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on selling applications
Retailers such as carriers, Motricity, and Handango are fairly good at selling ring tones, wallpaper, and similar content. They are not as good at selling applications.
One key difference between the categories of content is the ability to sample the content before purchase. Many stores allow a ring tone sample, a wallpaper preview, or even an MP3 sample. Each also has a description and other meta data. The application has as much information as the wallpaper: a splash screen preview and a brief description.
Purchasing applications is different from purchasing wallpaper. The customer has to figure out whether the application is easy to use, has the desired features, and will fit into her life. When she is faced with a splash screen and a 12 word description, she can not make these assessments.
So she decides not to purchase anything.
Downloaded applications enable incredible functionality on phones, allowing users to play games, keep up with news, check their favorite email, upgrade their browser, and so forth. But the architecture embedded in most mobile retail stores presents a barrier to obtaining applications. Put another way, the very structure that is supposed to promote sales is, I believe, inhibiting them.
So here is a call to all application sellers: give users better information to make their decisions. Learn from the desktop shareware industry. Learn from the folks giving their applications away for free, such as Opera and Google. Learn from folks selling complex products online, such as Zappos and Amazon.
Specific ideas:- Allow free trials. Let users try out the application.
- Create a user community to review applications (don't forget to account for device types).
- Build a recommendation engine for applications. Users can see what their friends are using or specifically push an application to their friends.
- Provide screen shots of key screens.
- Create an easy and easy to find return process. Barriers to refunds are barriers to purchase.
I've looked at a number of stores, but certainly not all of them. And I can't really get excited about most applications using them ... and I'm an application junkie.
2 Comments »
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Have you ever tried Mobihand Mobile Web Stores??
Even they actually lack the share and recommendation engine, most of what you propose it is been covered. I´ve been working with them over this year and their back-end systems and the people who is behind them are great. They also work very hard.
A 95% recomendation. In a benchmark, I gave Handango a 70% and it seems you think the same…
Well, excellent article. Very good.
Kindly
Luis Alberto Arjona Chin
Chief Editor - http://www.poderpda.com
Comment by Luis Alberto Arjona Chin — May 5, 2007 @ 3:28 pm
Mobihand - at least the desktop version - does indeed look very nice.
Comment by Barbara — May 5, 2007 @ 3:47 pm