Yesterday, Symbian specialist Liquid Air Lab today launched adtronic, the first purely ad-enabled mobile application store. The application store is a go and can be freely downloaded for NOKIA Smartphones from http://www.adtronic.mobi.
A lot of developers have joined this initiative to provide this platform to provide their premium applications in the from of ad enabled applications. This means that the applications can be downloaded and used for free. “adtronic” will give the consumer, the ability to download premium applications for free directly onto their handset by opting in for targeted advertising as the sole currency. There will be visual ads which will appear when the users receive incoming calls or messages like SMS and MMS.
Users of this platform will have complete control on the ads they wish to receive and the frequency of them. So the customers can not only choose the kind of ads they want to receive but also the frequency of these ads. In addition to this a maximum limit can also be set using the “Speedometer” option.
The list of developers that have signed in to provide their premium content are – Indiagames, Joikusoft, DS Effects, Killer Mobile, ZingMagic and Cellictica. This means that approximately 150 applications will be available initially.
This indeed an interesting development. With almost every manufacturer launching an app store, an app store like this is something to be looked at closely. Their business model is rather unique and is very open to adoption by carriers (wireless service providers) as the carriers can provide preimum applications to their customers an participate in the ad revenue generated. Developers will also be able to develop premium applications for these platforms and monetize it faster.
“Free and Premium is a strong combination, which will always attract consumers.” says Mikko Linnamaki, CEO and Founder of Liquid Air Lab. “With our adtronic product, we are creating a new ecosystem for Symbian, which includes advertisers, application developers, carriers and of course consumers. Now, the Symbian application developers can get out of the walled gardens controlled by the operators and access a world-wide customer base immediately.”
This indeed a very interesting and huge development for app stores. Is this the next stage in app stores? What are your thoughts? Tell us, leave you comments below.