Mobile Apps Roundtable (LeWeb09)

What about fragmentation?
Across the panel, focus currently is on the iPhone, but other platforms are very important. Great prospects there. But Android will be coming up strong in 2010.
... want to remind you of a quote by Ilja Laurs: 'in 5 yrs we'll only have 5 app stores. to support 10.000 apps you need 10m users. #mobilecontent' (Link)


What about the carriers?
'Not all carriers are equal'. 'There's an incredible fight for visibility and awareness'. Christophe Francois (Orange).
'The company behind Shazam has been around for seven years'. 'Our strategy is to be ubiquitous - and we do this with the carriers and handset manufactures' 'Over time it's about discovery, about differentiation, about raising awareness'. 'In order to go global you have to fully committed: you have to show that your product actually works. Then you have to resource for it (with a significant amount of VC (US$20m+)'. Andrew Lacy (Tapulous).

In-app purchases?
'2/3 of the purchases were 2.99 (other in-app purchase at 0.99)'. 'Conversion rate of in-app purchases was 6%  - when we tweeted it it went to 8-10% - this points to the vast potential of in-app purchases'. Shervin Pishevar (Social Gaming Network).

Other tips?
'You need to make sure that your app sustains the load in the first couple of hours.' 'Often, because there's so much content out there, the only way to get noticed is to lower your price'. Christophe Francois (Orange).
 'If you make a great application, people will find you. So make great apps!' Andrew Lacy (Tapulous)

What's going to be big?
Location, location, location. And Gaming.