Wednesday 26 January 2011

Top 10 Appstores Worldwide

More and more appstores are coming online every month. Most publicity is about the Apple Appstore, Android Market and maybe Blackberry World and OVI. We thought it would be interesting to try to rank those appstores, including the independent ones. The figures are based on press releases, our own data from appstores, discussions with operators and handset manufacturers, and a few guestimates.


1. Apple Appstore
Recently announced 10 billion downloads across iPhone, iPad and iPod. An incredible figure that few would have predicted before the iPhone launch. Apple were the first to get mobile downloads into the mainstream and are still reaping the rewards.
2. Google’s Android Market
Over 2,7 billion downloads to date. With the ever growing number of Android handset models available, their download rates are increasing, we wait to see if they can catch Apple.
3. China Mobile Market
Although it just launched in September 2010, this is now believed to be the world´s third biggest appstore, based on the number of downloads in December 2010.
4. DoCoMo
DoCoMo has offered apps through i-mode for years and was the largest appstore prior to the iPhone era. With 40 million active customers, they are still one of the biggest appstores.
5. Nokia OVI
Despite the bad press, Nokia OVI continues to perform well, with rapid growth across the base and over 3 million downloads per day. Although,this includes any digital content, such as wallpapers, widgets and games.
6. Mobile9
Mobile9  doesn’t generate much publicity, but with twice the traffic of Getjar and more free copyright protected apps than anywhere else, this is an interesting one to follow.  Including ringtones, wallpapers, etc, they now claim over 11 billion downloads, including digital content other than apps.
7. Getjar
Frequently reported as the world largest independent appstore with apps for all device platforms available, including iPhone (providing links to the iTunes store), Android, J2ME, Symbian, Blackberry and more. The independent store counts 1.66 billion downloads up to date.
8. Mobango
For long Mobango was a strong contender to Getjar, with a community based approach. After running out of cash, Mobango was acquired in 2010, so maybe there will be another boost?  They report 750M downloads.
9. Blackberry World
RIM will tell you it’s about quality and not quantity. Despite over 50 million active devices the appstore downloads from Blackberry World are pretty low. Lately though, figures have been picking up. Blackberry World reports millions of downloads per day rather than total number of downloads but our estimate based on this is a total of somewhere between 500-700m downloaded apps since launch.
10. Verizon Wireless V Cast Apps
Verizon Wireless have continued to go their own way, with a combination of closed portal (V Cast) and openness, giving access to the Android Market. V Cast is believed to provide by far the biggest carrier appstore in the US.
Others include Vodafone 360, Telefonica/O2 mstore, Orange Application Shop, 3 App Store, AT&T AppCenter, Sprint, T-Mobile, TeliaSonera, Windows Phone Marketplace, Palm App Catalog, Samsung appstore, Sony-Ericsson Playnow, HTC, PocketGear, Mobilerated, Zed, Jamba, Buzzcity, Opera, Facebook, Cydia (Apple Jailbreak appstore), Cellmania, Handmark, Javaground, Mobiles24, OnMobile, Ondeego
We also expect initiatives from Amazon, LG, Lenovo, Mozilla, WAC (Wholesale Application Community), Sun/Oracle Java, Acer, Asus and more.
Tell us what you think!



Friday 21 January 2011

Top mobile viral marketing campaigns ever

This blog is based on a presentation held at MediaPro in November 2010 with the headline “The  most successful viral apps in Mobile history”. We had an amazing feedback on the presentation  from clients and the audience. Therefore we want to reiterate the insights on our blog.

Everyone wants to know: what makes a mobile app or service viral? We hope to provide you with at least some of the most important success criteria. Our recommendations are based on the experience from launching more than 300 mobile apps over the past couple of years. Among them some extremely successful. In some cases the content was great but viral effects turned out rather moderate.

The top 5 viral marketing campaigns that we’ve launched during this period were:

1. Malibu Bowling Game for Pernod Ricard (Agency: Great Works)– bowl with coconuts and melons and play against your friends. The game reached over 6m downloads primarily in the US with no marketing other than appstore distribution

2. Cippi for Perfetti (Agency: BBH) – the first mobile farting application downloaded over 4m times  thereof 2m in Italy which was the target market with minimum marketing effort via Vodafone Italy (watch on YouTube)

3. Lynx/Axe for Unilever (Agency: BBH) – mobile apps that turn your phone into a  flirting machine resulting in over 0.5m downloads in the UK (watch on YouTube)

4. Who Killed Summer for Vodafone (Agency: OMD) – interactive mobile app for an online reality  show which generated considerably more downloads and activity on the mobile than it did online

5. Du & Jag (You & Me) – one of the simplest apps ever with a test to see how well you match a  girl or guy resulted in over 100k downloads in Sweden in only a few months in 2007

We will let the failures be forgotten in history for now…

So what are the key learning’s and tips from these?

1. Viral is about the physical sharing experience

Viral marketing online is very centred around sharing via Facebook, e-mail, instant messaging, Twitter and other channels. With the core function of a mobile phone being communication you would expect the same thing to be true for mobile. What we’ve noticed through research and focus groups however is that the most common sharing experience is physical. The user shows the game, entertainment or utility app to a friend who then also downloads it. In many cases the average user shares the app with 5+ people.

2. Make it easy to share

Having said that the most successful sharing experience is physical there is still a great amount of viral effects that comes from sharing online. Therefore it is key that it is easy and fun to share. There are a couple of important things to think about in order to encourage online sharing:
  • Make it clear what is shared – i.e. show how the other user(s) will receive the message by e-mail or Facebook
  • Integrate with the phone experience – use the phonebook to make it easy for users to share with their friends
  • Let the user decide how they want to share – allow the user to choose between e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Bluetooth, etc
  • Make it meaningful to share – ensure that there is an incentive to share whether it is to let the user impress their friends, a benefit to the receiver or an incentive to the sharer


3. Available on all/most devices

Less than 10% of the mobile users in Europe have an iPhone. So what happens if an iPhone user shares the app with an Android, Nokia or Blackberry user? Make sure that you support the devices that your target audience has.


4. Distributed through as many channels as possible

There are now well over 100 carriers, handset manufacturers and independent appstores (excluding Apple). Clearly some of them are more popular than others but distributing your app to as many of them as possible will give you much better reach which results in more downloads. In addition to this making sure that your app gets mentioned in blogs and other media can also make a big impact.

So in summary, what makes a successful mobile viral app campaign?

  • Make it a fun and useful sharing experience in the physical world as well as online
  • Make it easy to share and be honest about how it’s done
  • Ensure that your app/campaign is available to your target audience devices
  • Distribute through as many channels as possible


And don’t forget to share this blog!

Author: Magnus Jern (CEO Golden Gekko)
See the presentation on slideshare

Saturday 8 January 2011

Top 10 activities and predictions in mobile 2010 to 2011

Once again it’s time for us to summarise the past year´s key trends and predict the future for 2011.

At the end of 2009 we looked back at the year that passed and forward to 2010 to identify some key insights and trends. Maybe we cheated but it looks like our crystal ball for 2010 was right on the spot for 4 out of 5 of ourpredictions.

Review of our predictions for 2010

1. Breakthrough for mobile marketing

Most importantly the breakthrough for mobile marketing and apps have now happened which led to a revenue growth of more than 125% for Golden Gekko in the middle of a global financial crisis. One key factor was that major brands such as GAP, Zara, Domino's Pizza and Mango launched m-Commerce initiatives which all surpassed expectations making the mobile platform a business critical channel.

2. Increased mobile platform fragmentation

We saw an increase in fragmentation, which came true with more versions and hardware configurations of Android, Samsung Bada, Windows Mobile 7, with renewed investments in Palm WebOS by HP and MeeGo announced by Nokia and Intel.

3. Android accelerates past iPhone

As expected Android surpassed iPhone as the most sold smartphone OS, while the iOS market share growth stabilised.

4. Mobile networks collapse under traffic load

Finally, several of the networks in the UK (O2) and US (AT&T) experience vastly reduced performance due to smartphones and dongles.

5. Improved efficiency in mobile service development

The one prediction which did not really materialize was improved efficiency in mobile service delivery through new tools and products. The reason is most likely that most of the tools and services are not good enough yet which could be a great opportunity for 2011.

The key trends 2010

1. Launch of the iPad and other tablets

In January Apple announced the iPad which has ever since been sold at an amazing rate although I think the usage patterns have surprised quite a few. Most of the usage takes place at home rather than while mobile. At the same time other manufacturers, despite promises, failed to bring out competitive devices during 2010 even though Samsung managed to sell about 1 million.

2. Microsoft Windows Phone 7

Maybe it was because expectations were low but reviews of the Windows Phone 7 operating system and phones have been very good. Unique user interface, great social networking integration, excellent SDK for app development and all in all the first real smartphone OS from Microsoft.

3. Launch of iAds

When Apple acquired Qattro Wireless the iAd formats with rich media had already been developed but Apple took it and turned it into a great new innovation. Although the impact in terms of mobile advertising was very small in 2010 iAds has set the benchmark for mobile ads for the next couple of years.

4. Launch of 50+ appstores by operators and handset manufacturers

The openness of Android is both good and bad in terms of security, fragmentation and developer control. One slightly unexpected result however is that everyone is now launching their own appstores. In 2010 Android appstores were launched by Vodafone, Telefonica, Verizon Wireless, Orange, Sony-Ericsson, LG, Samsung and many many more. We expect this trend to continue in 2011 making distribution of Android apps more challenging for developers but also giving them more opportunities to sell and promote their apps.

5. Blackberry proving that they can hold the fort

Many analysts thought that RIM was down for the count in the beginning of 2010 with the competition from iPhone and Android but over and over again they have beaten forecasts in terms of sales. Maybe there is demand for something different than the iPhone even though the app environment and browser is nowhere close even on the latest Blackberry 6 devices? And it will be interesting to see what is yet to come. In the past 12 months RIM have acquired one user interface expert (TAT), one SDK developer (QNX) to be used as basis for the new tablets and a couple of app developers (DataViz and Cellmania).

Our predictions for 2011 are

1. Smartphones for everyone

The price of Android phones is dropping drastically with the low end expected to reach 30-40 euro by the end of 2011.* You can already buy a ZTE Blade for about 120 euro with a specification similar to the Nexus One and other manufacturers such as LG, Huewai, Lenovo and Dell will launch low-end Android phones throughout 2011. In addition to this Nokia will continue to offer Symbian for as little as 50 euro and RIM will offer Blackberries at around the 100 Euro mark. There may also be some surprises from Apple with iOS and HP with WebOS. The exciting thing about the drastic drop in prices is that smartphones will reach mass market allowing businesses and developers to reach a much greater audience. The challenge will be to see if app usage is still sustainable or if the early adopters have a different behaviour.

* All quoted prices are list prices for an unlocked phone without contract. Prices with contracts vary depending on country and operator.

2. Mobile is going from a marketing to a business critical channel

In 2009 we talked about mobile advertising shifting to mobile marketing. Now it's time for the next phase. Based on soft launches in 2008-2010 many brands are now seeing mobile deliver substantial revenues with examples including Opentable, eBay, Amazon and Domino's Pizza. Retail brands such as H&M, Zara, GAP are now following suite with major investments expecting that the mobile channel could be as big as the web or even bigger.

3. Multi-platform strategies will be the key to successful mobile strategies

Although a lot of businesses are now turning to mobile web including XHTML and HTML5 as the base platform for their mobile business, downloadable apps continue to drive innovation and discovery. The app platforms continue to develop extremely rapidly with at least one major release per year from Apple, Google, HP/Palm with new functionality and business opportunities. Mobile web on the other hand is based on standards with considerably slower evolution since everyone needs to agree. Therefore the gap between native apps and browser based services will only get larger for now. Mobile browsers could potentially evolve as fast as the apps but then the advantages of standardised coding would disappear. In conclusion businesses and developers that want to stay ahead in mobile will have to develop for and support multiple platforms including XHTML, HTML5, iOS, Android and maybe Symbian/MeeGo, Blackberry and Windows Mobile 7.

4. Breakthrough for m-payments and NFC

With Google introducing NFC (Near Field Communication) support with the launch of Nexus S and Apple expected to follow with NFC on the iPhone 5 we expect a breakthrough for NFC and related services in 2011 although the eco system will take a long time to develop. In Japan NFC already has already replaced tickets and magnetic cards on the tube and allows you to pay for physical good in stores just like a debit card. And the potential services that can be offered are almost endless. NFC equipped devices should in theory be able to communicate or listen to RFID chips that are already everywhere. We could put sensors in flower pots that tell your phone when they need to get watered, products in the store could give you information instantly without the need for barcode scanning, the phone could store your loyalty cards for air miles or hotels.

The breakthrough in 2011 will be in terms of innovation and initiatives by major players rather than mass market adaptation which will still take many years.

5. Rapid growth for tools that improve mobile service and app delivery

This was a prediction for 2010 that did not materialise but we have not given up. Historically businesses that offer developer and service delivery tools in mobile have not been very successful with the greatest exception being Admob. The reason has mainly been that the buyers haven't had sufficient skills and knowledge to use self-service tools and therefore preferred to buy a full service offering making it difficult for mobile marketing companies to establish scalable business models. Another reason is that few marketing agencies want to use template based solutions something Golden Gekko has experienced with Tino as well as Mobile Rhodi with their service. In 2011 we believe that this will change with more experienced marketers and better tools. The main areas of development will be mobile ad serving (Adfonic), CRM and messaging services (e.g. texting.ly), mobile content management systems (thinkshed), self-service app development services (Tino and Mobile Roadie) and appstore distribution.

Happy New Year 2011!