Download - Uncensored: the world of Apps and Revenue
Apps in EducationAn uncensored cash cow or bottomless
pit?
Carla AertsFrom a presentation at
Frankfurt Book Fair2014
Uncensored?
• Pausing a moment: Uncensored? Apps?
• App or Content Providers held to ecosystems
• ‘Approval’ to live in their eco-system (especially Apple)
• Users must be members to eco-system
• What is the meaning of ‘censored’ in App world
• Who owns the data and what are the data?
• Do we really know?
A little context
What about Education/Learning?
Predictions in US$ Predicted revenue in 2017 Compound growth 2012-17
Asia $6.8 billion 21.2%
North America $2.1 billion 7.6%
Latin America $1.4 billion 32.5%
Western Europe $885.1 million 9.0%
Africa $530.1 million 38.9%
Middle East $205.4 million 18.4%
Eastern Europe $193.1 million 14.7%
Source: http://www.ambientinsight.com/Reports/MobileLearning.aspx
• Projected compound annual growth rate of 18.2% between 2012 - 2017
• Resulting in a predicted worldwide revenue of $12.2 billion by 2017.
Growth in Mobile Learning?
Relying on partnership?
Growth in Education?
• No doubt, but Apps for schools market and content Apps’ growth are still difficult to measure or predict
• Dealing with institutional models vs individual purchaser and consumer-driven models and user-behaviours
• Distinction between Mobile and Tablet-based is observed and differs according to market
• Distinction between ‘Education’ vs ‘Edutainment’ Apps often blurred
• Publishers at the mercy of eco-systems to get sales and user-data
• Not enough data available to us, especially around user behaviour & learning outcomes
• Our relationship with institutions can get eroded
Cash Cow or …
Bottomless Pit?• Development requires specialist instructional & learning design to support
pedagogy and curriculum, assessment development
• On/offline synchronisation support required for low bandwidth & hardware capacity markets, increasing costs
• Bespoke Content, Learning Resource development & platform support increases cost soon moving into over 5 or 6 figure sums
• Educational Publishers still struggle with the ability to realise scalable App development models that enable rapid deployment to market
• Intensive marketing & ongoing support required, increasing cost
• Harware players’ push for tablets in schools will necessitate increased support for new learning delivery models and ‘classrooms without walls’
Cash Cow or …
Bottomless Pit?
• Trends & forecasts show the Cow has left the shed for the pasture
• Freemium & in App store purchase models rely heavily on low tier pricing
• Not many apps except for dictionary-type Apps tend to have traction
above $10.00 price band
• Perception of ‘content is free’ thus eroding the value of the publishers’ IP
• Over 80,000 Edu Apps in Apple App store for iPad alone
• Term Education is very loose, making it harder for Educational publishers
• Bookshelf-type Apps don’t provide best learning experience or outcomes
• In-App purchase often sees churn, especially in revision Apps
• Too early to have a ‘reliable’ picture
• ROI some time off for Educational publishers