81 Billion Apps and counting..

  Well at least that’s how many apps have been downloaded from the App Stores since 2008 (when the industry got started). 89% of them come from their native apps stores too. Aapo Markkanen, senior analyst, said: “The current status quo is based on storefronts that the operating system vendors provide as part of the OS experience, and there is no evidence that this would change in the future.”   “A year ago it still looked like that, for example, mobile operators could find a viable business case in the curation of Android apps, but that opportunity evaporated once Google got its storefront act together. Today, it makes sense for operators to distribute apps only under special circumstances, such as the ones that we’re seeing in China.   “Running a user-friendly app distribution channel is expensive. Besides the adequate hosting and billing systems it takes quite a lot of human labor, since successful app discovery requires some form of editorial approach. The opportunity for smaller storefronts built around selected...