Mobile Entertainment Magazine

Apps were high on the agenda at the MEM conference in London today, with several panel sessions focusing on the apps ecosystem.

The second apps panel of the day included Kunal Gupta, CEO of Polar Mobile; Patrick Mork, VP of marketing at GetJar; Andrew Fisher, CEO of Shazam; Javier Lorente, global project manager in Telefonica Europe's mobile data group; and Lee Epting, content services director at Vodafone.

The focus: how to make your mobile app a success. Although unfortunately, with no presence from Apple or Google, some of the most pertinent issues around that question were not able to be addressed as directly as developers

would like.

The discussion kicked off with the discovery issue: how can apps be found when there are hundreds of thousands jostling for attention?

Epting talked about Vodafone's strategy, saying its two areas of focus are recommendations - using technology from Qualcomm subsidiary Xiam - and its marketing promotions programme.

"Today we're seeing that recommendations drive four times more purchase behaviour than pure promotion," she said. However, Vodafone has launched more than 300 promotional campaigns with its content partners since launching its Vodafone 360 service, so it's not ditching one for the other.

Mork addressed the same question from GetJar's perspective, admitting that discovery is a big challenge. "It's a fallacy in the industry that bigger is better," he said. "We don't really think that's the case."

GetJar uses its pay-per-download system to allow developers to bid for premium placement on its portal, then pay for every download that's

generated.

"The problem with app store fragmentation, when you have more platforms and more stores, how on earth do you communicate that to consumers?" he said. "If Sky has a 30-second ad, do you think they're going to spend 15 seconds of that commercial explaining the 11 or 12 different app stores? That's unrealistic."

GetJar has a technology for this too: it lets app developers maintain one URL for all versions of their app on the GetJar site.

Fisher chimed in at this point, saying that the app landscape is becoming more marketing-led, which means app developers need to understand their users much more.

Epting, meanwhile, suggested that Vodafone is seeing the apps world shift from an a la carte model to subscriptions, bundles and all-you-can-eat models. "It's a whole new way for monetisation," she said.

Fisher talked about Shazam's advice for other developers on which platforms to support. "You have to make the decision yourself," he said. "There's a lot of data out there that you can get hold of to inform that decision... It's not just about building an app any longer. It's about planning and thinking through how to use your limited resources."

Polar Mobile's Gupta said that one problem in the apps market is wasted marketing: he uses a BlackBerry, so any brand or company promoting their iPhone app to him is wasting their money unless they also have a BlackBerry version.

Finally, the panel considered billing and pricing models. Mork pointed to the fact that there are still a lot of prepay users in the world. "Many consumers will never pay for content," he says. "That's just undeniable."

But he pointed to companies like Shazam as examples where a free app download can make plenty of money through ads, or in-app payments, or upselling to premium versions.

"It doesn't mean that premium content is not going to have a role in the market, as it will," he says. "But as Android has shown, billing is a challenge. If you're going to do billing via Google Checkout, you're probably not going to make a lot of money for developers."

Epting said that Vodafone isn't in the business of making money from apps - it makes money from selling tariffs. And she said she relies on developers like Shazam to come up with innovative apps and business models.

"In the end, we're about selling tariff plans, and the way we're going to sell tariff plans and differentiate ourselves is by having the best content proposition on the high street or wherever... We don't necessarily have to drive towards revenue for all of that content."

Epting also said that current revenue splits in app stores - which tend to be 70-30 in favour of developers - may need to shift.

"We should maybe look at dropping the pants on those rev-share deals and giving it back to the developers to let them monetise it," she said.

Lorente said that marketing investment and promotion via direct deals with store owners will be important to developers too.

The panel were also asked for their predictions for the year ahead. Gupta predicted new creative business models for apps, while Mork suggested that brands and agencies will get more involved.

"They're starting to dip their toes into apps and really using mobile more aggressively," he said.

Fisher said that "in twelve months time, the carriers will be back at the table, at the head of the table, and at the opposite end of the table will be the handset manufacturers" - saying that preload deals will make a big comeback in terms of importance.

Lorente looked forward to the first fruits of the pan-operator WAC initiative, which Epting also said will be "meaningful within the year".

She also suggested that WAC will be important in getting more brands involved in mobile. And she also talked about the impact DRM may have beyond music for mobile content.

During the Q&A session afterwards, Epting admitted that Vodafone has not executed "flawlessly" with its 360 initiative thus far, but that as it continues to improve the offering, its scale will be "many multiples" that of iPhone's App Store.