This article was written for app developers seeking distribution, however, if you have a website and would like to promote W3i’s applications, go to W3i’s affiliate sign-up form.

Pay Per Install Programs for All Platforms

Every market leading platform, including iPhone, Facebook, Windows, and even Internet Explorer toolbars, has at least one vendor who will sell a consumer app developer installs on a pay per install or pay per download basis.

Cross Promotion Typically the Method Powering Pay Per Install Programs

Most of the pay per install networks utilize some method of cross promotion to drive additional installs while users are installing or interacting with another app.

What Other Distribution Channels Don’t Want You to Know About Pay Per Install Programs

So, how do these pay per install networks, like W3i’s Application Network for Windows apps and browser add-ons, compare in cost to other channels for app distribution such as search, display, affiliate, and OEM?

To answer this question, I had W3i’s Media Buyers examine past campaign performance across these difference channels and tallied up our effective cost per install by channel. The following bar graph is based upon the actual campaign performance which was achieved.

Pay Per Install Programs the Lowest Cost Alternative

As you can see from W3i’s campaign results, pay per install programs can create a meaningful distribution channel while lowering an app developers costs by often as much as one third the cost of other alternatives!

Many app developers have tried search and affiliate programs to promote their app because they are more widely recognized tactics, but have failed to launch and optimize their apps for low cost pay per install networks.

Ask About Compliance & Review the User Experience

Make sure you ask your pay per install program how they adhere to industry best practices, and what care they take in establishing a valued user experience. The engine that powers W3i’s Application Network, InstallIQ, has received the Truste Trusted Download certification and is white listed by Truste.

Get your App on a Pay Per Install Program

Whether you have an iPhone app, a Facebook game, a Windows application, or a browser toolbar, contact W3i to learn how you can launch and optimize your app using W3i’s pay per install network. 

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

Unless your last name begins with “Karim”, “Ronning”, or “Lawson”, et. al.  (Minnesota tech masters of the universe for those of you who need to brush up on your local tech lore) then you are going to need to prove yourself and tech start-up to would be early stage tech investors – aka “Angels”.

Part of proving your start-up is demonstrating the potential for a meaningful exit (what all investors deep down are looking for) by having a solid base of facts which can be used to establish the foundation of your early-stage company. The best way to come across as credible is to present key operating metrics, financial measures and milestones to prove you have what it takes to be a Minnesota tech superstar.

A few key recommendations on facts you should be prepare to show a potential investor which will dramatically improve your chances of scoring the early stage investment you are looking for:

Revenue Growth: In this market, it is highly unlikely anyone is going to invest seed capital in your tech business unless you can show a revenue growth curve that is trending up in a meaningful way. It isn’t so important that you are profitable yet, but early stage investors want to see proof in your ability to execute, and that customers are buying into whatever it is that you are selling.

Market Size: Many investors will pass on a deal if they see you have not done your diligence on the market you are entering. Investors are generally smart (although usually pretty clueless when it comes to being tactful) and they know that market size approximations are never going to be completely accurate. The point is you have some sense of what you are getting into.

Bottom-Up Financial Analysis: It is far better for an investor to see you are building a financial model from the ground up, using your key assumptions to build out a plan, versus top down. If you use some basic formula in a spreadsheet which shows linear growth, you probably don’t know what you are getting yourself into with your tech start-up.

Sizable User Base/Customer Base: For ad-supported web businesses, you’ll get much better terms if you give your pitch after you’ve already acquired your first 1,000,000 users and you are still showing a nice growth rate. For enterprise or retail tech businesses, you’ll want to be able to show a reasonable cluster of customers with steady (or even better, exponential) growth, and proven distribution channels. As a fellow Minnesota tech entrepreneur and mentor of mine once told me, “it’s all about distribution channels”.

Respected Board Advisors: Another key milestone which definitely establishes credibility for an early stage tech entrepreneur is having an outstanding set of board advisors. Many top-tier tech superstars are too busy with their own dreams to formally sit on your board, but many will volunteer to be a board advisor for you, allowing you to occasionally check in with them and leverage their professional networks. This is ideal when you are searching for the all important referral to angels. You will likely fail with angels if you are not working off referrals.

At Least One Partner: A very basic but important milestone… If you can’t convince at least one other entrepreneur to join your tech start-up, then what does that say?  If there was no Page, would there be a Brin in Google? Nope. Every great tech start-up had at least two founders.

Your Own Capital: Finally, show that you’ve put your own skin in the game. Investors want to see that you’ve mortgaged your house, worked two full-time jobs, and poured nearly all of your money (and your heart and soul) into your blossoming tech start-up. There are a lot of smart people in the tech industry, and being smart is not enough without tenacity.

Got any other key measures, metrics, or milestones to add? Post them in the comments!

Rob Weber is a co-founder of Minnesota headquartered W3i and a risk taker. Rob has been a private angel investor in a number of music, game, and mobile tech start-ups.

Amazon, along with all other book retailers and a variety of device manufacturers, are faced with a most disruptive competitive threat to their eBook business to date, the April 3 US release of Apple’s iPad.  Amazon is turning to app marketing to defend their competitive position.

Defending and Growing Their Core Business, Books–There’s an App for That

Amazon and other book retailers, like Barnes and Noble, are in the business of selling books, not selling devices.  Apple is in the business of selling devices, not selling books.  

Armed with this knowledge, Amazon has launched Kindle for the PC and Kindle for the iPhone.   Think of the Kindle for iPhone as a consumer’s “eBook store for iPhone/iPad” more so than Apple’s owned and operated e-Book store. This is a smart move by Amazon’s marketing team. Recent research conducted by W3i shows 50% of respondents indicate that they have an interest in using an application to aid in the discovery of books. Amazon introduced Kindle for iPad March 22, integrating with the Kindle bookstore and making more than 450,000 Kindle books available through its Kindle app.  Able to sync with Amazon’s servers, Kindle for iPad makes it possible for you to continue reading on a PC, Mac, iPhone, BlackBerry, or Kindle e-reader.   Amazon will continue to grow by knowing their strength, selling books, and making sure that their content is available in emerging platforms—like Apple’s iPad.  Barnes & Noble has already jumped on this bandwagon with the anticipated early April release of their eReader app for the iPad.  Other book retailers will be wise to follow suit and use app marketing to their advantage. 

It is important that app marketers consider what utility is provided by the apps they are developing and marketing. Amazon did a fantastic job with their PC and mobile apps versus their Kindle eReader. (I own a Kindle 2, and I rarely use it. When I am traveling, I’m much more likely to carry a pocket device like an iTouch, and when I am at home, I am much more likely to use my laptop PC.) I’ve used both the Kindle for PC and the Kindle for iPhone apps for a couple of months now, and I’ve found both to be very fast, easy to use, and well thought out. After I installed the Kindle for PC on my laptop, I tried out its “free sample” feature and skimmed through a few pages of Chris Anderson’s “Free” book, which is one of my all-time favorites. Unlike the Windows iTunes app by Apple where most of the navigation of content itself is within the app causing it to be very slow at times, most of Amazon’s desktop app is built by calling back to Amazon’s web technology while still managing the eBook files locally on my machine. This makes for a much faster, enjoyable experience. Next, I installed the Kindle for iPhone app on my iTouch. I purchased the book “The Quants” by Scott Patterson, and read it while on vacation with my family in Orlando. Amazon’s website, iPhone app, and PC app are all synchronized through their “Whispersync” technology. Kudos to Amazon for having a truly synced up, multi-channel strategy that creates great utility for its users.

Finding Alternative Distribution Channels-Mobile

Now that Amazon and other brands have very user-friendly mobile and PC apps, they need to find solutions to market their apps to the masses.  Last month, my Clickz column discussed a variety of ways marketers could find alternative distribution models for mobile, including rebates, free-for-a-day, free for virtual goods, and cross-promotion in app advertising. One example mentioned was the cross-promotion solutions provided by Tapjoy.  Tapjoy drove the Book Bazaar app to a top 10 position in the Books-Free(App) Category.  

How might Amazon push their Kindle for iPhone app more aggressively?

One of the most common distribution tactics used by top mobile app marketers is to get top ranking in the App Store.   As I read recently, “You don’t call Apple, they call you.”  I doubt Amazon will be getting a call from Apple to give them free publicity on the AppStore.  Amazon needs to use a variety of other consumer application marketing tactics: 

• Advertising – go old school with traditional advertising; an expensive tactic, but it can work.
• Download exchange – optimize ad campaign performance with mobile ad networks like Admob.
• Word of mouth – make it easy for friends to engage.
• Social buzz – expand your app’s horizons through viral market on existing social media such as blogs, Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook.  
• Review sites – get app ratings and reviews on sites like AppShopper, iUse This, AppVee, and Apple iPhone School.  Let positive reviews to do the work for  you.

Finding Alternative Distribution Channels-PC

One very effective application marketing tactic currently employed by Amazon is sponsored search.

However, there are limitations to search marketing; a major limitation being the lack of volume available in many new product categories. Amazon is also using In-house promotion tactics by heavily advertising new Amazon apps on their already highly trafficked and successful website.

How might Amazon push their Kindle for PC app more aggressively?

• PC OEM Deals – expand relationships with channel partners.  Ever heard the phrase, “enemies of your enemies are your friends” from Art of War? Most PC manufacturers are very concerned about the growth of Apple’s market share in the desktop and laptop market, the smartphone market, and now with iPad and Netbook sales. Even if the iPad is a smashing success, total unit sales are not going to come close to all other devices.
• Cross promotion- similar to Tapjoy in mobile, Amazon could contract with cross promotion companies like W3i.
• Affiliate marketing – Amazon is a pioneer in affiliate marketing.  If they are not already doing so, adding apps to their affiliate program could boost distribution.

Will Apple Block Amazon’s Apps?

No, there is too much risk from user outrage and potential unwanted attention by anti-trust government agencies.  Ultimately Amazon does not cannibalize Apple’s device sales but adds value.   

Strapping on the Amazon Marketing Armor

Amazon is making its content readily available on emerging platforms and in doing so is providing greater utility to its consumers.  Marketing their great new apps using cross-promotion,  search engine marketing, and other consumer app marketing tactics has Amazon well armed to fight the ensuing eBook battle.

If you observe any other Amazon app marketing tactics, or otherwise have a perspective, please post a comment.  We are always eager to learn from our valued readers. 

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

Why is the opportunity for marketing free apps larger than paid apps? Analyzing user engagement trends, mobile app advertising trends, and details regarding the lack of attention being given to free apps compared to paid apps gives some strong indications. The explosive growth of mobile apps since Apple’s App Store launched on July 10, 2008, has led to increased competition as well as innovation. App store revenues are expected to grow from $4.2 billion in 2009 to $29.5 billion in 2013. Mobile advertising expenditures are predicted to increase 28 percent to $914 million in 2010.

The value of free mobile apps is not limited to advertising revenue; free mobile apps are also the leading influencer on paid downloads and support the rapidly booming virtual goods business through in-app purchasing. The importance of free apps is misunderstood by developers, as the number of paid apps is disproportionate to their demand and revenue contribution.

Free Mobile Apps Drive User Engagement

Android, iPhone, and iPod touch users are averaging 79 to 80 minutes per day engaged with apps. This is phenomenal usage.

Flixster, the leading online destination for movie enthusiasts, touts 30 million unique visitors per month and 2 billion movie ratings. Flixster found that mobile apps provided superior user engagement over their mobile Web page. Flixster apps offer an easy way to share movie choices and meet-ups with movie-going friends because it combines movie information with social networking. Flixster now has 11 apps built for various platforms including Facebook, MySpace, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. The “Movies” app is said to be installed on one in five iPhones in the United States. Eight million users engage with the apps, adding to the 20 million unique visitors Flixster attracts on the Internet. Using mobile apps, Flixster’s mobile user base more than doubled in 2009.

Demand for App Distribution Drives Mobile Ad Innovation

Publishers are using mobile advertising campaigns to propel their app to the top of app store lists. AdMob routinely sells burst campaigns to help marketers achieve prominence in the Apple App Store. Being on the top of app store lists fuels revenue, whereas not making it can plunge an application into the great abyss. Of course, the cost to buy your way into the top 25 free apps in the App Store is growing fast: $10,000 in October 2008, $11,000 in December 2008, and $20,000 in March 2009. The coveted number one spot can cost as much as $250,000. It’s tough to make these numbers work without a strong business model.

New promotional methods are leading to new, innovative distribution alternatives for mobile apps. Here are some examples:

• Rebates (paid apps)
  • iPhone Game Rebates
• Free for a day (paid apps)
  • Free App A Day
  • Great App a Day
  • Free Game of the Day
• Free for virtual goods (free apps)
  • Tapjoy
• Cross-promotion in-app advertising
  • Flurry: AppCircle

Free Apps Are Underserved

Apple knows it. Apple acquired mobile advertising firm Quattro Wireless in January 2010, investing $275 million. Apple launched in-app purchase support in October 2009, to support the monetization of free apps. Popular opinion is that Apple will feature app ads in the App Store similar to AdSense.

Google knows it. Google is investing in a mobile future by signing an agreement to acquire AdMob, a mobile display advertising company, for $750 million. It was reported in November 2009 that AdMob served over 10.2 billion ad impressions per month, up from 1.6 billion a year ago.

Game developers know it. Backflip Studios CEO, Julian Farrior said he uses its free app (Paper Toss, now with 17 million downloads generating 400 million impressions per month) to cross-sell Backflip’s paid apps and generate ad revenue. “Free impressions give you a lot of flexibility in terms of how you run your business,” Farrior explained at the recent 2010 Game Developers Conference.

SGN, iPhone game publisher, CEO Randy Breen said, “The charter of this company is free apps with micro-transactions.” He predicts the mobile market will become larger than Facebook.

click to enlarge

The power of free is driving the success of mobile app marketing. Users continue to demand apps with value – be it time-killers (entertainment) or time-savers (information) – and the companies that can figure out the way to leverage this monumental demand while promoting their mobile apps for free will be the long-term winners.

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

ST. CLOUD, MN, March 19, 2010 – Freeze.com launched its Video Saver today.  This screensaver can showcase most videos located on YouTube®, a personal video, or YouTube® Feed.  By downloading the free desktop application and adding the code or URL for a video or video feed, your desktop will play that video as its screensaver.

 Features of Freeze.com’s Video Screensaver include multiple-monitor support, video looping and the ability to customize quality, sound, and more.  The Video Screensaver cross-promotes various free consumer applications using a proprietary installation manager, InstallIQ™, so that it can be installed by the consumer for free.

 “Now you can laugh every time you come back to your PC by having your monitor play your all-time favorite YouTube® video,” comments Rob Weber, Vice President and Co-Founder of W3i.

 About W3i

W3i, an application network that increases revenue, distribution and engagement for consumer applications and add-ons, enables publishers to provide quality consumer apps for free by recommending relevant applications during the installation process giving advertisers a mass, performance-driven distribution channel.  W3i owns and operated several consumer sites where consumers can download quality apps for free—video players, music players, games, screensavers, and more. To learn more, visit the W3i Application Network or Freeze.com, Screensaver.com, Wallpapers.com, and EZtoCreate.com.

 Contact:

Deborah Manthei
Director of Marketing Communications
320-257-7571
deborah.manthei@W3i.com

The names of companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

IPTV is at the forefront for many top consumer tech companies. At the CES show in January, Samsung announced the launch of Samsung Apps, a multi-device application store which would make apps available for a range of devices, including HDTV’s. As part of their announcement, Samsung named several content partners which were already on-board, including Blockbuster, USA Today and others. Yahoo is also one of the big players in the web TV app space with their TV widgets (http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/services/tv-widgets).  Yahoo has apps like YouTube, Amazon Video on Demand, Blockbuster, Twitter and TV Guide.

So, just what will be the killer apps for IPTV? I will explore some obvious, and not so obvious, killer apps for IPTV.

The IPTV Apps Already Being Consumed By Early Adopters

Content Discovery Apps for Long Tail Video & Professionally Produced Movies/TV: YouTube and start-up Clicker will compete with each other to be the TV guide of the future.  For movies, Netflix and Blockbuster are already providing on demand solutions for their customers. To be the killer app, these video services need to understand who is in the living room. If I am looking for content for just myself, I am likely to tune into business news or a historical documentary, if my wife, daughter and I are all sitting in the room, we are likely to watch American Idol as we all have at least some level of interest in it.

Content Discovery Apps for Music: Many televisions are already coming pre-loaded with Pandora. Whether you have friends over, or are simply looking for background music while you are doing something else, services like Pandora and Slacker provide a nice alternative to the radio or a personal music collection.

News/Weather: USA Today and AccuWeather.com were named as content partners for the Samsung App. The key question in my mind is, “what content will these companies showcase in the form of an app that will be more useful than simply tuning into a news or weather cable station?”

On-Screen Caller ID: Definitely not the killer app, but having caller id on your television is a nice utility to have.

Photo Viewing: Flicker and Picasa are already available for IPTV purposes. Browsing through photos on a giant high def television with your friends and family makes a lot more sense than crowding around a small desktop monitor.

The Future IPTV Apps That May be the True Killer Apps

Apps that Interact with Shows Themselves: These will likely take many forms.  Let’s consider several examples:

• You are watching Vikings versus Packers and the widget shows you the box score on the side or does polls like “should they go for it.”
• You could use Twitter or Facebook to see the crowd’s comments or your friend’s comments that are relevant to the program you are watching.
• You are watching a movie and a movie widget allows you to see information about the movie such as actors, directors, year released, reviews, etc.
• You are watching a show like American Idol and are able to cast your vote through your TV instead of calling in.

Social Media- Twitter was announced as a part of the Samsung CES press release. I would expect top existing social media players like Twitter and Facebook to emerge with top apps for IPTV. Wouldn’t it be cool to see your Twitter stream on a giant HDTV television or flip through your friend’s Facebook photos easily on your big screen?

Games- Today, consumers who want to play games on their televisions rely on consoles. Will they tomorrow? One scrappy start-up named OnLive is betting that you’ll play games directly through an internet connection. 

Family Calendars- Right now, it is common to still find a family calendar hanging on a refrigerator with various important dates scribbled on it. Why not turn tomorrow’s living room into a central calendar for the family, and sync up everyone’s calendars together using IPTV? The utility of a Windows app like Cozi would make for a nice background on an HDTV.

Video Call- How cool would it be to be to chat with loved ones on a giant screen, as if they are sitting in your living room? I expect existing video call players like Skype, ooVoo, and Logitech to compete to provide you with this type of functionality. Take video calling one step further, and imagine the use of 3D television capabilities to do video calling.

Now that we have the IPTV killer apps out of the way, how are you likely to gain access to them? This will be an important question for app marketers, as it will change the way they think about distribution. There is a heavyweight fight going between where the widgets/downloads will be placed:

• On your TV
• On a box like Roku or Boxee.tv
• On your video game machine like Xbox 360 or PS3
• On other devices like a Blue Ray player
• On a laptop with wired or wireless connection to your TV

If you disagree with my ideas for killer apps for IPTV, have a fantasy IPTV app of your own, or care to provide any other commentary on IPTV app trends, please share your perspective by adding a comment to this blog.

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

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.  

I read an article by Steve Smith for MinOnline this week titled, “Vanity Fair Gets Social With Oscar Race iPhone App.”  This article discussed how Vanity Fair was going to capitalize on the Oscar buzz with its Vanity Fair Hollywood Oscar Race iPhone App and how L’Oreal will be the sole sponsor.

This is an excellent approach to application marketing—tagging into major events that naturally get a lot of buzz by providing relevant content and weaving in one sponsor.   This approach gives that sponsor more prominence since there is less advertising clutter. 

The W3i Application Network can be viewed this way as well.  Consumer application marketers with demand for their content sponsor consumer applications during the installation process.  This allows advertiser prominence when the consumer is already installing an application.

The article also discussed another problem with consumer application marketing, namely getting consumers to actually use the app once installed.  Vanity Fair tries to solve this problem using several messaging features:  pop-up instructions when the application is installed to orient the consumer with the app’s functionality and a headline crawl on the bottom of the app to showcase additional content.  Vanity Fair also built in the important “sharing” feature to ignite viral distribution by creating voting pools with groups.  These are excellent consumer application marketing tactics.

To excel at consumer application marketing not only does the app need to get installed, but it must also engage the user.  Providing timely content, ways to discover content and navigation tips are essential for an application’s success.  

Deborah Manthei, Director of Marketing Communications, W3i, evangelizing the use of consumer application marketing to engage brands’ essential users.

With the recent release of Google Buzz, we have yet another social stream of information to consume.  Google Buzz joins Facebook’s Updates stream, Twitter, Yammer, and, outside of the U.S., Yahoo Meme and various other micro-blogging services.  As there are more and more streams feeding us, it will become more cumbersome to manage and review the data in these streams.  A crowded marketplace of services, while increasing competition (this is good), defeats the purpose of these streams; that is, the availability of broad-based real time information with an emphasis on simplicity.  It could be confusing for users to manage each service individually and that is a problem for apps to solve.

I downloaded an app for my iPhone recently, called Momento.  This app seamlessly hooks up four of my social streams: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Last.fm and presents the information in terms of social events based on the day they occur.  This is all done in a fantastically designed, easy to use application.  Essentially, I see this app acting as a tributary, merging these streams into a river.  The only problem with this app is that it only pulls in my social moments.  It doesn’t allow me to identify or define moments that, while not my moment, are compelling and relevant to me.  This app is making a good first step to solve the problem of too many streams.

Overall, the app market is headed in this direction – the creation of apps that act as powerful tributaries, allowing a user to go to one place to view streams of information in a neatly organized and personal fashion.  All of this solidifies the fact that apps play a huge role in simplifying that information we consume and the way we interact with it.  This is an undeniable fact –the release of the Apple iPad is a testament to devices designed around the utilization of apps.  Given the proliferation of apps in the recent year, apps will provide the solution to the problem of an increasingly crowded marketplace of micro-blogging services. 

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.  

Consumer apps were everywhere at the 2010 CES show.  Here are five of the application trends for online application marketers that I noted from my attendance at CES:

1. Optimism rules at 2010 CES show.  Gary Shapiro, Chief Executive of CES, said the CES show “seemed more upbeat than a year ago, reflecting a return to optimism for the industry,”  reports Dean Takahashi, lead writer for GamesBeat by VentureBeat. Attendance at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show reportedly reached 120,000 visitors this year, an increase of about 6 percent from last year.  Participants were reverberating with the latest device and the latest apps to go with it. 
2. Apps will be everywhere.  Thanks to Apple, apps are now sexy and offer the consumer more value from their device, and the marketer the ability to enhance their device with little effort, as well as a potential new source of revenue.
   • Apps in television set-top boxes: Samsung announced the launch of Samsung Apps, a multi-device application store with content partners, including Blockbuster, USA Today, and others.  Samsung plans to make apps available for a range of devices from mobile phones to HDTVs.
   • Apps in car electronics: Ford recognizes that users want information on demand.  Ford’s Sync feature uses an 8” touch-screen in the dashboard as well as voice commands.  You can catch up on Twitter, listen to Internet radio, check movie times and get free online maps with turn-by-turn directions.
     
     http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ces-ford8-2010jan08,0,4905917.story\
   • App Store for Netbooks - Intel launched a beta version of its app store, called the Intel AppUp center for netbooks.  Currently offering about 100 apps.
3. Integrated, multi-platform app strategies are being considered. Brands should create apps that are integrated across multiple devices:  mobile, desktop, social, browser, and other emerging platforms like television set-top boxes and car electronics.  Cooliris bases its success on building its app for both mobile and desktop platforms.   They were recently selected to develop Media Gallery for the Nexus One Device.
4. There will be a mobile app for almost everything, but adoption outside of iPhone is still low.   With the phenomenal growth of the Apple AppStore fueling over 2 billion downloads from some 100,000 plus apps, the race is on from other mobile device companies to woo app developers. (Living in Minnesota, one of my favorites announced at CES is the SmartStart app by Directed for remote starting a car from a smartphone.)
5. Top app marketers will start focusing on improving their key operating metrics.  Most app marketers are doing a poor job of developing key operating metrics and reporting surrounding their app marketing initiatives and campaigns.  There is a lot of emotional decision making rather than data driven decision making. This appears to be starting to change, as better analytical thinking and tools are starting to take root with top app marketers.

If you identified other app trends, share your thoughts by submitting a comment.  

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.