[VisionMobile’s Andreas Pappas was recently quizzed on app business models, best practices and strategies for developers and entrepreneurs. In this post we’re presenting the most interesting questions and answers from this interview. These are tough questions that all developers and entrepreneurs are faced with in the early stages of their ventures.]   Q1: I am […]

On desktop computers web apps have come to dominate many application categories. They are easier to develop and deploy across multiple platforms and it’s possible to iterate much faster. A very large number of developers would like to be able to apply the same technologies and techniques on mobile devices but very few are able to do so successfully, particularly for mass market consumer apps. One of the most important reasons for this is performance. Resolving this issue is much more about politics than technology.

The term “web app” has been around for the past years – we’ve all heard it and used it more times than we care to remember. Yet there remains a debate on where “web sites” end, and “web apps” begin. Ciprian Borodescu, CEO and Co-founder of Webcrumbz, presents the opinions of several prominent figures in the web technology domain and discusses the ‘app-ification’ of the web.

Advertising is the most popular revenue model, while ads can also act as a promotion channel that facilitates app discovery. With 100+ ad networks and exchanges, there is intense competition, regional specialisation and niche solutions, but out of the fray, one service emerges as a leader: AdMob.

When viewed as just another form of advertising, with a cost-per-action model, in theory Cross-Promotion Networks should work out fairly well for developers. User acquisition costs are predictable for advertisers and those displaying ads have reasonably good targeting built-in before any extra targeting logic used by the cross-promotion network – everyone viewing the ad has a smartphone and downloads apps on it! How does the theory work out in practice?

On the surface, advertising seems like a fairly simple and easy to implement business model for an app. Decide on some places to display ads, integrate one or more third party ad services and wait for the money to start rolling in. If you do this without a clear plan for how and why users will interact with ads in your app you’ll probably find the revenue disappointing. Optimise revenue by growing your user base, increasing engagement…

App store analytics providers have been telling us that almost all of the growth in app revenues in the last year has been through in-app purchases. However is that just because the model has become more popular? Or because revenue has been concentrating at the top of the market, where the strategy is very popular (particularly in free-to-play games)? Probably…

Appsfire Infographic shared figures for the iOS App Store in 2012. The growth in the amount of apps, while still high, seems to be slowing. This might indicate that the market is maturing. Only 1 in 10 apps gets any reasonable traction at all. Only 1 in 1000 manages to get to the top 10 of […]

MoPub, a real-time bidding exchange for mobile advertising, recently published a report on their marketplace for the third quarter which shows some strong trends. The effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPM) was steady or rising across platforms through the last quarter. Android eCPM was rising much faster than for iOS. This is in sharp contrast […]

From TechCrunch: App measurement and ad company Flurry has revealed significant traction for its iOS and Android app advertising and targeting platform, AppSpot. The platform was made publicly available in October 2012 and has attracted more than 1,000 app publishers to sign up in just over three weeks, according to the company. Flurry described revenue performance of the first 500 applications […]