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.

When looking to distribute free consumer software, there are many different methods of distribution.  Some of the more successful distribution methods are:

• Online marketing promotions
• Affiliate programs
• Physical distribution through retail
• Word of mouth

If you can get all the software distribution you need from the latter, then this blog post probably isn’t for you. But for the rest of us who can’t ever get enough, here’s a tactic that tends to get overlooked -software aggregators. 

There are many benefits to hosting your free software or trial software on sites like Download.com, Tucows.com and Softonic.com.  One of the most important things to look for when researching software aggregators is reputation, look for companies like Softonic.com that are a trusted source of downloads. If it’s not a trusted site don’t use it!  Many software aggregators  offer multiple benefits such as:

• Free listing programs
• Pay per download (PPD) programs at very reasonable rates
• Scalable bandwidth  

Listing you downloads with software aggregators can free up bandwidth.  If your product has a large file size or high traffic influxes, these sites have the ability to provide unlimited downloads to potential users without the worry of servers crashing and bandwidth overage charges.

Working with software aggregators does come with a couple of caveats.  The first is turnaround time.  This problem is mostly caused by us–marketers, developers, etc.  Due to the high volume of requests for listings on these popular aggregators, turnaround times can be days or weeks.  It can also take the same amount of time when you’re trying to remove a product from the site.  Be sure to plan ahead.

The second is the lack of reporting.  You don’t get much visibility into reporting, so before adding this method of distribution to your marketing strategy, be sure to know your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) so you have the ability to optimize.

And now the W3i plug! Apart from software aggregators there is another tool available to you to increase distribution; it’s advertising in the installer.  W3i has created a proprietary Application Network where advertiser’s products are offered during the installation process of popular consumer applications.  This distribution method is performance-based and user generated.      

Just like when football coaches tell their players to keep their heads on a swivel, the same can be said for marketers of this generation.  There are many different vehicles of software distribution that you can use to get your software in front of consumers. Just make sure the vehicle you choose fits your marketing strategy and instead of telling you to think outside the box, because I hate that cliché, I will suggest that you work smarter, not harder, when trying to find new vehicles of distribution.

Mitch Bain, Marketing Manager; W3i, LLC
Mitch has 4 years experience focusing on Display Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, and Mobile Marketing, in the Integrated Interactive Media industry.

On November 21st over 600 developers and entrepreneurs got together to discuss what’s important to Minnesota tech start-ups. The halls that Best Buy legendary founder, Dick Schulze, built made for a great location for the next wave of Minnesota entrepreneurs to begin spreading their wings.

Several Minnesota start-up thought leaders were on hand including Graeme Thickens of Minnov8, Robert Stephens, founder of GeekSquad, Justin Porter of the University of Minnesota Venture Center, and John Roberts attorney at start-up friendly New Counsel. There were many young Minnesota entrepreneurs on hand including Mynul Khan, founder of FieldNation, and Adam Sellke of Evolve, who was a recent semifinalist at The Minnesota Cup. I was surprised that there were several Minnesota entrepreneurs who had multiple successful companies with exits.

Minnebar co-founder, Ben Edwards, led a very interactive roundtable discussion for web app builders. Ben’s leadership was clearly on display as a large group of primarily independent developers came forward with their questions on how to market the technology they built. It was very interesting to hear a group of developers discuss marketing issues. From my first hand experience as an internet company founder, I know you need to wear a lot of hats.

The most heated discussion of the day was “Bootstrapping Your Tech Start-up” led by Kevin Spreng of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi. Kevin provided tips for bootstrapping entrepreneurs such as hire contractors rather than employees, go without an office, and focus on execution. Near the end of his session, Kevin stated that marketing agencies were a black hole because marketing agencies spend a lot of money, and he advised start-ups to handle their own marketing.  Curt Prins, Executive Director at District 202 and marketing guru, responded with his disagreement and said not all marketers needed a large budget to accomplish results for start-up entrepreneurs.  A rather lively debate ensued (see tweets under #minnebar). Nice work Kevin and Curt in driving a stimulating discussion on the topic of bootstrapping.

Justin Grammens led a packed session on how to develop Android applications.  Justin explained how, unlike iPhone apps, Android apps require no certification or approval. He also created a simple “Mobile Twin Cities” app during the session. I was amazed at how simple creating a basic Android application can be.

Dan Frankowski and Max Harper from Blue Shift Labs led a discussion on coding with Google’s App Engine that intrigued a number of developers. The crowd was very engaged. The scripting seemed pretty straight forward.

Mike Bollinger provided an introduction to HTML5. The tweets that followed said that HTML5 looked “amazing” and that users should stop using Internet Explorer 6 to increase the adoption rate.

Ryan Weber and I provided a summary of the top trends and winners in the application industry. Ryan forecasted that the integration of social and location-based mobile technology would be one of the most significant drivers of growth and change in the mobile app space.

My favorite discussion was the one facilitated by co-founder of Minnebar, Luke Francl, entitled, “Midwestern Startups: What is Possible?” Luke started by asking for those entrepreneurs that had worked in Silicon Valley to compare their start-up experience there versus their Minnesota start-upexperiences. One such entrepreneur answered Luke’s question by saying Silicon Valley start-ups aren’t as afraid to fail as those in Minnesota. Another entrepreneur said the biggest difference was how much deeper the talent pool was in the valley. Finally, someone joked that when he was in Minnesota, whenever someone asked where he worked, he responded with “I work for at a start-up.” When asked the same question while at an iPhone meet-up in Palo Alto, the response was met with laughter. Why? In Silicon Valley, everyone works for a start-up. The discussion next turned to several ideas on how we can make Minnesota a better place to create a tech start-up. Among the ideas identified were creating an incubator fund modeled after Y Combinator, getting the University of Minnesota to raise money to fund local tech start-ups similar to what the University of Wisconsin started a year ago, the creation of a new TechCrunch-like Minnesota focused community site, and taking advantage of Minnesota’s significant number of Fortune 1000 companies to provide a distribution channel for Minnesota-brewed new tech. Michael Gorman of Split Rock Partners, one of the sponsors, closed Luke’s discussion by saying he was looking forward to seeing where we would be in another year. Judging by all of the energy, and the way the Minnesota developer and entrepreneur crowd is starting to support each other, I am confident we will see continued growth in the Minnesota tech start-up community. I am looking forward to Minnebar 2010.

Rob Weber, VP of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over nine, profitable years evolving W3i in the Integrated Interactive Media industry.

Please pass more turkey and mashed potatoes!

I am an art lover and an art creator.  Unfortunately, these aspects of my personality often clash with my job, designing banners, much like blaze orange clashes with pea green.  (Shudder!)  In an industry where user “clicks” are the goal, we are sometimes asked to do things that should be illegal; such as using designs that are copy-heavy and garish in color.  Why are users more likely to click on the least artistic banner on a webpage?  Are they honestly more attracted to tacky and gaudy?  Or maybe, just maybe, that designer has figured out how to lure in the unsuspecting user with the use of subliminal messaging saying, “click me… click me… click me…”  (Note to self: search “subliminal messaging conferences” and sign up.)

In the midst of all of this thinking (and contemplating Thanksgiving at the same time), I have come to a conclusion.  Designing “clickable” banners is a lot like planning for Thanksgiving dinner… add as many salads and gourmet goodies as you can, but stop fooling yourself!  People are really only coming for the turkey and mashed potatoes.  They do not care that Great Aunt Ermintrude has outdone herself in her use of Jell-O in the salad this year.  All your family wants is a chance to overdose on grilled turkey and gorge themselves on mounds of creamy mashed potatoes.  This is what I mean: users are looking for the meat and potatoes (the hearty stuff) of an advertisement.  Let them know exactly who you are and what your product is as quickly as you can.  Take out the fluff, take out the pretty.  Get to the heart of the matter so they can decide immediately if they are interested or not.  People don’t want to stare at the Jell-O salad for five minutes, trying to figure out exactly what surprises are in it.

Let’s take, for example, two of our display banners:

Version 1:                                                                      Version 2:

Version 1 outperformed Version 2 by nearly 100%!  At first glance, this may not solidify the point that I’m trying to make.  But what you can’t see in the screenshot is that Version 2 needs time to scroll through the different screensavers and features available before finally getting to the screen that is shown above.  Conversely, Version 1 shows everything from the get-go.  No waiting needed.

Do you see what I mean?  Beautiful is not always better in designing banners.  It may be easier on the eyes.  It may prompt us to hang it on our wall.  But it does not always translate into user “clicks.”  I can only speculate on the reasons for this behavior… Perhaps the user likes to see the branding and product throughout the whole process.  Possibly, loud colors naturally draw the eye and compel users to click on them.  It could even be the voices in their head telling them that the world can be saved by clicking on that banner.  (Have you come across other reasons for users’ actions?)  Whatever the motivator, it doesn’t mean that you should stop fighting for gorgeous designs.  What it does mean, though, is that there should be a way to mesh these two taste palates together.  How can that sprig of parsley be added to the turkey?

Keep in mind when designing banners what the user is looking for; hook them with straight-forward facts and a strong call to action!  Art will not always need to be sacrificed for a concept that works, but strive to simplify your designs and feed your users’ need for information quickly.  In the words of Thoreau, “simplify, simplify.”  Take away the funky Jell-o creations and give them what they want – the hearty stuff that will keep them content and satisfied.

Jessie Schroder, Marketing Specialist, W3i Holdings LLC
Jessie uses her experience in internet marketing, graphic design, and testing to guide W3i’s focus of marketing promotions.

As I am making my preparations for the Web 2.0 Expo in New York this November, I have been reflecting on where the world of computer technology has gone.

It is amazing to me how far the web has come in the past 15 years, back when I first finished B-school. I remember buying my first 14K dial-up modem and being on the cutting edge of things, or when CompuServe email address were nine-digit numbers with a period in the middle that no one could ever memorize. How did we ever survive if we couldn’t have an email address like piggyduck749?

My first big project in the business world came from moving a partner kit that was several binders to a CD-Rom that was cheaper to produce than the paper copy, practically free-to-ship compared to the hard copy and was met with so much resistance because not everyone had a CD-ROM drive.

I suppose that this is the new generation’s version of hearing “I had to walk to school, in the snow, uphill – both ways.”

So, what is the point of all this ruminating?

Just to put it in perspective how quickly things change. As I look at the Exhibitor list, even old standbys such as Microsoft and IBM are not nearly in the same business as when I started in software — the Internet was not even an industry at that point. The social networking in the world has replaced the days of pen pals (pen used to refer to the tool you used to write to a friend, not short for penitentiary) and Tweets seem to replace breaking news interrupting the day’s soap operas.

With all this, there are so many more opportunities for everyone – people can create applications and now have a method to reach people who want apps without the process of packaging and shipping and finding shelf space. Now there are ways to distribute, like through our application network, where people can create their own businesses through the money made in that process.

The Internet is an amazing place. It will be interesting to see what’s new at Web 2.0.

If you are attending Web 2.0, or are in the New York area, and are interested in meeting with W3i to discuss distribution, revenue, or engagement opportunities for your consumer apps, contact either myself or Josh Fiedler, and we will be happy to set up a meeting with you while in New York. You can also stop by our Birds of a Feather session “Distributing *.ware for Fun and Profit” at 7pm on Nov 17.

Kristin Oberhaus, Product Manager, W3i Holdings, LLC
Kristin has over 13 years of product management experience and is a certified usability analyst. She is an avid believer in pragmatic marketing.

Recently the FTC published its guide on endorsements to address the application of Section 5 of the FTC act. This prompted some confusion and questions. Following by way of overview, I attempted to de-mystify the guide.

First, the guide contemplates endorsements and written testimonials. The examples provided in the guide make clear that activity subject to the guidelines must meet one of three criteria:

1. Expression of or appearing to express an opinion by words or acts. This criteria classically applies to the celebrity endorser who appears in a commercial;
2. Compensation to individuals. This criteria applies to the regular Joe who might write a blog post about a product received for free and to blogging services where persons are compensated for posting; or
3. Reviews of products. An independent reviewer who is quoted creates potential applicability if the excerpting of the review does not reflect the substance and thereby distorts the reviewer’s opinion.

Second, the guide generally prohibits the following acts:

1. Presenting an endorsement out of context;
2. Distortion of the original endorsement;
3. Unsubstantiated claims; and
4. Failing to disclose material connections with the endorser.

The specific proscriptions above, notwithstanding liability, accrues where there is an attempt to mislead by presenting as an independent endorsement, or in the alternative, the endorser’s statement is untrue. Note too than an advertiser can be liable for unsubstantiated, unprompted claims (if it does not attempt to refute and halt such claims) made by a paid endorser.

Third, consumer endorsements are scrutinized:

1. Claims made must be substantiated (including where applicable with scientific evidence); and
2. Where the depiction in advertisement implies actual consumers, actual consumers must be used or otherwise there must be a conspicuous disclaimer.

The guide gives attention to consumer endorsements because consumer endorsements are powerful and a significant opportunity for misdirection. Bottom line conspicuous disclaimers where applicable and substantiated claims (results of the endorser must set reasonable expectations) are required.

Fourth, expert endorsements by individuals or organizations require special care:

1. The endorser must have the expertise with respect to the endorsement;
2. The expert endorser must have credibly evaluated the product and the findings must be consistent with the endorsement (e.g. when claiming superiority).

Finally, when there is a connection between endorser and seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight and credibility of the endorsement, such connection must be fully disclosed.

The blogosphere has been uproarious in its critique of the guide requirements, so in closing I note instances where the guidelines do not apply:

1. Employees posting on a company website or blog;
2. Bloggers who post personal opinions without remuneration or connection;
3. Person’s using a clearly demarcated company sponsored Twitter account;
4. Posts to any social network site Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn where the post is associated clearly with a company’s attempt to self-promote.

In the end, the guidelines serve to clarify allowed and disallowed activity and, regardless of where you come down on their efficacy, are intended to promote forthrightness in company promotion to the consuming public. I for one commend the FTC for their attempt.

Hayden Creque, VP and General Counsel, W3i Holdings, LLC
Hayden counsels W3i on intellectual property, Internet law, privacy, and employment law issues. W3i strives to meet or exceed industry best practices. To learn more, click here.

It is always great when you can talk to Internet marketers face-to-face and learn some of their insights first hand.  I attended ad:tech San Francisco this week,  meeting with a handful of top marketers in charge of various types of Windows applications.

Their Windows applications include:  a cutting edge Outlook plug-in, security applications primarily geared for consumer use, various types of utility applications for helping users to get their PC to operate at the best possible level, and a top video player application. Each of the marketers talked to me about their various marketing campaigns, and all of them stressed how important it is to meet ROI goals, especially in light of the current economic condition.

• Paid search is working for many… The marketer from the cutting edge Outlook plug-in stated that since their app is so new to the world, most users haven’t discovered a need for the product category yet and, therefore, there isn’t much search traffic available to market this new application.
• Radio is not worth it… The marketer at the utility application company stated that if he had to do it all over again, he would have never invested into getting a radio advertising campaign off the ground. He said measuring the ROI has proven challenging, and way too much effort for what he gets out of it.
• Co-promotion has some legs… The security application company was working to white label their technology to a handful of very large security companies to ramp up their growth.
• Social marketing is helpful, but too unpredictable… The utility application company has a Windows application with a social marketing strategy, and was in the process of winding down the product because it never got any traction. The cutting edge Outlook plug-in company was quite pleased with the social traction he was getting, but wanted to ramp up faster, and in a more controlled manner. Even successful social marketing campaigns need a spark to light the fire.
• Bundling works… All four of the marketers at these Windows application companies stated that bundling was an area they were going to invest more energy and budget into because the ROI was very measurable and the volume of distribution was very meaningful.

If you have a Windows application, and haven’t figured out how to generate a meaningful ROI by participating in bundling, we should talk.  Contact W3i to learn more. 

About the Author:
Rob Weber is the VP of Business Development and Co-Founder of W3i Holdings.  Rob has over nine years experience developing innovative ways to increase revenue and distribution for Windows applications.

Attending the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco last week, I was able to pick up on the Web 2.0 buzz.  Web 2.0 is a conference that centers on opportunities created by Web 2.0 technologies.  Big names in the industry were there:  Facebook, eBay, Google, Amazon and a vast number of startups, as well.  Through walking the show floor and attending a variety of educational seminars, I picked up on quite a few hot topics currently buzzing through the industry.  There were three that stood out for me in particular because of their implication on the future of the web and impact to users:  crowd-sourcing content, social objects and interest measurement.

Crowd-sourced content is not a new idea, but is one that is being perfected by the likes of Threadless.com and Etsy.com.  In this community model, users are in full control of the content that is available on a site.  What’s interesting is how these companies built a passionate community; they did so by adopting a bottom-up notion of brand-building – this involves little control of the brand itself.  The users are in full control; submitting, voting on and consuming their content with little brand interaction.  By effectively running a crowd-sourced site and truly allowing the users to have control, a passionate, vibrant community can be formed.

Social objects are the concepts that bind a social network.  For a social network to be successful, it first has to be useful.  Without the correct social object to bind the network, users will not coalesce into a stable community.  Take, for example, LinkedIn — for a time, the central object on LinkedIn was the user’s connections.  This wasn’t particularly useful as it didn’t serve the true purpose of the site, which was to create a community centered on the user’s job.  LinkedIn realized this and made changes to their site that focused on the job rather than the connections.   When a social networking site is built, it’s important to understand its social object and how users interact with it.

Interest measurement is based on the idea that it is important to find what is most interesting to users.  Recommender systems look at explicit and implicit user data to find commonalities in neighborhoods of users to show content that a user might like.  But a question remains: how do you know what is highly interesting within a network?  The answer is straightforward:  by using a Page-Rank-like algorithm and applying it to, say, Twitter, value is given to content that is shared with the network.  The more the content is proliferated through the network, the higher the interest score that content gets.  Using this data could have broad implications as one could create a Digg-like site that would automatically sort stories based on user interest with no manual digging required.

Overall, the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco was a great place to meet people, learn about new products and pick up on the Web 2.0 buzz.  I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to achieve these things.  The web was built by the people and should continue to serve the people in exciting and innovative ways as we move forward.  There are many ways that the web is growing and maturing.  But even by looking at the Web 2.0 topics I mentioned: perfecting social networks through use of social objects and crowd-sourced content and providing more insight into what is users truly find interesting, the web should become an even more personal and compelling place.  And that’s what the Web 2.0 Expo buzz was all about. 

Eric Montag, Product Manager, W3i Holdings, LLC
Eric uses his experience in graphic design, mobile, and internet marketing to lead the charge in product research, planning, and execution, from both a consumer and business standpoint.

For years, as part of my job, I’ve scoured the web for innovative browser and Windows software applications.  In the spirit of the Final Four tournament, I broke down the apps that make up my Elite 8 for innovation and let them battle it out for the one I crown as national champ.

The Final Four (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/tournament/bracket) plays out this Saturday in Detroit with Michigan State facing off against Connecticut and Villanova facing off against North Carolina in this year’s semifinals.  The finalists will be played on Monday for the national championship.

I was compelled to take this opportunity to respond to a common question I receive.  What browser and desktop software applications do I find interesting?

W3i is a leading provider of distribution, revenue generation, and user engagement solutions utilized for more than 200 million downloads by a wide range of browser and desktop software publishers.  It is my job to understand browser and desktop software trends.  I am also an enthusiast who believes software done right creates a compelling user experience that web-sites alone cannot compete with.

I will begin with an overview of the apps which make up my Elite 8.  My only criteria was what I found to be the most interesting and innovative apps.  These are not necessarily my most often used nor the most complex applications.  The apps include browser (toolbars or other add-ons) and Windows desktop software applications.

1. Xobni - http://www.xobni.com/- Xobni is an Outlook plug-in that has even captured Bill Gate’s (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr5zOxG7wbU) attention. I have found this application helpful in understanding the relationship I have with people I frequently exchange emails. Such as the fastest responder or the most frequent people I interact with. There are also various methods they use to organize your emails in a way that creates a new and valuable experience.



2. Digsby - http://www.digsby.com - Digsby is my preferred software interface for aggregating my many social networks, instant messengers, and email services.
3. Recipe Feeder - http://www.recipefeeder.com - My wife loves pasta but I have a particular taste for it. Using Recipe Feeder, I inputted my preferences within a few seconds. After a few minutes, Recipe Feeder scoured the web and found the recipes that met my criteria. I have taken an interest in pulling recipes, but as of yet haven’t mastered my own kitchen!



4. TurboSaver  by Upromise – http://www.upromise.com/partner/origin.do?partnerName=turbosaver&ax=turbosaver&cm_mmc=Other-_-Toolbar-_-Menu-_-toolbar – I have had a Upromise account for a few  years but found it a bit painful to always navigate back to their web-site when shopping online to look for opportunities to earn cash for my 5 year old nephew’s college fund.  Since they have released TurboSaver, a browser plug-in to help aid in your discovering participating merchants, I have found it much easier to purchase from their participating merchants.



5. Skype Phone Number Recognition – http://www.browserhighlighter.com/ – Dialing a phone number seems so old fashioned.  Why not leverage Skype’s browser plug-in to dial a phone number directly from a web-page?  Skype recognizes the phone numbers found on a web-page and allows you to easily click on them to dial.



6. Wakoopa - http://www.wakoopa.com – A desktop application which tracks your Windows and web software usage.  You will see an overview of the types of software you use, usage, reviews you have written, and can share this information with friends.
7. MashLogic - http://www.mashlogic.com  – A Firefox application which modifies the web-page to enable keywords matched on the web-page to source additional information retrieved from sources you configure.  The matching and speed are of high quality.  With the right information this tool can be quite handy.  I use it to save time when looking up information on other web-sites or companies.



8. Youlicit Search Enhancement - http://www.youlicit.com/download/ – Youlicit mines the social web to find out which web-sites are being recommended by real people.  The Firefox application highlights web-sites (see green highlights in below screenshot) which Youlicit has found to be recommended as well it provides additional recommendations on the right side of the search results.

The Most Innovative Apps Tournament Bracket

And the National Champion is… Xobni!

These are all very innovative apps.  So what’s so special about Xobni?  Besides being a really cool application, it stands out because I love seeing something interesting in what otherwise tends to be a boring application experience with my basic business applications.  We all spend so much time on the desktop and so providers like Xobni deserve a lot of credit.

Looking to step up your game with downloads?  Check out our website to learn more about how we can help you improve distribution, revenue generation, and user engagement with your downloads.

Ryan Weber, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Co-Founder, W3i Holdings, LLC
Entrepreneur and pioneer of Internet marketing focusing on increasing revenue and distribution for digital downloads.

St. Cloud, MN, March 19, 2009 – Young Sohn, Chairman of W3i’s Board of Governors and President and CEO of Inphi Corporation, a private Analog semiconductor company, will be a panelist at GSA Emerging Opportunities Luncheon on April 7, 2009. The panel will be discussing, “Driving Semiconductor Development-Opportunities in Communications and Computing.”

The GSA Emerging Opportunities Expo & Conference brings together suppliers and semiconductor professionals in an effort to advance and cultivate global business partnerships. The panel will discuss how communications and next-generation computing (cloud computing, etc.) will provide new opportunities in emerging applications that will drive the future of semiconductor development and product delivery.

“Young Sohn’s advice and perspective are crucial to the success of W3i.” comments Andy Johnson, CEO of W3i, providing revenue and distribution generation for software marketers. “His insight will be as beneficial to those attending the GSA Conference as it is to W3i.”

About W3i:

W3i increases revenue for downloadable software, applications and digital content by providing a receptive consumer base for customized, targeted download distribution. W3i uses a network approach combining the demand for free and trial software supported by the distribution of value-added software when the consumer is in the download mindset. W3i’s Download Network uses Install IQ, W3i’s proprietary Windows installer, the first installer to be certified in the TRUSTeTrusted Download Program. Tested and optimized on over 200 million installs–currently 4.2 million installs monthly, W3i will prove to be a valued partner in growing your download business. To learn more, visit W3i’s Download Network.

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