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.  

The media buzz is focusing on mobile app marketing, but marketers would be greatly amiss if they overlook marketing with desktop apps and browser apps. 

The Internet already reaches 74% of the US population or 227.7 million people.  At this point, estimated reach for smartphones is 17% of the US population or 40 million people.   Desktop and browser apps already have mainstream adoption as a way for consumers to engage directly with brands.

The power of mobile and desktop application marketing.  Forbes.com Killer Apps:  Best Branded Mobile Applications lists the best branded mobile apps.  Number 1 is Pizza Hut launched in July, 2009 with over 1 million downloads, reporting sales of over $1 million.  (Other branded apps in the list include:  Charmin Sit or Squat (find bathroom facilities), DirecTV Program Info (set your DVR recordings), Purina Petcentric (need-to-know pet places), and US Open (news and up dates)).  Many of these are “location apps” but consider all the Pizza Hut devotees working on their desktops at lunch or dinner with a desktop app reminding them that their Pizza Hut favorites are only a click away.  As with Papa John’s MyPapa Widget, the desktop becomes a reminder. 

The power of desktop application marketing.  Last.fm states that “our desktop strategy was key to our crazy growth.”  Last.fm’s success was due to their ability to combine the ideal feedback loop for crowd-sourced music recommendations—the fuel coming from the desktop.  Picaboo, a stunning photo book creator, has also put excitement back into the desktop.

The power of browser application marketing.  Yapta’s browser app allows you to select flights to track from airline websites.   Through their system, Yapta has conducted approximately 500 million airfare price checks, revealing that seat prices on 45% of flights will drop before the cabin door closes. Approximately 15% of these flights are eligible for a refund or credit, net of airline re-booking fees. Since May 2007, Yapta has identified over $250 million in savings for its members, an average of $334 per traveler each year.

Whether your engagement tactic is desktop, browser, or mobile application marketing, make sure to provide users with quality content and your marketing dollars will be well spent.  W3i provides performance-based distribution for consumer applications—now averaging 9.6 million apps distributed each month.

Has consumer application marketing worked for your company?  Share your story as a comment.    

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

As 2009 comes to a close, 2010 will usher in some fantastic changes for applications.  I am making three application predictions for next year, showing the application landscape’s constant shift and change to meet new user and market demands:

1. The Rise of Social Security Apps
   As phishing, worms and viruses become more prevalent on social networks (see: Koobface and Mikeyy); I predict in 2010, we will see a rise of applications and browser add-ons dedicated to improve security on social networks.  These apps will function as scouts, preemptively warning users to impending dangers, such as worms that intend to gather sensitive information available on your social network profile.  The need for these types of apps is clear and would provide a great protective benefit to consumers.
2. Location finds its way to Desktop Apps
   There are many great social location-based services gaining momentum with users as of lately:  Gowalla, Foursquare, and Loopt are just a few.  Yes, these services are generally best rendered on a mobile device.  But I predict, in 2010, that many of these services will create auxiliary desktop apps.  Presence on the desktop would offer an enhanced user experience: persistent views into location of friends, trip planning/scheduling, landmark information and media, local event information, management of digital collectibles, and account management options.
3. Application Indexing Improves
   I’ve written previously about how application indexes should improve.  These services, such as Wakoopa, catalog desktop applications and their related usage data. I predict these services will improve greatly in 2010.  Currently, their user base skews heavily towards the tech-savvy audience.  To truly index the world of applications, these services need to gain acceptance from all demographics and I predict they will crack this nut next year.  These services will then grow in popularity on a scale comparable to mobile app stores, such as Apple’s App Store and Google Android’s Market.

So there you have it; three application predictions for 2010.  But surely there’s more than just this.  What predictions do you have for the application landscape next year?  Be bold and leave your predictions in the comments!

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 attended my first Add-On-Con conference on December 11^th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.  I was very excited to attend the event, which my company W3i sponsored, as I felt the stage was set for an epic battle between the browsers over who was the best application platform.  The winner of this battle in my mind could very well be the dominant application platform for all applications for the next decade.  History I felt was unfolding before my own eyes.

I will recap the Add-On-Con conference by breaking down the buzz surrounding browsers, add-on business models, and add-on distribution channels in three postings starting with browser buzz.

Browsers

Google Chrome technically has leaped ahead of competition

• Developers I came into contact with generally agreed that Google Chrome’s support for add-ons is technically superior when considering both user and developer ease of use.
  • Chrome is more gracefully handling resource management when many add-ons are installed on the same browser.
  • Security is improved with Chrome so that users can better understand what is being required by an add-on and more easily manage.  This also supports a lower burden for developers as they do not have to wait to be reviewed by Google in most cases to be listed in their gallery.
  • Users can install, and begin using add-ons, without needing to restart the browser.
  • Development is faster and easier.

Side note:  Google is betting on web-based applications, over native applications, for mobile and desktop devices (read more).  They believe that the web has won and that the browser will become the platform that matters and is hence where they are investing most heavily.

On December 8^th, Google released Google Chrome Extensions support with their latest version of Google Chrome.  This release was the first in which users were able to install browser add-ons which included providing access from their gallery.

• Mozilla’s Jetpack project for Firefox, targeted to release May/June 2010 as part of Firefox 3.7, appears to address the last three points above.
  • Jetpack creates a sandbox which limits access to the browser for add-ons and then allows access to the add-on depending on the access required as declared in an add-on’s manifest  (similar to what Chrome is doing).
    • This improved security is similar to how Chrome manages it.  Firefox plans to still review new add-ons before listing them in AOM (http://addons.mozilla.org is Firefox’s add-on gallery) but the review process will be greatly reduced due to a more efficient process.   The review process might be under a day in fact
  • Jetpack will merge with current Firefox add-on supported technology for a single solution to users in 2010.  That is, there will be a single gallery of add-ons for users with no distinction made from those existing to those that are built using Jetpack
  • Jetpack allows users to install add-ons without requiring a browser restart
  • Jetpack supports an improved ease to develop add-ons by allowing developers to use web development technologies instead of using XUL which is required today.
  • Their goal is for Jetpack to be the main method for add-ons by version 4.0 which has a target release of October/November 2010.
• Microsoft is generally regarded as being in a distant third with regards to technical support for add-ons.

Role of the browser

• Mozilla vs. everyone else
  • Mozilla’s priority is to focus on users rather than focus on commercial interests.
    • Mozilla is not looking to adopt practices just because they are commercially successful for Apple’s iPhone App Store.  Apple as a company is viewed as having a commercial focus compared to Mozilla which has a user focus. 
    • One example that manifests this is that Mozilla will not be supporting DRM (digital rights management) for their marketplace at launch.  This may present challenges for developers who wish to succeed with charging for their apps when there won’t be an effective solution for protecting their software from users that choose not to purchase.

Ultimately, a commercial success enables an ecosystem which promotes the development of great applications.  All of the browser providers, I believe, get this.  The only difference is how quickly they adopt new commercial methods.  I view Mozilla as being slower to adopt when compared to Microsoft or Google.  This may cost them speed to market but may also keep them from making mistakes regarding satisfying users.

Add-ons today

• Firefox released the following figures:
  • 1 in 3 Firefox users have at least one add-on installed
  • 1.7B cumulative installs to date
  • 14,526 add-ons, listed in AMO, as of December 11^t
    • 5,697 added this yea
  • 190M add-ons in us
• Add-ons must get reviewed to be in AMO
  • New add-ons are currently reviewed in under two weeks
  • Updates are averaging less than a week
• Developers are struggling to maintain cross-browser support
  • IE, Chrome, and Firefox are generally viewed as important where as a panel of developers viewed Safari as not worth the hassle.
  • One solution suggested by the panel was to consider building your add-on on top of a framework so that you do not have to deal with the complexities of each browser.  An example of a framework is 3quency, a W3i product, which allows developers to build sophisticated custom toolbars using a single code-base without having to worry about updates or compatibility with various browsers.

The future of add-ons

• A panel comprised of browser providers (Chrome, Opera, and Mozilla) discussed that a decentralized mobile web will rule (eventually) and that this will lead to the mobile web (including mobile add-ons) surpassing native device apps as the dominant platform for application developers. 
• The panel agreed that they all wanted to support increasing the capabilities of the browser so that there are fewer and fewer trade-offs when building applications for the browser compared to building them specifically to any native device.

Stay-tuned for additional postings on Add-on Business Models and Add-on Distribution Channels.

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

As I was reading about the growing use of social media as a device for content discovery, a couple things became clear to me.  First, the article mentions social media as the next great gateway for users to discover stuff that is meaningful to them.  I agree.  Social media is a great vehicle to find information and content from people you trust.  But recent news of Twitter’s stalling growth, Facebook flattening and MySpace’s descent into a ghost town (ok, not so recent news there) lead me to believe that social media will not displace conventional means of content discovery, such as search, information portals, etc.  So let’s face it, discovery will continue to pervade multiple channels.  It also became clear that most of these discovery gateways are reactive, involving users seeking out said content.  In the long run, that’s not enough.  In order to maximize discovery, especially in regards to application discovery, one needs to employ a multi-pronged approach: one that is both proactive and reactive. 

First, let’s talk about reactive methods.  Enabling reactive methods of application discovery can be time-consuming and produce results slowly especially if you are just getting started (sure, there are rare exceptions to this rule).  For a publisher, it usually involves methods, like SEO, that are set to invite users to discover whatever their content may be, such as a new app.  Even social methods require users to find you and subsequently follow you, which is indeed a passive step that must be achieved before a social conversation can start.  It’s sort of like standing patiently at a mixer, waiting for people to just come up and chat with you because you look cool.  While that might produce some results, the best way for those to discover you is to get out, introduce yourself, and bump a few fists.

So let’s talk about proactive discovery.  An app with a great user experience, solving user problems without an active user base is worthless.  Publishers need to take a multi-pronged approach to improve discovery in order to build an engaged user base.  This includes standard reactive discovery gateways such as search and social, but also proactive methods that get your app in front of actual users saying “hello, nice to meet you”.  It dawned on me that W3i’s InstallIQ intuitively fit as a distinct proactive method to virtually shake hands (or fist bump) with users.  InstallIQ engages users on the install of an application; meaning that you have users’ undivided attention and have taken control over your discoverability destiny.  This proactive method is as equally important as reactive methods, but is one that is often lacking from marketing plans.   Proactive application discovery has less up-front investment (much like going up to someone and simply introducing yourself – no need to cultivate and hone your meta data for someone to spot you) and produces quicker results (hey, some of those people will introduce themselves back!).  The numbers don’t lie.  Within 8 months of launch, W3i’s InstallIQ helped a weather widget install a staggering 1.5 million apps.  Within 6 months of launch, a shopping widget gained an active audience of 3 million users via InstallIQ.  A proactive approach to application discovery can produce great results.

W3i offers a chance to proactively engage users and increase awareness, therefore, leaping over the difficult discoverability hurdle.  So how has your application discovery destiny played out?  Have you taken control of it?  How has it worked thus far?  Let your voice be heard in the comments.

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. 

As a product manager, when doing market research, I always come across interesting articles, blogs, and other media that are worth sharing with others. What I want to do today is share three of my favorite YouTube videos that really made me think critically about how to build application experiences that users love. So sit back, grab some popcorn, and soak in the shared knowledge.

1. Understand your users
   Google set out to understand how many people knew what a browser was. If this video teaches you anything, it’s that if you are involved in this space, you probably know much more than the majority of your users. Building a connection with your users might mean you have to break down barriers. Understand them and speak in their terms. The result is a pretty fun video that shows the barriers Google has in place when trying to increase adoption rate of Chrome:
2. Embrace social; it’s huge and it’s important
   No way around it, social media is huge and is no fad.  Watch this video to grasp its enormity.  Then, brainstorm how to build social media and features into your applications and marketing plan.
3. Obsess over customers, invent, and think long term
   Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of e-commerce site, Amazon, describes what he’s learned over the years about providing a great service.  All of the items that Jeff reviews can be applied easily to building a great application that users love:

If anyone has favorite videos that speak to anything remotely related to the Windows application marketplace, feel free to share in the comments!

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.

Are you concerned that no one will notice your app?  There are now hundreds of thousands of apps available with a varying selection, accessible on almost any platform, whether it is mobile, web, or the desktop.  Is it possible for an app developer to build a sustainable business? 

Popular opinion suggest that you are not alone if you share these concerns:
Apple App Store: Overpopulated with Apps Nobody Uses – Mashable
The iPhone Success Stories That Are Fueling Copycats – mocoNews
Facebook Grew To 33,000 Apps And 400,000 Registered Developers Within 14 Months – Wikipedia

Our company, W3i, was founded by developing desktop apps to meet the demands of users.  Today, W3i is helping other developers distribute and generate revenue with their own desktop apps.  W3i installs more than 7 million desktop apps monthly and has distributed over 250M installs to date.

To help you succeed, I wanted to share with you a few suggestions: first, research the market and consider your resources; second, review and assess marketing options; and third, document and implement a marketing plan.

First:  Research the Market and Consider Your Resources

• Market Research
  • Market Focused: Before you build your app, research to see how much demand there is, as well as how competitive advertising inventory is.A few tools to consider:
    • Google Trends for keyword trends
    • Google AdWords: Keyword Tool for advertiser competition and keyword discovery.
    • Top 25 iPhone Apps
    • AppData.com for Facebook app and developer leaderboard
    • Wakoopa for the most popular Windows and web app
       
• Budget and Business Model Consideration
  • How much money can you afford to spend on marketing?
  • Have you explored business models to make money so that you can offset most of your user acquisition costs while you develop your primary business model(s)? You could even profit from the user acquisitions via paid promotions for your app if you have done a solid enough job with market research.Consider the following supplementary business models:
    • Windows
      • W3i’s Application Network – Get paid for the Windows application installations you distribute, which include software recommendations powered by W3i in your installer
    • Mobile
      • Google AdSense for Mobile Apps – Not just your typical text ads. Google now offers graphical ad units specifically optimized for mobile apps.
      • Greystripe – Recently, they launched a guaranteed CPM program because they were confident they could out pay their competition.
    • Facebook
      • Virtual Currency – Sell favor points leveraging Paypal or Zong or allow your users to earn them through taking offer-based advertising from Offerpal or SuperRewards.

Second: Review & Assess Marketing Options

• Consider alternative advertising distribution mechanisms
  • Windows
    • W3i’s Application Network – Access to 7M+ monthly installs. Pay only for completed installs. Target your desktop app using the user’s product interests, geography, required software, and more.
    • Upload.com’s Pay Per Download – A site for desktop app developers to submit downloads and purchase advertising for CNET’s Download.com. Pay for initiated downloads with their Pay Per Download program. Download.com generates 3M downloads per day according to a sales sheet they published as of May 2008. Because of the large number of apps competing on Download.com, you may find achieving significant scale to be challenging despite the high volume of completed downloads by users.
  • Widgets
    • Gigya – Syndicates your widget across the web.
    • ClearSpring – Syndicates your widget across the web including 50+ destinations.
    • W3i – Syndicate your widget to the millions of toolbars distributed by W3i.
  • Facebook
    • RockYou – Advertise your Facebook app within other Facebook apps.
  • Mobile
    • AdMob – Similar to RockYou, only you will be advertising your mobile app within other mobile apps. AdMob refers to this as the iPhone Download Exchange.
       
• Leverage social media to acquire users without advertising costs
  • Create a video demo for your product
    • Publish on YouTube

      • W3i put up demos of screensaver applications and within a short period of time has now generated 88,064 viewings throughYouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/ScreensaverCom

  • Create social networking accounts for your product
    • Allow your fans to help spread the word about your app and stay connected to the latest developments.
      • W3i created a Facebook account for its Screensaver.com applications and within a short time has 556 fans. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Screensavercom/56705948398
        
    • W3i created a Twitter account for its Screensaver.com apps and within a short time has 154 followers. http://twitter.com/screensavercom
      • Post comments at popular media outlets and include links to your app so that people interested in topics relating to your app are aware that it is available. This may also benefit your link popularity boosting your search engine rankings.

Third: Document & Implement a Marketing Plan

• Questions To Consider Answering In Your Marketing Plan
  • What is my positioning to users?
  • Who are my competitors? What makes them unique and valuable?
  • What are the top market segments that would be interested in my app?
  • What marketing strategies/tactics will I focus on for distribution?
  • How will I measure the success of my application?
  • What goals do I have for my application? What goals do I have with each of my marketing strategies or tactics?
• Implement The Marketing Plan
  • Prioritize based on the risk and reward.
  • Measure each strategy and tactic and change course as needed based on the best available facts.

I realize that distribution is a struggle for app developers and requires careful attention if one is to avoid the fate of so many quality apps that never get noticed or that are unable to generate sufficient funds to continue development.

W3i was founded in a dorm room; self-funded with no venture capital funding until after we succeeded with massive distribution many years later.

W3i has been continuously focusing on creating and distributing apps, using principles similar to those described in this post, allowing us to grow to the scale we are today.  Now we are committed to helping other app developers find similar success, and hope you consider W3i for any of your app distribution, revenue, or user engagement needs. To learn more, contact W3i.

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

Application discovery is a big problem.  While search engines index the entirety of the web, making it fairly easy to find content most relevant to my search query, trying to discover applications that meet my needs is a bit more difficult.  Where search engines utilize complex algorithms (see Google Page Rank) to determine importance of a page, searching through application indexes yield results that seem to be based on less sophisticated algorithms.  Seeing as applications are, arguably, more complex than a web page, the discovery process should be more robust.  Here are three ways that I think these indexes can improve application discoverability:

1. Download count isn’t the only thing that matters: If there’s one common bond between app indexes on the web, it’s that download count (or user count) seems to have the greatest influence on the results rank. Ok, I get it; more users must mean it’s a better application, right? Sure, fair indicator, but it’s not the only thing that matters. Give me more ways to sort the results. How about the ability of the app to solve a user’s problem? How important is an app to a user? App indexes need to figure this out. Implied data is good, explicit data is better. Look at usage, user life, reviews/ranks. All of this information matters when showing me relevant quality results.
2. Index Features: What if I’m looking for a particular feature in an application? Right now I am limited to two behaviors: One, download the app, see if it has the feature(s) I’m looking for, and uninstall if it doesn’t. Rinse and repeat. Two, navigate out of the index to the app site, try to find a feature list and make a decision from there. Features need to be clearly identified and meticulously indexed so my decision making process can be streamlined. Think of application indexes being a “decision engine”, just like Bing.
3. Eliminate the Techie Skew: Two of the main app indexes out there (Wakoopa and Software.Informer) require a user to install an application that indexes and then tracks your applications and their usage. But, let’s face it, the users that download these apps are skewed as techie users. While I consider myself a techie, I know there are other app user personas out there and that relevancy can only be improved by ensuring all apps get a fair representation from all constituents. These indexing services need mass appeal to provide a service that truly encompasses the world of apps.

App indexes are moving in the right direction towards solving the problem of application discovery.  I visit these sites regularly because it’s amazing to see what the thriving world of apps looks like when it’s indexed.   There is room for improvement, however.  Indexes like these should, and undoubtedly will, become better at enabling users to discover what apps will best solve their problems.  And don’t get me wrong, it’s no easy task; indexing applications and their related attributes is not like indexing web pages.  It’s not like you can pull a standardized feature set right out of an app; much of this information is crowd-sourced.  But it must improve; the discovery process needs to be more relevant, higher quality and more streamlined.  There needs to be a “killer app” of app indexes.

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. 

About W3i
If you need help with increasing distribution, revenue, or engagement for your Windows applications, contact us.  W3i has over nine years experience with over 250 million installations. App marketers join W3i’s Application Network to grow their application companies.

Applications are an effective vehicle for keeping users connected to your content and re-enforcing your brand message.  Through your branded application, you increase repeat users that are more profitable than new users because there is minimal cost of acquisition.  Here are several things to consider for improving your apps effectiveness:

1. What is your objective?
   • Increase frequency of brand/content with existing users
   • Expand your reach to new users
   • Generate revenue
     • W3i’s Application Network helps Windows application providers generate revenue from the distribution of their applications.
2. How will you distribute?
   • Through your web-site, newsletter, or blog
   • As a recommendation with other software you distribute
   • Through paid advertisements
     • W3i’s Application Network provides Windows application advertisers with access to millions of installations every month. Target to users based on their technical profile, application interests, geography, and more.
3. Why should I create one now?
   • Stay top of mind with your fans
     • Do you feel that there is no need to be in the browser? Consider the impact of not acting. Your users are more accessible to content from competitors than from you.
4. How can I create a killer app?
   • Create convenience
     • What content do you have that your users would value accessing on a routine basis?
     • Don’t limit yourself to your own content. Consider what other content you might be able to syndicate to improve your relevancy. If you outsource the creation of your browser plug-in, ask the third party what content they have available.
     • Let your users customize your app to suit their needs
     • Consider whether creating different configurations for different segments is appropriate so that users can download what is most relevant from the start 
   • Fully leverage technical capabilities.
     • Would your app benefit from other desktop applications or the operating system?
       • Convenient access to relevant files
         • Encouraging users to share their local files with others on the web
         • Easier uploading of files to your service
         • Understanding the technical profile to filter content which is most appropriate
     • Would your content benefit from web browser features?
       • Detecting when the user visits a particular web-site to deliver an important message
         • Need to clearly disclose the functionality of your app and provide an easily understood value proposition
       • Enhancing the browser chrome
         • Display important information in real-time through the chrome
         • Toolbars are common, but there are other shortcuts and integration possibilities dependent on the browser your app is developed for 
   • Build Or Outsource
     • Is this core to your business?
     • What are your essential (urgent) features versus important (desirable) features?
     • Will you have resources to build and maintain your app internally?
       • Have you considered how you will manage upgrading the application?
       • Have you factored in maintenance for browser or operating system updates?
     • For most companies, when these factors are considered outsourcing is more cost-effective. Some technology providers, like W3i, will even pay you for creating and distributing your app using their platform.

 Contact W3i if you would like to learn more about engaging your user with a killer app, expanding your distribution, or generating revenue with a browser plug-in.

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

W3i’s Download Network featuring Install IQ is a Finalist in Most Innovative Service/Business Model category.

St. Cloud, Minnesota – June 2, 2009 – W3i, LLC, provider of marketing solutions that increase revenue, distribution, and engagement for Windows applications and plug-ins, was named a Finalist today in the Most Innovative Service/Business Model category for the 2009 Comp TIA SoftwareCEO Software Innovation Awards.

The finalist designation was presented for W3i’s Download Network, a leading consumer software platform. Using a network approach, W3i’s Download Network pays partners to generate traffic, installs interactive consumer applications, and delivers active users to W3i’s clients.

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is the leading trade association for the world’s information technology (IT) industry. The SoftwareCEO Software Innovation Awards recognize innovative software products and new business models in eight different categories. Award winners will be announced at the CompTIA special online award ceremony on June 18, 2009.

SoftwareCEO Software Innovation Awards finalists by category are judged for:

Scope – What business problem or opportunity does the software innovation address? What is the size of the problem/opportunity?

Impact – What practical results, such as sales, users or profits, has the innovation had on a software product or on the software industry? The innovation must be new and have both a current and future impact.

Novel – How does the innovation break with traditional ideas or processes?

“W3i is honored to become a Finalist especially in the area of innovation. We know W3i’s Download Network can be a key distribution and monetization strategy for publishers and advertisers of Windows and browser applications. To date, we have installed over 250 million applications, and we are just getting started,” comments Andy Johnson, CEO of W3i. “Congratulations to the W3i team for becoming a finalist in the 2009 SoftwareCEO Software Innovation Awards.”

Entries are judged by a select panel of industry experts, including analysts, consultants, writers and trade press, and subject-matter experts. A list of the esteemed panel can be found here: http://www.softwareceo.com/leadership/awards_judging.aspx.

Details about the 2009 SoftwareCEO Software Innovation Awards and the list of Finalists in all categories are available at http://www.softwareceo.com/leadership/2009/awards_finalists.aspx.

“Software innovation is more than just ideas; it’s the ability to develop those ideas and make them work in the market,” said Mark Fogle, publisher of SoftwareCEO. “The annual SoftwareCEO Innovation Awards recognize products, ideas and business models that break with conventional software ideas and processes to introduce product offerings and business models that are key to our industry’s future growth and vitality.

About W3i:
W3i increases revenue, distribution and engagement for Windows applications and plug-ins. W3i uses a network approach combining the demand for free and trial downloads monetized by the distribution of useful downloads 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 TRUSTe Trusted Download Program. Tested and optimized on over 250 million installs–currently 7.1 million installs monthly and growing, W3i will prove to be a valued distribution partner in growing your application business. To learn more, visit W3i’s Download Network.

W3i Contact:
Deborah Manthei
Director of Marketing Communications
W3i
320-257-7571
deborah.manthei@W3i.com
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About SoftwareCEO.com
SoftwareCEO is a resource-packed electronic newsletter and web portal built by software executives for software executives. It is Page One for software industry information and education on topics such as software marketing, sales, business, financing, and services. For more information, visit http://www.softwareceo.com/.

About CompTIA
CompTIA is the voice of the world’s information technology (IT) industry. Its members are the companies at the forefront of innovation; and the professionals responsible for maximizing the benefits organizations receive from their investments in technology. CompTIA is dedicated to advancing industry growth through its educational programs, market research, networking events, professional certifications, and public policy advocacy. For more information, please visit www.comptia.org.

CompTIA Contact:
Steven Ostrowski
Director, Corporate Communications
CompTIA
Phone: 630-678-8468
Email: sostrowski@comptia.org