Research from Evans Data last week suggested that a greater proportion of developers who build apps for BlackBerry devices receive significant amounts of revenue than those working with other platforms.
The research found that 13 percent of BlackBerry developers make at least US$100,000 per app, “considerably more” than Android or Apple developers, according to Evans Data CEO Janel Garvin.
BlackBerrys are by and large used as business devices, suggesting that business apps could be a lucrative market for developers to tap into further. Indeed Garvin said BlackBerry devices “continue to be compelling to developers, especially in the enterprise."
But where a BlackBerry was once the smartphone of choice for business types, a range of other mobile platforms – iOS, Android, Windows Phone - are now taking off in the enterprise. The erosion of the BlackBerry’s dominance is clear for all to see when you look at RIM’s recent run of disappointing results.
So, if BlackBerry developers are making such a good return on apps they build, maybe it’s time developers working with other platforms start to pay more attention to the needs of enterprise if they want to make good money.
Evans Data found that games are the most common type of app to appear in app stores, making up 27 percent of all apps, but business (21 percent) and productivity apps (20 percent) aren’t far behind.
However, games and productivity apps just aren’t as lucrative as business apps, as consumers aren’t willing to spend money on buying them, with many going for free or freemium apps over paid apps. The revenue developers get from these types apps is therefore relatively small.
Businesses, on the other hand, will pay good money for mobile apps that can bring tangible benefits, such as boosting efficiency and productivity or cutting costs. There is therefore good money for developers who build good, intuitive apps for enterprise users.
One way in which developers could position themselves to get into the enterprise space would be to work closely with enterprise software vendors such as Oracle, SAP and Microsoft, to see how their expertise in app development could be combined with business software knowledge within these huge companies.
Of course these companies have extensive in-house mobile development teams already, but there are areas in which they lack expertise to turn their existing desktop or cloud-based technology into mobile apps.
App developers looking to work with these vendors will probably need to be pretty well known and respected for such a collaboration to work, but it’s certainly a viable option.
Some business software vendors are actually approaching app developers already. Open source business intelligence (BI) software maker Jaspersoft recently launched an SDK for iOS developers, with an API to enable them to incorporate BI functionality into native apps.
Jaspersoft’s approach shows that some business software companies at least are aware of the huge amount of talented mobile app developers out there and clearly keen exploit the technical ability that exists outside their business in a bid to improve their technology.
Another approach could be for games and productivity developers to look at what kinds of business processes would be well suited to the mobile app treatment, and work out how they could licence software to integrate it into their apps or even develop their own technology from the ground up.
Of course, developers already building business apps will know that there is money to be made. Their next step should be to increase usage of their apps and work out what other business areas their technology could apply to.
There is a real opportunity for mobile app developers here. Although many of the biggest enterprise software vendors are making noises about mobile (and cloud) technology, many are still wedded to the old model of on-premise desktop software.
If the mobile app developers begin to address the great mobile needs of business people, they could potentially steal a march on the traditional business heavyweights by bringing out superior mobile app technology or earn themselves lucrative deals with these same companies to do what they do best: build apps that users flock to.
Tim Ferguson
The editorial views expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and will not necessarily reflect the views of the GSMA, its Members or Associate Member