Running head: APPLICATION NATION
Proposal for the Development of Applications
Used With Mobile Devices
100 million is an incredible number. That’s the number of application downloads through Apple’s App Store in just 60 days.
Situation Analysis
Issue and Opportunity Identification
An exploding area in the emerging social networking world is applications. Application development is a $7.7 billion market worldwide, according to a study from IT research company Gartner Inc. And the market is only expected to grow, with Gartner pegging an average 7 percent growth rate for the next five years. Already there are a couple of companies making hundreds of millions of dollars, and there is no question that more will come. In the aggregate, the potential profits for a successful application launch could supersede Facebook.
Developers looking to make money in application development need one of three things in their favor: they can have an enormous audience; they can have such a specific customer base that advertisers are willing to pay more to reach them; or they can be so much fun (or useful) that customers will pay for the app directly. Early applications were basic, simple games, such as Facebook apps that allowed users to throw sheep at their friends or give them a virtual ham sandwich. But the market is shifting. The next step is branded content from larger companies that bring in fresh news and multimedia to engage the audience and in a few years, it is predicted that people will start seeing the rise of business-to-business apps as well.
Platforms are looking for applications that are extremely engaging, and the criteria isn’t necessarily monetization, but engagement, reach and value. Research has found that multiplayer role playing games are the ones with the most engaged audiences, and monetize the best. Some application developers are finding success by operating on a variety of platforms. Palo Alto-based Social Gaming Network’s Facebook...