As an old decade ends and another begins, it is only natural to look back and reflect. One of the biggest trends of my lifetime has been the demise of the mass media broadcast and general print medium and the rise of the niche cable channels and specialized print publications. Since the 1980s, the networks have seen their share of audience usurped by specialized cable channels and the general interest publications of the 1950s have been replaced by narrow interest publications of the 1980s, 90s and the millennium.
So why is content discovery and distribution in the mobile application market still a function of 1980s one size fits all app stores?
Mobile apps are truly the latest and greatest invention of the highly personalized, narrowcast digital medium known as the mobile phone, and yet the app store still clings to a decades old mass distribution model ruled by quantity and impersonal discovery. Adding further frustration, in order to download the latest niche app, mobilistas have to leave the niche content and focused social experience they may be enjoying and jump over to the generic big box app warehouse to get their niche app.
Not very user friendly.
So, let’s make sure we have this straight. In an era where the social experience seems to greatly influence the commerce experience, big box app warehouses are designed to keep mobile consumers who wish to utilize social media to discover new apps outside the front door – at least until they are ready to stop talking. Once inside the big box app warehouse, all mobile consumers need to be quiet and just read the preapproved language describing each app.
I thought the latest and greatest digital commerce experiences were supposed to be better than the brick and mortar experiences! Can you imagine how many people would shop at a brick and mortar store if there were ‘no talking’ signs posted all over?
There is a reason why mountain climbers are happy to spend more money for more products at a mountaineering store than at a generic sports equipment warehouse. It’s about the communal and social experience that furthers the enjoyment of mountaineering – not to mention the ease of being able to find all of the great mountaineering products in one placed specifically designed to satisfy their needs.
Why is the app discovery and distribution model so archaic…or at least so 1980s?
Just like in the real world, there is a time and a place for big box stores. As my wife says, there is no better place to buy socks than Target. So, for the dictionary app, some great phone games, and other general apps, I think the big box app warehouses work fine.
But on behalf of all mountaineers, quilters, airplane pilots and everyone else with a specialized interest, I have a request.
Give us some specialized app stores with vibrant social communities to enhance our love for our niche activities and allow us to participate with our community in a place where we can discover, buy, share and enjoy those apps together.
hmmm as the owner of http://www.MobileAppStore.com I have to disagree with you.
The reason i go to Amazon is because they have everything i need to find online.
If i wanted specialty stores i need to search to find them. I would much prefer Amazon built the same tools into their DVD ‘area’ rather than joes DVD building a community and sharing the expenses of development over far fewer sales.
The question I have is how do ALL the brands possibly hope to distribute their own “discovery apps”? I only have about a 8 apps that I actually use on my iphone and I am not about to download 20 or 30 to try to cover all my favorite brands (each with it’s own map and features).
I agree that the application store model is very limited. I assume Apple is scrambling for this reason. Buying Quattro Wireless signals that they know that the Google/Admob play will be hard to beat. Free with unobtrusive/useful/welcomed ads trumps paid all day long.
Interesting thesis, although potentially the era of apps as a whole has a limited shelf life. Isn’t it a bit like downloading a single use version of the internet just for one specific purpose? I wrote a piece about this before Christmas, if I may humbly direct that way: http://bit.ly/appsforidiots
I agree with Dean. AppStores work if you provide a good experience for discovering content, like Amazon does.
But the article points to a fundamental problem which exists in mobile: discovery. This is more easily solved on the web, but when you get down to tiny screen sizes, it is that much harder. In my previous company, we ran a games portal where we took mobile game sales from 250k/year to 10m in a 12 month period – by using a range of retailing techniques to make it easier for users to find and recommend games.
Building good AppStores is not easy, evidenced by many companies failure in this space: http://mobione.com.au/wordpress/?p=278. But it is possible to sell apps well on the tiny screen. Feel free to read my research on this called “Sharing on a small screen”, which covers really only one aspect – which is the viral component: http://mobione.com.au/wordpress/?page_id=6
I think a lot of people are aware of the limitations of the centralized app store approach (both for users and developers). What you are calling “specialized app stores with vibrant social communities” I prefer to call personalized and customized “content spaces.” However, I disagree with your assertion of “niche” vs. big box. Niche applies only to the long tail of content, but that fact of the matter is that most individuals (while they will have certain specialized interests) will also have many interests of a broader appeal (like your comment about going to Target for socks).
There’s no reason why a content space has to be limited to only your niche interests. Rather it should be equally capable of allowing you to interact with your community that is also interested in broader content topics.
So, for example, while I certainly would be interested in sharing my passion for sailing with other sailing afficianado’s, the fact that I know those people in the context of a niche passion/community, also makes me more likely to be interested/willing to pay attention to other interests that they might have.
In a personal content space, I can interact with others that not only share that niche interest (mountaineering, in your example), but I can also see what other topics they are interested in, and I’d be more likely to explore something new to me if I know that someone I already know/respect in one context is interested in some other subject. So, if I see in my mountaineering content space that one of the climbing folks I respect is also interested in some band or who knows what, I’d probably be more willing to check that thing out, too.
Keep your eyes peeled for announcements in the coming months that address these issues.
I do not agree with your premise. It is not a question of how big the store is or how specialized it is, but how easily someone can navigate in it and find something they want. On a social level it is about navigators, having reviewers and peers who you trust to serve as the point people to filter through what others have discovered and what they have tried out themselves and make recommendations. Ultimately the difference between a real store and a virtual store is that in a real store you have to physically walk to where your product is – this is not a direct route, but in the virtual world a link can take you right there. For me all of this means that the online store as a distribution outlet is all about convenience and price. It’s why I like Amazon and the Apple itunes store, check out is quick and it is easy to track my purchases on my bank statements. In short, it’s not about where you buy the app, it’s about how you find out about it. I think Google already figured out that the main issue of the information age is not the distribution of content, but searching and finding it.
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I agree that app stores are a little like multi channel TV, you start browsing with enthusiasm, but unless you find something of interest quickly (usually the case) the enthusiasm rapidly fades, and thats the end of it. Online retailing of other goods and services is much more sophisticated, gathering indicators from purchase history and patterns to push relevant offers towards interested consumers. In that sense the app store approach is very archaic. My Company http://www.retalika.com takes a different approach bundling best of breed apps into themed packages.
That was the best article I have read in a long time!