Apps Boom as Companies Seek Space on Phones
Developers of programs for the iPhone have already managed to make a decent living selling hundreds of thousands of copies of games from their living rooms or garages. — But now, a new way to profit from writing software for the iPhone is emerging …
Context & Ripple Effects
The iPhone's App Store has already minted garage-scale winners: Wired's February 2009 profile of a coder whose half-million-dollar app proved the gold rush was still on came on top of an April Los Angeles Times piece showing how the device had rewritten the economics of game software (iPhone changes dynamics of game software industry). Those stories framed the boom as a story about independent developers selling copies direct to consumers.
This NYT report marks a second phase: established companies now want their own space on consumers' phones, opening a new revenue path for developers who build apps on contract rather than sell them. CNET had flagged the enterprise angle as early as September 2008 with its roundup of five enterprise apps for the iPhone; the syndicated pickup by GigaOM under its 'Summer of the Superphone' banner shows how widely the corporate-land-grab framing travelled within days.
First-order effects
- Independent developers gain a second income stream alongside copy sales: writing branded or internal apps for companies that want an iPhone presence but lack in-house mobile talent.
- Consumer brands and enterprises shift budget toward native iPhone apps, treating the phone as marketing and service real estate rather than a channel only game studios care about.
Second-order effects
- A services layer forms around the gold rush — small studios and freelancers reposition from shipping their own titles to taking corporate commissions, competing on track record from the App Store charts.
- As more companies ship apps, discoverability inside Apple's storefront becomes contested, raising the value of chart placement and press coverage for both indie sellers and corporate clients.
Third-order effects
- If every company needs an app the way it once needed a website, mobile becomes a standard corporate software category with its own agency ecosystem, tooling, and procurement lines.
- Apple's store consolidates into the gatekeeper position over that entire market — controlling which corporate presences reach the phone and on what terms — a structural role far beyond its original games catalog.
The trend: Smartphones are turning from a consumer-games novelty into a mandatory corporate presence, with developer labor reallocating from selling copies to building brands' footholds on the phone.