each other, Hopkinson said. WeatherBug is preparing to o"er a paid when the two decided a better tra%c app Creating an application for all smart WeatherBug Mobile Elite app for BlackBerry at the end of June. could be a viable product. phone devices was extremely complex be- By Germantown-based AWS Con- #e next revenue opportunity from ITra%c was created in late April and cause each uses a di"erent operating system vergence Technologies Inc. smart phone technology will come through followed by several updates. Pranata, who to run so!ware, he said. pushed alerts, Brozenick said. Following the is leading the work, said each new version Developers are working on branded ver- In May, WeatherBug brought out a free “freemium” revenue model, WeatherBug required new screen shots, so!ware coding sions of Dub-powered so!ware for indi- BlackBerry weather app that provides loca- could charge for upgraded service that al- and back-end server coding to improve the vidual or private user communities, such as tion-based seven-day and hourly forecasts, lows users to receive alerts even when they user’s experience. “Usability is key,” he said. universities. #e app will feature a name af- interactive radar and maps, and camera an- aren’t actively using the app. Mobomo is the mobile-device spinout $liated with the school or other institution. imations that can be viewed and shared. “I think this will be a powerful compo- of Upender’s Web services startup, Intridea Dub’s development was funded through #e company’s $rst iPhone application, nent of our future applications,” Brozenick Inc. #e development of iTra%c and other angel investors. Hopkinson would not dis- which was released in October 2007 as a said. mobile apps is being funded with revenue close how much capital the company has free download, had become one of the most from Intridea’s Web services clients. raised since development began. popular downloads on Apple’s App Store by Working much like a startup, Mobomo DubMeNow, which is supported by ad- July 2008. #us far it has at least 2.5 million iTraffic is mostly relying on the sweat equity of the vertising revenue, also is working on a downloads. By developers David Pranata, Brendan Lim and developers rather than on large amounts of “freemium” model in which the application WeatherBug started out with an Internet Barg Upender of D.C.-based Mobomo Inc. capital, Upender said. download remains free but partnering com- focus, designing Web applications for desk- #e developers hope that eventually rev- panies pay to o"er Dub as a value-added top users. ITra%c, built for the iPhone, allows users enue from iTra%c will fund more innova- service to their customers. “#e big change that I’ve seen is we’ve re- to get real-time tra%c information and send tion and other Mobomo apps. #e company has already established ally started to jump on board with the smart out alerts, using GPS technology. #e Mobomo team has not yet priced that type of partnership with Salesforce. phone platforms,” said Chris Brozenick, who #e app generates, delivers and tracks downloads of the application, which was com, which sells customer relationship was recently hired as vice president and gen- information immediately so travelers don’t launched in late May. management so!ware, and Microso! Corp. eral manager of WeatherBug’s mobile divi- have to rely on reports that may no longer Two possible revenue approaches are the through its Microso! Dynamics business sion. #at “is where growth will come from be accurate. “freemium” model, in which downloading management so!ware. in the next few years ... as they come up with #e app can work o&ine through built- is free but users are charged for service up- DubMeNow is weeks away from intro- slicker, smarter phones.” in smart phone capabilities. For example, a grades, and a subscription-based model with ducing new versions of the Dub app with WeatherBug’s mobile applications for user can send iTra%c alerts via text message a free trial download followed by a monthly more features, such as location-based ca- BlackBerry and Google Android smart to a Twitter feed without connecting to the fee a!er 30 days. pabilities, new search functions and $elds phones have garnered around 200,000 Internet. N E-MAIL: [email protected] PHONE: 703/258-0831
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Global market share App storefront Work and play Getting paid Nokia Corp.’s smart phone leads the iPhone The “app store” model was quickly adopted “The size of the mobile applications market Mobile app developers are test driving several and BlackBerry in global market share with 41 for offering games, alerts and other content or is something of a moving target, given how revenue-generating models. Here are some of percent of sales, but the playing !eld is chang- services on mobile phones. quickly app stores are proliferating and their them: ing. Nokia’s share dropped 4 percent from “The concept of the app store fundamentally catalogs [of apps] growing,” according to on- the !rst quarter of 2008 to the !rst quarter of changes the way in which applications (and in- line and mobile industry analysts at eMarketer 2009, while Apple Inc. and Research In Motion deed content) are sold on the mobile handset, Inc. Piper Jaffray & Co. estimates spending on Free downloads Ltd. both saw growth of more than 5 percent. and has enormous implications for the mobile consumer and business apps combined will Users pay nothing to install and use the ap- value chain,” said J Windsor Holden, princi- reach $13 billion worldwide by 2012. plication on their device. The application may pal analyst for Juniper Research Ltd., which be an accessory to a paid product or service, predicts that apps will grab a greater share of or revenue could come from advertising. mobile entertainment and revenue. $8B Apple’s App Store has reached more than Pay-per download 41% Nokia 1 billion downloads since its launch in July Users pay a fee to install the application on 2008. Other smart phone providers have their device. Business apps launched similar stores. Consumer apps Freemium $6B Users pay nothing or a nominal fee to install Apple App Store and use the application on their device, but Launched: July 11, 2008 they are charged for content (such as an e- Number of apps: 50,000 book), usage above a certain amount of time, a particular type of use or a particular service associated with the application. This model 20% Research in Motion Google Android Market Launched: Oct. 22, 2008 is becoming more popular as app developers (BlackBerry) and users see greater value in the informa- Number of apps: 4,900 $4B tion derived from apps compared with the app itself or its immediate function. Developers’ BlackBerry App World annual revenue from value-added services Launched: April 1, 2009 11% Apple (iPhone) sold through downloaded apps is expected Number of apps: 456 to exceed $14 billion by 2014, according to Juniper Research. 5% HTC (Microsoft, Google) Nokia Ovi $2B Launched: May 26, 2009 4% Fujitsu Number of apps: 283
Palm App Catalog 19% Others Launched: June 6, 2009 Number of apps: 18
2009 2010 2011 2012
SOURCE: PIPER JAFFRAY & CO., GARTNER, JUNIPER RESEARCH
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