The document discusses the rapid growth of the app economy, highlighting its rise from $17 billion in 2008 to $52 billion in 2016. It emphasizes the competitive landscape of app development across platforms, user demographics in India, and various revenue models available to developers. The document also offers strategic guidance on choosing app ideas and platforms for development.

1. App School
The Economics Of App Development
Feb 10, 2012
Amarpreet Kalkat

2. The Growth Of App Economy
2016
$52 billion
2012 (Juniper Research)
$17 billion
2008 (Chetan Sharma Consulting)
Another Industry
2007 Fad
Unknown Term

3. App Usage

4. Why?
• Every app is one more reason to consider
buying a phone
• Increases phone productivity by a few 100
times
• Personalization - an opportunity to have
your device just the way you like it

5. Relative Number Of Apps
Platform Number of Apps
iOS 5,50,000+
Android 4,00,000+
Windows 50,000+
There s a lot of competition out there.

6. Free v/s Paid
Platform % of Free Apps
iOS 37%
Android 67%
Windows 61%
Only 13% of downloads however are paid ones.

7. Current Shares (In US)

8. India v/s World
Item India World
Total no. of internet users 121 million ~2 billion
Mobile Internet Users 60+ million 500+ million
% of Mobile Internet users 50 -60% ~25%
• India has the 3rd highest number of internet users
in the world after US and China.
• Mobile usage expected to drive the internet in
India.

9. A Few Specific Angles

10. The Windows Phone Angle

11. The Windows Phone Angle
• Big incentives being doled out
– Free device for every 3 submissions
– Free device for each submission by a female
developer
• Promotions expected to continue

12. The Tablet Angle
• The growing popularity of tablet devices
means a greater share of app revenue
• Expected to go up from 7% of the total
global app revenue today to 25% by 2016
• iPad Kindle rivalry helping the cake become
bigger

13. The Web App Angle
• App store model expected to come under
threat with the emergence of HTML5
• Offers great opportunities for content
publishers to offer content on-site rather
than be reliant on storefront distribution
• Web apps great for standardization, native
apps for leveraging phone capabilities

14. What To Develop?

15. Revenue Models
Paid Download
• Direct monetization, but marketing is difficult
• Works well with gaming, weather and utilities usually
Advertising
• Can drive more revenue than paid, but only if the user
base becomes large enough
In-App Purchase
• Requires some repeat usage
• One of the faster growing models
Partnership/Sponsorship
• Used for niche apps
• Not a very common model

16. Deciding What To Develop

17. Which Platform To Start With
• Start with the technology you are
comfortable with
• iOS development cost is a little higher than
others
• Device is the bigger cost, go with what you
have or can borrow from friends

18. What Idea Do I Start With
• A simple one is better than a complex one
• Something that scratches your own itch
• POC in a week, release in a month.
Anything longer is not simple enough
• You don’t have to be the first one
• Idea has 0 value, unless you build it out

19. What Is In It For Me
• Would improve your programming skills
more than anything else could
• Good companies LOVE people who have
some code to show
• You never know what might take off

20. Thank you.
@amarpreetkalkat
kalkat@ciafo.com