App Store gets a Twitter
Apple setup Twitter accounts for iTunes some time ago, and today Apple finally got around to launching an official Twitter for the App Store. Apple promises to promote new apps, and exclusive App offers. We wonder what these exclusive app offers mean.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple had already set up Twitter accounts for iTunes, so today's official App Store handle extends an existing pattern rather than starting one: the company is giving each storefront its own voice on a platform it doesn't control. The timing matters on both sides — a General Sentiment report out this week found Apple lost nearly $460 million in media value last quarter while Microsoft gained buzz, and marketers are projected to put $150 million into Twitter advertising in 2011.
The audience caveat is real: Pew found only 8% of online Americans used Twitter as of September 2010. Apple is betting on name recognition over current scale, using the account to promote new apps and tease what it calls exclusive App offers — the details of which even 9to5Mac flags as undefined.
First-order effects
- App developers gain a new, Apple-controlled discovery surface where new apps and exclusive offers can be pushed to followers directly, outside the store's own ranking charts.
- Apple gets an owned promotional channel for the App Store at zero ad cost, in a year when rivals and marketers alike are expected to pay Twitter for comparable reach.
Second-order effects
- App publishers competing for launch visibility now face an extra editorial gate — getting featured by the @AppStore account becomes a prize alongside chart placement, shifting some marketing leverage toward Apple's curation choices.
- With Twitter's ad business projected at $150 million for 2011, a brand with Apple's following demonstrating organic promotion gives other large retailers a template to copy, potentially cannibalizing the paid-promotion inventory Twitter is trying to sell.
Third-order effects
- If each Apple storefront accumulates its own social presence, merchandising decisions (which apps get promoted, which offers go 'exclusive') increasingly happen off-platform, weakening the store page itself as the single point of app discovery.
The trend: Platform owners are building direct social merchandising channels around their digital storefronts, moving curation and promotions off the store page and onto networks they don't own.