Mobile apps to generate untold riches.'Don't miss the gold rush'

[El Gringo]

Mobile apps to generate untold riches for developers
19th January 2010

Smartphone owners will together spend a staggering $6.2bn on applications this year, market watcher Gartner has forecast.

The company calculates that, in 2009, we spent $4.24bn, and with analysts unanimously anticipating yet more iPhones, BlackBerries, Palms and Android handsets to be purchased in 2010, Gartners' predicted revenue jump of almost 60 per cent doesn't sound unreasonable.

More amazing, perhaps, is the fact that all that cash will come from just 18 per cent of the applications we download. The remaining 82 per cent of apps are freeware. Now, Gartner said some 4.5bn apps will be downloaded in 2010, so that means just under 810m of them will require paying for.

That's an average price of $7.65 per app.

Most mobile apps cost rather less than that, which just goes to show why the likes of TomTom, CoPilot developer ALK and everyone else making iPhone satnav applications - which typically cost rather more than $7.65 - were all running around Las Vegas earlier this month hosting gigs in exclusive nightclubs and generally spending money like it's going out of fashion.

They are, in short, rolling in the stuff, and it's all thanks to their new mobile apps.

Kerching.

And the Croesus-style excess will continue. In 2013, Gartner reckons, global app store revenues will total $29.48bn.

Even the free apps will be pumping money into their developers' bank accounts, thanks to the advertising they will inevitably present to the users. In 2010, this kind of advertising will generate $600m - almost nine per cent of the total - rising to $7.38bn - 25 per cent of total app revenue - in 2013.

It's not all good news for developers, mind. Gartner warns that, as smartphones go mainstream, they'll be bought and used by less tech-savvy punters, folk less likely to spend willy-nilly on new apps.

Maybe, but we reckon they won't be able to resist the free stuff, and so the balance of revenue will shift from application purchases to in-app advertising. ®

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...breaking15.htm
Zamano to raise €2.5m

Mobile content firm Zamano is to raise €2.5 million in a share placing that will help fund the firm's growth plans.

The company said today it had finalised the terms for the placing, which will make 13,888,889 new shares available at a price of 18 cent. Zamano will make applications to have the shares placed on both the London and Dublin markets from December 23rd, at a 5.3 per cent discount to the stock's closing price on the Iseq on December 9th.

The move was first announced in September in Zamano's interim results. The company said it has identified two areas for investment: a dedicated smartphone team to capitalise on the rapidly growing demand for smartphone applications; and the growing mobile advertising market, which is set to grow to €15 billion by 2013.

Zamano will use the proposed fund raising to develop a suite of smartphone applications, fund expansion into new territories and hire development staff, and reduce its gross debt by €1 million.

"The placing will put Zamano in a strong position as we enter 2010, with a strengthened balance sheet and the capacity to execute our strategy in an exciting new market for the group," said chief executive John O'Shea.

The company also reiterated its profit forecasts for the full year to December 31st 2009.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/96...-agency-2ergo/
James Macdonald joins mobile technology agency 2ergo
25-Nov-09

LONDON - James Macdonald, formerly sales director at O2 Media, has joined the mobile marketing technology agency 2ergo as head of media and entertainment.

2ergo, which counts O2 as a customer, specialises in helping brands to maximise the potential of mobile marketing through developing smartphone applications, mobile publishing, interactive messaging and other products.

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