AS the 25 billionth app was downloaded from the iTunes store last week, it was a celebration of both the indie app developer and the individual curation of content. In Singapore, however, apps are increasingly falling under the domain of Big Business.While quirky free apps continue to be launched, the money here is flowing in two opposite directions: towards hard commerce in which people spend money through the app, and enterprise apps which are meant as tools for internal company use.
App developers such as Buuuk have seen enterprise app work for clients go from virtually non-existent to serious money in recent times. 'About one-third of what we're doing is enterprise apps and the remaining two-thirds are consumer apps. The enterprise part started about 18 months ago and prior to that, almost all of the focus was on consumer,' said Jon Petersen, Buuuk's co-founder.
Enterprise apps can be downloaded to an employee's smartphone from a specialised download site instead of through commercial avenues such as the Android marketplace or iTunes store.
A shopping mall's management, for example, could make the app available to their maintenance crew, who will be able to update their work progress in real-time.
'Initially, IT departments were very resistant. They didn't like the idea of company employees using their own devices at work but now they've recognised that they can't stop it,' said Mr Petersen.
Karen New, the CEO of app developer Omnitoons, has seen a 25 per cent increase in the enterprise app business.
'Our latest project is for a firm from the financial sector who makes presentations from the iPad and allows users to calculate their return, answer surveys, agree on the terms and conditions and sign the contract instantly,' Ms New told BT.
While making tools for the internal workings of a firm is hardly as compelling a story as being the next Angry Birds hit, these are the jobs that pay the bills, in Singapore. According to Buuuk's Mr Petersen, a basic enterprise app could start from $30,000 to $50,000. For very complex systems, the cost of development could breach six figures, which many of his clients are paying, already.
On top of that, these apps are promising a steady stream of income, even beyond the app's launch. Firms such as Buuuk offer the option of a maintenance contract to keep the system running well, which costs about 20 per cent of the development cost every year. And just like Angry Birds, these work apps can be addictive.
'When they're using these apps for a mobile workforce, they very quickly become reliant on them. And if they break, they can't do their jobs,' said Mr Petersen.
In January, the 200 largest-earning apps in Singapore grossed $44,598 daily in the iTunes app store for iPhones, according to data from Distimo, a mobile app research firm. This does not include the $17,546 being hauled in daily through the app store for the iPad in the same month by the top-earning 200 apps.
Singaporeans, however, know better than to actually pay for the apps themselves. 'In Singapore, free applications are much more popular than paid apps. The top 200 free applications generate 43 times more downloads than the top 200 paid applications on the iPhone,' noted Hendrik Koekkoek, Distimo's analyst.
Even as app developers watch their dreams of building a fortune by collecting 99 cents from everyone in the country come to nought, established companies are turning apps into siphons that extend into consumers' wallets.
ComfortDelGro, for instance, saw a record number of taxi booking jobs last year - 29.4 million - a 22 per cent increase year on year, after its taxi booking app was introduced in 2010, racking up 263,000 downloads since.
While it is not explicit how much of the increase was driven by the app, ComfortDelGro has seen a four-fold increase in taxi bookings through the app since it was introduced for iPhones, Android and Nokia phones.
Reebonz - an online luxury goods retailer - launched its iPhone and iPad apps in 2008 and is seeing transactions that are up 50 per cent from six months before, and sales that are 20 per cent higher over the last six months.
On a heavyweight level, the apps are being used both as sources of cash and cache. SingTel's deF!ND app - billed as a 'digital concierge service' - has been downloaded more than 100,000 times since it was launched last November. Skoob, its e-book retail service which has a free app extension, has seen more than 18,000 readers hop on since its November launch, too.
'Although the revenue contribution of these new services is small relative to our traditional telco services, they help us to differentiate ourselves from our competitors and develop customer loyalty,' a SingTel spokesman told BT.
Open source software firm Red Hat is hoping to build a community around its app, too. So recently has the app come to be viewed as a branding tool that Red Hat's own app has not yet been officially launched. But so ready is the market for such a thing that 500 downloads of the fledgling app within the Asia-Pacific region have taken place.
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