Apps for feature phones
2.3 billion feature phones in 2016 = major apps opportunity
The apps phenomenon has been limited to smartphones, and more recently tablets, for fairly obvious reasons. But for all the talk about increasing smartphone adoption as lower-priced models hit the shelves, feature phones will remain the largest handset segment for some time. Ovum forecasts the number of feature phones worldwide to reach 2.3 billion in five years, which will account for 63% of the market.
That's a huge untapped market for apps developers limited to smartphone OSs, and demand is such that Ovum predicts the feature-phone apps revenues will top $1 billion by 2016.
Part of that growth will come from larger handset manufacturers, operators and third parties offering improved distribution channels for feature phones, which have been lacking until recently, says Nick Dillon of Ovum. Also, developers will leverage existing software options like JavaME, Nokia web widgets and Opera Mini widgets to develop simple web apps before moving on to HTML5 as more feature phones ship with compatible browsers (see Web apps).
Meanwhile, there's the ongoing work of the WAC (Wholesale Applications Community), which opened shop in February with eight operators and 12,000 apps. WAC is creating APIs aimed at runtime environments and browsers with the goal of building an OS-agnostic wholesale storefront, ecosystem and billing platform that can bring feature phones into the apps ecosystem.
WAC has been quiet since its February launch. But last month, WAC CEO Peters Suh said in a blog post that "a number of WAC member operators in Asia are on track to launch services in Q4 2011 across a range of devices and a number of application storefronts."
Suh also said that WAC is developing its suite of operator supported network APIs (starting with in-app payments), "which are currently being implemented by a select number of developers with the aim of opening this up to a wider audience over the coming months." Suh said WAC's network API service offering would be available in early 2012.
WAC's network API for in-app payments is well-timed. According to app marketplace analytics firm Distimo, in-app purchases account for a whopping 72% of iPhone app revenues (compared to just 28% a year ago). Close to half of those in-app payments were via free apps. More remarkably, less than 5% of all iOS apps even offer in-app purchases.