By Tracey Schelmetic
Apps. We're crazy for them, much to the gratification of those who build them and those who sell them.
As a growing number of network providers are investing to speed the delivery of new services to an increasingly more demanding consumer and enterprise market, many of these companies are finding value in supporting the delivery of third-party applications. With the success of Apple's App Store, consumers are demanding more and better apps, and the network companies are very happy to provide them. Mobile network providers serve over two billion subscribers collectively — nearly half of the global mobile subscriber base, and that number is expected to go nowhere but up. Network companies are eager to increase their time-to-market, and spur innovation, but competition is fierce and the terrain is new: companies need to truly understand what the best approach to take in application development is.
There are a lot of options, and most network providers differ from one another greatly in their approaches to developing and marketing apps: some providers are investing heavily in recruitment and training of developers; some are tapping into existing developer communities; some appear to be courting the media’s attention, whereas others are holding closed beta tests of their application enablement platforms. Many are creating their own application stores, and some are choosing to partner with others to offer a customer-facing store to their subscriber base.
Alcatel-Lucent believes there is no one-size-fits-all approach to service innovation. There are upsides and downsides to all approaches. The winners will be those who combine the innovative strengths of third parties with the strengths and capabilities that only network providers can enable.
There is an enormous range, according to Alcatel-Lucent in a new white paper entitled, “App Stores and Developer Programs Everywhere,” in the variety of implementations, spanning different network provider types (wireless, wireline, multi-system operator or MSO), different go-to-market strategies (retail, wholesale), different end user targets (consumer-focused, enterprise-focused), and different relationship frameworks (one-off partnerships or standard partnerships).
In the white paper, Alcatel-Lucent examines the approaches of a number of global network providers such as SK Telecom (South Korea) T- Store, Verizon Open Device Initiative (ODI), O2 Litmus and 3/Skype, charting out their different business models and tracing and comparing their sources of revenue.
As network providers continue to find new ways to monetize new value from their networks, systems and marketing assets through a variety of collaborative methods, they will take important steps towards positioning themselves for a future world where applications will play a much greater role in communications. By combining the innovative strengths of third parties and the capabilities that the network provider can enable, these companies will be well positioned to offer a significant amount of innovation in how they address the growing demand for applications – and please their customers at the same time.
For more information, visit www.alcatel-lucent.com/application_enablement.
