You are reading in trade publications about the rapid growth of applications for mobile phone and how everyone must have one. Get your wallet ready!
Sports Illustrated has one of the hottest Phone apps on the market featuring their swimsuit edition. This app hits a difficult to reach target market – males in their 20s and 30s and the app is sold for $1.99. Should be a gold mine, right?
Hold on a minute, says Outsell Insights, which analyzes events, data, and trends affecting the information industry. According to their analysis the app brought in a total of about $64,000 in revenue, which less than the revenue from a one page ad in Cosmopolitan magazine.
The News-Review has a mobile app in beta – you can find it by searching nrtoday in the IPhone App store. Right now it is free, so have fun. The question we have before putting more into it is who will pay for it. Right now, the answer is, we are.
As Yogi Berra famously said, “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
March 11, 2010 at 7:08 am
Remember that “old” technology – websites and how they were to make money hand over fist? What we found was that they became obligatory facets of business without much opportunity to monetize. Many erode the business model by eating up resources. I am not a tech-curmudgeon. I enjoy the stuff as much as the next mope – maybe even more. But from a business point of view, it has failed the profit promise. My suggestion – use it, enjoy it, see it for what it is – another tool for productivity – not the secret magic twanger of profit valhalla. One more suggestion. Hand write a note now and again – it rocks people back. Now that’s new! Don’t follow me on Twitter.