October 2013 - SlashData Blog

Learning From Blackberry's Decline

After Blackberry announced disastrous Q2 results, news broke that Fairfax’s offer to take the company private had hit funding snags as pension funds were uninterested. This shouldn’t be particularly surprising, but it means that a break-up is now the most likely outcome for the embattled smartphone manufacturer. Let’s use Blackberry as a lens to see what we can learn about declining businesses.

This article, by Sameer Singh, was first published at Tech-Thoughts.

1. Companies cannot attack established ecosystems from behind

The easiest takeaway from Blackberry’s decline is that no single company can compete against an established ecosystem. Blackberry’s decline began once iOS and Android were firmly entrenched as leading mobile ecosystems. Blackberry failed to understand that creating a viable ecosystem around the BB10 operating system was extremely unlikely given the timelines. By the time BB10 was productized, iOS and Android already held dominating positions in the market and developers had no reason to look back. Continue reading Learning From Blackberry's Decline

Just published the new Developer Economics survey

We’re happy to announce the launch of the Developer Economics survey (running October 23 to November 22) – you can take the survey here.

Every respondent to this new survey gets one month of free crash reporting & app performance tracking (value of $19), courtesy of our friends at Bugsense. All respondents also enter a draw for an iPhone 5c, a Galaxy S4 and two Nokia Lumia 925s after the survey is completed. We also have extra prizes to people who subscribe to the panel (you can do that via the survey).

App trade: a global opportunity

As we launch our new Developer Economics survey [UPDATE: Survey now closed – results out Jan 2014], Senior Analyst Andreas Pappas quantifies the international dimension of the app economy to visualise app trade routes. With barriers to international expansion disappearing, today’s app economy knows no borders. But almost 50% of developers are not yet crossing those borders.

One of the things that make app development attractive to developers is the relatively low effort involved in selling apps across international borders, compared to other forms of international trade. The low barriers to selling apps internationally make app development attractive even in regions where smartphone penetration and app consumption has yet to reach a level that can effectively support local app development. This is the case in Asian countries with smartphone penetration below 20%, compared to over 50% in Western Europe. To some extent, app development is even more attractive in Asian regions, as labour and other costs are lower, compared to western app economies. Continue reading App trade: a global opportunity

VisionMobile at Swiss Mobicamp

VisionMobile Managing Director, Andreas Constantinou, presenting at Swiss Mobicamp:

– App Economy trends: developer sentiments, forecasts and motivations
As the leading authority on the app economy, Andreas Constantinou, will present Vision Mobile’s latest findings from the largest ever developer survey.

– Workshop #7 – Business model disruption: decoding the masterminds of Google and Amazon
How does Google monetize Android? How do Google’s 60+ services fit into the ambitions of the most successful advertising network?

Want to register? Don’t forget to use the “VisionMobile” code for a 15% discount – register here: www.mobicamp.ch/registration/

Infographic – Developer Economics Q3 2013 – State of the Developer Nation

As we’re about to launch the latest Developer Economics survey [UPDATE: we’ve launched the new survey – you can take it here!], we’d like to present you with an infographic with some key stats and figures from the latest, Q3 project, to whet your appetite. This infographic holds just a sample of the dozens of insights from the Developer Economics Q3 2013 report ([vm_form_download link_text=’full report available for free download’ product_id=’4062′]), tracking the state of mobile ecosystems, developer mindshare, monetisation trends, revenue models and developer tools.

Insights from this infographic:
– Android and iOS lead in terms of mindshare, HTML5 comes third: 71% of mobile developers use Android, 57% use iOS, 52% use HTML5
– Most developers go straight to the browser: The largest share (38%) of HTML5 developers develop mobile websites with another 23% developing mobile apps
– There are more iOS developers also using Android than vice-versa: 69% of iOS developers use Android, but just 40% of Android developers use iOS as their second choice, just ahead of HTML5 mobile (29%)
– iOS leads in average monthly revenues – but Android is closing the gap: At $5,200 per developer per month on average, iOS continues to be the most revenue-generating platform for developers, ahead of Android by a margin of 10%
– The global app economy was worth $ 53Bn in 2012, and expected to rise to $ 68Bn in 2013: The mobile segment corresponds to 12.6% of the global developer population. In other words, 1 in 8 software developers is involved in mobile development in 2013
– Creativity (53%) and the fun of building an app (40%) are the top motivators for developers

Can’t wait for more Developer Economics? Our new survey is just around the bend [UPADTE: new survey is live]- stay tuned and take the survey (if you’re a developer), or help spread the word (if you’re not)! For the moment, enjoy this great, new infographic!

How to win in mobile without making your own OS

The battle for app ecosystems is over – iOS and Android have won. However, this is not the end of the war for mobile users. VisionMobile’s Senior Business Analyst Stijn Schuermans and Strategy Director Michael Vakulenko discuss how leading ecosystem players like Amazon and Facebook are competing for users without building operating systems.

The mobile industry is buzzing with new mobile operating system initiatives. Microsoft is betting big on Windows Phone. Intel and Samsung are cooperating on Tizen. Telefonica and Mozilla are leading the Firefox OS effort. The Jolla team (ex-Meego) is touting Sailfish OS. Ubuntu is extending its popular Linux distribution from desktop to mobile. Hundreds of crazy-smart engineers around the world are losing sleep as we speak to create the next big OS.

As it happens, operating system technology no longer matters that much in mobile.
Continue reading How to win in mobile without making your own OS

Are you safe from digital disruption?

Mobile business models are disrupting just about every industry.

Mobile carriers felt pretty comfortable, but while they were working on next-generation unified communication suites, companies like WhatsApp, KakaoTalk, Line and WeChat bypassed them at full speed, making their investments irrelevant. In a very short time, those messaging apps amassed hundreds of millions of users each and are now eating away substantial chunks of SMS revenues. At the other side of the mobile telephony industry, leading incumbents like Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola or Microsoft got the rug swept from under them by two unlikely newcomers: a computer vendor (Apple) and an online advertising company (Google).
Continue reading Are you safe from digital disruption?