Wow. Getjar, the mobile software and applications store has just uploaded the ENTIRE iphone catalogue into its system. You can now browse all the iphone apps via the getjar interface:
Despite the iphone being a closed platform in terms of application downloads, getjar has been able to create a third party search and discovery service for iphone apps by simply linking into the appstore to do the actual fulfilment and billing. This isn't rocket science and there are a number of "iphone apps" sites and review blogs which already do this, however, no-one has done it on the same scale as getjar.
Getjar obviously can't take a share of any of the direct revenues from this transaction but it does mean they can extend their platform to cover the iphone and begin building up their own contextual information around the apps e.g. comments and ratings. It also allows them to sell premium positioning to iphone applications who want greater visibility as part of their new advertising solution.
As the volume of apps on the appstore increases, it is becoming increasingly difficult for developers to gain visibility, having a third party interface like this is something of real value.
Great to see people "opening up" the iphone ecosystem in this way and hats off to getjar.
ebuddy just announced that they have reached 11m downloads of their mobile application. The service lets you log into your IM accounts like AIM, Googletalk, MSN Messenger and ICQ as well as the Facebook and Myspace social networks.
This is pretty stunning when you consider that this has all been achieved with very limited use of the iphone app store. ebuddy has been really effective at using mobile viral marketing tactics, word of mouth and the strength of its product to get traction without spending large sums on advertising
At the last Mobile Monday London, Dan Applequist
mentioned that Apple had started advertising the iphone app store in
the US, with a screen by screen demo of how to download an app onto
your phone. The point he made was that Apple are very successfully
presenting this as a "new thing" and a lot of people will think that
they invented the idea of downloadable mobile applications and
software, despite the fact that this capability has existed for years
on Symbian and Windows Mobile devices, not to mention Palms,
Blackberries and handsets with Java and Brew built in.
Here is
the TV ad "Vicinity" which is also showing in the UK now and probably
all the other countries the iphone is available in.
What is amazing is that in all the years downloadable
applications have been available, no other company has every promoted
them in this way and made the process easy to understand for the mass
market of consumers. The ad focuses on the device and actually shows
you the process of downloading an app. If you look back at the way 3G
services and portals have been advertised by the big mobile operators
they almost never do this - the ad may show a specific thing you can do
with the phone but the whole thing is tied up in a glossy TV ad as if
they are almost ashamed of showing the device. See this one for
example for Vodafone Live! in Greece:
This says it all really - a mobile ad that gives you virtually no idea
what its about, and does not provide any value to the view in terms of
user education etc. I could post a whole load of similar commercials
featuring David Beckham, cool music and good looking young people but
never telling you what you can do with your phone or helping you to use
it.
There are loads of great apps Symbian and Windows Mobile devices such as Shozu, Opera Mini and Mig33
but at the moment its only really the early adopters and consumers in
developing markets that are using them. If T-Mobile ever gets its own app store off the ground
let's see if they can advertise it the same way as Apple or whether
they a) dont bother to advertise it or b) do a load of adverts with
celebrities and pretty cinematography rather than a clear and useful
demo of the service.
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