[This has been a great year for the VisionMobile blog, with tens of great articles, as well as some amazing infographics and reports. As 2012 draws to a close, we’d like to do a roundup of our blog and present the top 10 articles. Hope you enjoy them!]
We’ve just published our latest report, the Telco Innovation Toolbox. You can download it for free at: https://www.visionmobile.com/product/telco-innovation-toolbox-report/
Telco Innovation Toolbox showcases 10 economic models on how Telcos can manage disruption and reinvent themselves. This report, produced in association with Ericsson, disseminates critical issues for Telcos, such as the OTT landscape and asymmetric business models, explaining how your company can make the right innovation investments and avoid costly mistakes.
[The explosive growth of app ecosystems is creating serious bottlenecks in app discovery that only popular apps can overcome. Having 700 thousand apps is great for platform vendors, but not so great for developers, whose apps are lost in the heap. Andreas Pappas takes a look at the app discovery problem and considers whether social discovery is a better solution than the alternatives available today]
This article is also published in our newly launched Developer Economics Portal – where you can find more solutions to the app discovery issue.
One of the greatest marketing challenges facing developers is being discovered, i.e. breaking through app store congestion and in front of user eyeballs. With Google Play and App Store now reporting over 700 thousand listed apps, browsing through these is ineffective, if at all possible. In fact, large app stores and the entire mobile application space are increasingly resembling the web when it comes to discovering content: it’s a jungle out there. Continue reading The changing landscape of app discovery
[Today in association with Ericsson we are publishing a discussion paper, the Telco Innovation Toolbox. The paper introduces novel economic thinking that is the result of over 2 years of research of ecosystem economics and telco disruption and is available for free download. The paper introduces ten economics and strategy frameworks that will help operators to accelerate their “digital” strategies, make the right innovation investments and avoid costly mistakes.]
The topic of telco disruption brought upon by over-the-top (OTT) players is high on telecom industry agenda. However few realize that telcos are being disrupted because the basis of competition in mobile has fundamentally changed. It has changed from “reliability and scale of networks” to “choice and flexibility of services”, driven by the transition from “mobile telephony” to “mobile computing”. The change is fundamental and irreversible. Continue reading Surviving Disruption: An Innovation Toolbox for Reinventing the Telco
[VisionMobile analyst Stijn Schuermans muses about the similarities between the app economy and other businesses like FMCGs and music. What can app makers learn from other industries and how can these lessons help developers monetising apps?]
In a recent post on our newly launched Developer Economics portal with facts and insights for app developers – build.developereconomics.com – colleague Mark Wilcox likened the app economy to a retail business:
In the early days of relatively empty app stores, simply launching a good product was often sufficient to get noticed and soar up the store charts. However, as with any fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business, the value within apps has shifted from the contents (the functionality) to the packaging (the user experience) and marketing. Continue reading Monetising apps: Lessons from the music industry
[Apple and Samsung are sucking the oxygen out of the room. What’s the recipe of their profits and why are all the other OEMs struggling? In this reiteration of April 2012’s Mobile Insider, VisionMobile analyst Stijn Schuermans gives insight into sustainability and profits in the handset market.]
The mobile handset market is in turmoil. Since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, OEMs have been rushing to jump on the smartphone bandwagon. Five years later, few have managed to do so profitably. Even if more companies are gaining a significant market share, only two seem to be making a profit out of it: Apple – the creator of the market in the first place – and Samsung, a fast follower. Attractive profit margins are elusive for most of their competitors. Some are toppling from their former glory (Nokia, RIM), while some newcomers seem to be gaining speed (ZTE, Huawei). But will they manage to become profitable? This article is based on an issue of Mobile Insider, a monthly publication by VisionMobile. that examines under-the-radar and forward-looking trends in mobile. Each issue focuses on a specific topic distilling the insights in an easy-to-digest 5-page format. Mobile Insider is part of Telco Economics, a range of strategy research and workshops that deliver a 360° view on the new economics of the mobile industry and changing role of telcos in the era of digital ecosystems. Continue reading The Apple and Samsung Profit Recipe
