Determining suitable monetization approaches for mobile phone applications within the smart phones industry

Abstract

Smart Phone Ecosystems revolve around developers, applications and users. One of Nokia's own platforms, the S40, targets the low end of the smart phone market. Nokia's Content & Ecosystem Sourcing group is constantly looking for ways to help its developers of the S40 platform create more successful applications. This paper attempts to do so by examining the different monetization approaches for different application categories across all regions. While paid applications still constitute a majority of the revenue generating applications, the S40 marketplace has experienced a significant increase in the number of Try & Buy and In-App-Purchase applications in recent years. Try & Buy has been proven to be a dominant force in gaming categories, albeit with some differences across the regions. In-App- Purchase has also shown promise within games and some other categories, but the acceptance of this monetization approach varies greatly by region. Two new metrics, Revenue per Product View and Downloads per Product View, are proposed to evaluate application performance independent of download volume and monetization approach. Utilizing these new metrics, we found the applications utilize the Try & Buy approach to perform equally as well, if not better than, the applications utilizing the paid approach. The new metrics will enable the group to track the performance of applications from a holistic perspective and more easily identify those developers who have created successful applications. Additionally, the Downloads per Product View metric enables tracking of the reach of the applications, an indicator of the health of the overall ecosystem. The specific knowledge will enable Nokia's Content & Ecosystem Sourcing group to provide more input to developers on monetization approaches during the early stages of development, thereby increasing their chances of launching successful applications, ultimately helping the entire S40 ecosystem.