AdMob has released its May report on iPhone apps that are served through its own mobile advertising network, giving us a glimpse into the consumer behavior around applications designed for the popular mobile device. The result? Five percent of applications have more than 100,000 active users, which totals 322 actual applications.
That boils down to quite a longtail distribution of applications, and only a handful of these apps reach extreme popularity. Is anyone surprised? Isn’t that how the longtail works?
It’s a distribution model similar to most digital/virtual content that’s easily replicated and downloaded. And AdMob’s own data can be likened to Apple’s overall iTunes content distribution, as very few songs, for instance, achieve a high amount of downloads. The upside is that there is a great deal of content *readily* available to the consumers. The downside is that the content that gains the most attention is often backed by powerful advertising campaigns.
This all translates into a lot of search required on an individual consumer level. It’s one of my biggest issues with iTunes, as its search capabilities leave a lot to be desired. This just factors into all the other reasons why the longtail exists the way it does for iPhone apps in particular. Consumers have a lot to choose from. The barriers to entry for developers creating iPhone apps are far lower than creating other apps, websites or services. And Apple gets to select which apps it partners with, as well as which it promotes on the front page, commercials, ads.
When it’s all said and done, AdMob’s numbers merely remind us that accessing the longtail of iPhone apps is still something that we need to tackle in order to make it easier for consumers. Whether this occurs through improvements made to iTunes search, or we rely on third party social search engines, the iPhone app platform is pretty awesome but still has room for improvement.
{ 0 comments }
