Software Distribution Beyond App Stores–A Must Have for App Marketers
Software distribution is always a problem that publishers face. Unless you have a loyal audience that you can market to within your app to gain further distribution, it’s becoming exceedingly difficult to get noticed across all platforms–desktop, browser, social and mobile. Consider these numbers: currently, there are roughly 12,000 add-on’s in the Firefox add-on gallery (AMO). In the Android Marketplace, at the end of December 2009, there were 20,000+ apps. At the end of January, Apple’s App Store had a staggering 140,000+ third party apps available! The number of desktop apps is in the millions. Just imagine how these numbers will swell this year alone. How does a publisher get distribution in a pool so massive?
Here’s the problem: app stores are not built for software distribution for all publishers. Only a select few are able to rocket to the tops of the charts and capture users’ attention. These sites suit the aggregators well as they capture both the short and long tail, but what if you’re at the end of the long tail? There are many ways to combat this; publishers need to seek more proactive ways to improve discoverability. At the same time, publishers need to take advantage of solutions, such as W3i’s InstallIQ, that are built around distribution for all. InstallIQ recommends relevant apps to users when they install comparable applications. If you’re a publisher and have an app, it’s important to get face time with users. W3i has nearly 10 years of experience connecting people to applications; that’s what makes us unique – that is our job and mission. App stores are great for scale, great for the aggregator; but W3i can do what the app stores can’t: provide a software distribution solution that puts your application directly in front of users, out of all the clutter.
Eric Montag, Product Manager, W3i, LLC
Eric is a Pragmatic Marketing Certified Product Manager and uses his experience in internet marketing to lead the charge in product research, planning, and execution from both a consumer and business standpoint.
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