S-Nexian and Local Mobile Application Stores

S-Nexian is preparing to launch a mobile app store, Apps Planet, that will be pre-loaded in the ranks of their Android smartphone soon.

S-Nexian could be considered a local mobile phone vendor with the largest market share, has teamed up with five GSM operators for using operator billing payment system. Details about the Apps Planet still can't be informed here; however we will inform the details once the information is clear. In my opinion, what is becoming a wedge for me is local application store.

Previously, the three major operators,Telkomsel, Indosat, and XL have set up their own local mobile application stores. Some of them even (with the euphoria) invited special developer to present a business scheme that will be run. As for XL at the initial launch of their BlackBerry service, they have been partnering with Better-B and providing pre-loaded XL Mall. The result now is? None of the local application stores survived.

Why there is barely no local application store survive? Although I wasn't involved directly in that three stores applications, it seems clear that there is no clear commitment between both parties; operator as an owner and developer as a store filler. With a limited number of applications and smartphone market as well, of course, this segment isn't feasible to proceed for long term - especially in terms of financial and monetization.

The vendor that still persists with their own application store is Samsung with their Samsung Apps. It's not purely local as well because most of them are from abroad, although I know there are several applications available are made by local developer. What has been done by Samsung Apps is to localize currency (using Rupiah) and bring a number of excellent games from Korea as their main attraction.

Back to S-Nexian. Their decision to focus on the Android platform is logical enough, aligned with the platform rapid growth in this country. However making an Android special application store may not be a strategic move. As we know, most of the Android apps are free; the monetization system is based on advertising. For me, this fact seems quite difficult for operators and vendors to measure the monetization success rate because the ad account usually is held by the developer.

However, I expect S-Nexian is able to manage to find a loop-hole for raising their Apps planet. The success of one vendor in this area can attract more vendors to explore it further. Hopefully this can be a win-win solution for all, including for developers and consumers.