mobile app success : the role of app diversity (localization) and app cohesivity

Success in app

distribution platforms :

the contribution of App

Diversity and App Cohesivity.

City University of Hong Kong

City University of Hong Kong

City University of Hong Kong

Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences

January 5, 2015

- Online Platforms

- Definition of

terms/perspectives

- Methodology

- Analysis and Results

- Conclusion

Discussion Outline

Online Distribution Platforms

- Of increasing importance as a means to reach

customers (mobile > web usage)

- Rapid growing phenomenon (29k – 1 million apps

in 5 years)

- Enterprises are beginning to include apps in their

strategy.

The space is getting crowded, how can

enterprise or independent vendors succeed ?

Platforms

“An the extensible codebase of a software

based system that provides core

functionality shared by the modules that

interoperate with it, and the interfaces

through which they interoperate “

(Tiwana et al , 2010)

Apps

Applications (apps) refer to modular

pieces of software designed to run within

specific platforms and are deeply

integrated with features sets made

available by the platforms.

(Adapted from Tiwana et al 2010)

Platforms - “A Model of Software Delivery”

Platform

Apps

Runtime Env.

Distribution Channel

Android Apps

Android OS

Google Play

FireFox Addons

FireFox Browser

FireFoxMarketplace

Platform Platform Platform

Related Work

- Portfolio diversification improves

performance (Lee et al 2011)

- app positioning, developer actions, and user

engagement impact performance. (Kajana et

al 2012).

Success

Several indicators have been proposed – traffic,

downloads, subscribers (Crowston et al. 2003)

We chose the downloads indicator.

Operationalized as the rank (downloads) of an app

Terms – App Diversity

App Diversity – The number

of locales (language based

geographical user sets) that

an app supports. Also

referred to as localization

Operationalized as a count of the indicated languages supported.

Perspectives on App Diversity and

success

“A transaction cost is a cost incurred in

making an economic exchange”

- Platforms have global instant reach

- Within platforms focus is on users

- Multilingual support can lower

search/information costs for users

H1 – Language support is positively associated with an apps rank within distribution platforms

Terms – App Cohesivity

App Cohesivity – The degree of

integration an app possesses

with its platform

services/resources.

- A software platform may provide access to

platform resources such GPS, Camera, File Systems, Payment authorization etc.

Operationalized as a count of the number of platform services which an app requires.

Perspectives on App Cohesivity and

success

- Platforms provide a list of services via

permissions

- Apps can leverage those features in providing

better customization and more functions.

- These can increase customer utility. E.g an app using gps/contact/email access for better

recommendation or using a camera for automatic translation.

H2 – App Cohesivity is positively associated with an apps rank within distribution platforms

Methodology

Study sample

• Collected data points on

apps within the Windows

Phone App store.

• Windows platform is still

evolving and provides more

statistics on its apps making

it a suitable test bed.

1100 Apps from the Top Free (600) list and Top Paid List(500).

Methodology

Analytical Procedure

We perform

ordinary least

squares (OLS)

regression analysis

to test our

hypothesis regarding

the impact of app

attributes on its

ranking for free and

paid apps.

Choice based sampling on the top 2000 apps on each list.

Variables

Dependent : RankIndependent : languagesupport, permissionsetControls : publisherProlificacy (number of published apps), actual price, packagesize, platformversions, description, screenshots, (social media, twitter/facebook interactions)

Regression Results

Negatve coefficients imply a positive effect as rank is reverse chronological (a rank value of of 1 > rank value of 100 )

Regression Results

- App Diversity and App Cohesivity are

positively associated with app success

- But this relationship only occurs when the

app is free.

Lesson for App publishers : When your app is free, increase your success odds by supporting more locales and by implementing permission based customizations.

Well, the new price of apps is free .

Limitations / Future Work

• Conducting same study on other

platforms were possible (e.g iTunes,

Play). The effects may be different

on other platforms.

• Integrating both lists (free and paid)

or a unified picture of effects.

Victor Dibia

dibia.victor@my.cityu.edu.hk

Recommended Citation

Victor Dibia, Christian Wagner (2015), "Success Within App Distribution Platforms: The Contribution Of App Diversity And App

Cohesivity", HICSS 2015, 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii , USA.

Methodology