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