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QuickOffice on 100m+ phones: “That’s what you call reach, Mr iPhone Developer”

There’s quite a lot of discussion going on at the newsletter post I published today.

It always gets exciting when The Blandford gets involved (that is, Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian). Responding to a query about successful Symbian downloads, Rafe pointed out that Quickoffice is on over 100 million Symbian phones. Including the 3 Symbian devices on my desk, here.

Rafe makes an interesting point for developers: Don’t forget the embed option.

There are a few developers I know right now who are currently doing embed deals with handset manufacturers (that is, getting their application pre-installed on the handsets). It’s not an easy process, but it can make you wildly, wildly successful.

For instance, one developer I know is going to go from maybe a few thousand downloads to 15 million installs, guaranteed, by this time next year. They’re integrating directly into the menu structure.

It’s not as simple as signing up to the iPhone dev programme and paying the $100 fee, but if you’ve got a particularly interesting, unique and relevant app, it’s definitely worth a chat with the manufacturers. You’ll also want some kind of revenue stream attached to it as you typically won’t have manufacturers paying you a lot (or indeed, any) money for an embed deal.

This said, don’t forget the embed option… !

5 COMMENTS

  1. Some say if you cut him, he bleeds S60 default wallpaper. And that he wears eyeglasses to protect the greater populace from his death-ray stare. All we know is, he's called the Blandford!

  2. When I was reading this article I was like this is really informative, yep makes sense. Then when I got to the end I was so shocked about the part where the manufacturers hardly paying anything and you have to worry about attaching a revenue stream. I find it hard to get my head around that these huge companies get a developer (who has created something great out of nothing) and use thier app embedded from the get go, therfore making the handset manufacturers phone better with more functionality etc. and yet they hardly get anything for it. You would assume that it would be an instant money maker for the developer so I was quite shocked to read this. Or am I missing something?

  3. I know what you mean Harry. In most cases, it's a joint revenue share between the handset manufacturer and the developer — so that's what I meant by making sure there's some kind of way to monetise end-user activity. Other options are that you pre-install the 'lite' version and then you make your revenue from the percentage you upgrade to the premium version. It's generally rare nowadays to find a manufacturer who will pay you good money (say $1 or $2 per device) for an embed deal.

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