Intel believes it knows what developers are –and are not – looking for in mobile platforms and plans to use the knowledge to win them over as part of its long term MeeGo strategy.
According to Peter Biddle, general manager of Intel’s AppUp program, developers migrate to a platform based on 5 criteria:
1) They want sexy platforms and a good community.
2) TAM – Total Addressable Market or, in other words, how many devices the platform will run on.
3) Money and recognition.
4) What the platform is doing for them in terms of provisioning and distribution
5) What the platform is doing to help them with validation (not having to test software on a bunch of separate devices)
“Developers are a lot like musicians,” Biddle told RCR. “We all have friends who play music and are great musicians but they have day jobs and do open mic Tuesdays, they play 20 hours a week. There are a lot of developers out there like that and they may be doing it for something other than the money. Doing it because it’s fun. You get to be in a neat community, make people’s lives a little bit better, give them expression,” he told us.
Admittedly, said Biddle, Meego has very little to stand on when it comes to its existing TAM today. “That part is something we need to work on,” he told RCR.
In the meanwhile, however, Intel is actively engaging with the small long tail development community in the hopes the results will pay off just in time. So how to sway a development community when you don’t have devices out, or much promise of immediate recognition, distribution or TAM? Well, Intel says it is focusing on helping those developers who are the most strapped for cash “either by buying them lunch or helping them get their hands on great hardware.” That’s one way to go about it, for sure.
Intel says it is targeting roughly 1000 apps by this time next year but Biddle says people shouldn’t be quick to jump to the conclusion that that’s a paltry amount compared to iPhone’s over 300,000 apps, because apparently Intel is making a concerted effort to go for quality rather than quantity.
Biddle told us Intel only wanted to focus on the most “compelling” apps from “really good, innovative smart developers.”
“The digital economy is fundamentally broken and could stay broken forever, but we would like to fix it,” he told RCR explaining that what is broken is that current digital distribution is based on “molecular loss, which is to say that it was created around business models that were created when shelf space was at a premium. You can’t pay for enough marketing to make it worthwhile for an app amongst 300,000.”
The top 50 apps on the iPhone, said Biddle, are responsible for 50% of downloads, while the top 1000 are responsible for 90%, “so what happens to the rest? Nobody finds them!”
Biddle said Intel wants to offer “a bunch of value add entry points in the ecosystem for apps that may not appeal to millions but may appeal to just thousands,” making it easier for developers to find the people who are really interested in their offerings, through a combination of self promotion, social media, marketing, partnering with stores.
Meego doesn’t currently have in-app billing but it will, noted biddle, hinting at telco billing for app-up purchases. We’re also told MeeGo tablets are on schedule to be released this year, but it all depends on partners. Hopefully for Intel, its tablet partners won’t be as flaky as its erstwhile smartphone bedmate.
