

Nokia In-App Purchasing - monetize apps for basic phones in 130+ countries - pavlov
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Develop/Series_40/Business_opportunity/In_app_purchasing.xhtml

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pavlov
I posted this link because I'd like to remind HN that there are still some
interesting things happening in the lower rungs of the mobile phone market.

It's going to be a long time until everyone in the world can afford a dual-
core smartphone with a HD display and an unlimited data plan. In the meantime,
there are untapped opportunities for app developers who can make the low-end
shine.

Tiny displays, traditional keypads and unreliable 2.5G data connections await
those app developers who are brave enough to venture into emerging markets...
But on the bright side, the market is enormous and there aren't hundreds of
extravagantly VC-funded Silicon Valley startups already competing for it.

~~~
captain_mars
There is no doubt that feature-phone users vastly outnumber smartphone users.
But, how much are they willing to spend on apps?

I live in India, and recently happened to be in a Nokia store. I saw a lower-
middle-class family walk into the store, and ask to see the cheapest phone
available. It cost only $30 (INR 1500), but the couple still thought hard
before buying it. Also, they will probably use the cheapest available Pay-As-
You-Go plan, and will probably not use GPRS at all (forget 3G). There are lots
of other people, for example students, who have similar financial constraints.
I don't believe people of such profile will be willing to spend 0.99 per app
as often as iPhone or Android smartphone users.

That being said, there definitely would be some money to be made from among
feature phone users. Maybe lower price points ($0.49) will work, or free apps
with advertisements.

~~~
nosse
You described me there, I now own Nokia C1-01, because it was the cheapest I
could get. Reason for this is the fact that my phones usually last only 1,5
years and I hate touch-screens. Constantly loosing most of my stored numbers
is my biggest problem right now. I'd be willing to pay for some-kind of
external backup for my contacts.

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jaakl
The market of featurephones and apps on them is way bigger than smartphone
market what everyone in tech world is talking about. It is way undervalued.
But there are some issues: a) no proper infrastructure/ecosystem so far.
Elements like this in-app purchasing help a lot here. Ovi Store in phones is
terrible compared to AppStore counterparts, for both developers and endusers
etc. Very limited monetization options etc. b) low-end smartphones are coming
to this market, Huawey provides almost as cheap Androids as Nokia nowadays in
Africa. c) fragmentation for developers. Why can't Nokia do one really good
cheap phone which fits 90% users. Always they announce 4 marginally different
ones, just so different to make developers mad and stick to Android/iOs.

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mrkmcknz
Hold on a second; is it me or is the Nokia billing through the carrier
actually the potential to do something huge!

~~~
ghurlman
Is that not a normal thing? I've had that for quite a while...

~~~
toyg
Nokia tried to push this line for ages. Yes, it's potentially a very good
idea, but in practice you need the content to appeal to actual users. Low-end
users like low-end content (ringtones etc), which is what sells on those
platform. Apps are substantially crippled by platform limitations in that
space, so they are not enticing enough for a clientèle who privileges flashy
stuff.

~~~
captain_mars
> Low-end users like low-end content (ringtones etc), which is what sells on
> those platform.

I can only agree with this partially. Nokia's Ovi store gets the most
downloads from India (by far), and the most popular category is games. Just
because someone is poor doesn't mean they don't like to have fun. :-)

I've seen some pretty poor people (for example, street-side vendors) play
games on their low-end feature phones.

