Appia

Case Study
Agenda
Company Overview

Product Offering

Technology

Market

Management

SWOT Analysis

Competition

USPs

Potential Buyers
 Company Overview
Spun out of Motricity as PocketGear in June 2008 it later acquires
Handango in Feb 10 to expand the mobile apps base

Company was initially selling mobile apps directly to consumers

In Feb 11 PocketGear relaunches itself as Appia to provide

marketplace to carriers and phone manufacturers instead

Company partners with over 32000 developers to provide apps on

various mobile platforms

Over 140,000 apps are available for over 2500 mobile devices

Supports over 40+ online stores and selling in over 175 countries

Source Company Website

 Product Offering
Symbian Linux

Android Java

Windows
Palm
Mobile

iOS Appia Blackberry

Apps are also delivered in various languages and supported for

various mobile devices

To maintain and enhance the apps, developers are encouraged to

manage life cycle of their wares

Source Company Website

 Technology
Apps

Appia
Appia Appia
Developer Ad Commerce
Platform network Platform

Developer Distributor

Apps

Source Company Website

 Market
Mobile app Downloads (56.6 % CAGR) Mobile app Revenue (40.7% CAGR)
150 $10.00
100
$5.00
50
0 $0.00
2010 2015 2010 2015
Cheap & Flat Data Plan rates attracting mobile internet browsing

Increased sale of smart phones is also a stimulus

5.9 billion mobile subscribers (around 87% of world population)

European app market is expected to become the largest market by 2015

Off deck app market is expected to grow faster than the on deck market

Source: http://www.totaltele.com/download.aspx?ID=468407
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/18/report-mobile-app-market-will-be-worth-25-billion-by-2015-apples-share-20/
 Management
Company founder Jud Bowman started his first company
when he was a teenager and is currently on leave of absence
from Stanford University

Craig Forman, Executive Chairman has around 24 years of

general management and media experience

His media connections may enable company to snatch a lot of

storefront partners

An average of 19+ years of technology focused work

experience for a team of 8

Most of team members have history of entrepreneurship and

innovation

Source Company Website and Linkedin Profiles of Team Members

 SWOT Analysis
Strength Opportunities
Strong management Rapid growth rate in mobile internet
Huge Global Customer base including users
world leading brands Increasing usage of Mobile Banking
Selling directly to carriers and phone Services
manufacturers Upcoming smart phones like iPhone
with flat-rate data plans

Appia

Weakness
No In house developer
No app discovery platform
No partnerships with developer
companies like Iambic
Threat
Developers can always move to a
better marketplace with lower
advertising costs
 Competition
MobiHand
Mobile app supermarket for both developers and channel partners
Partnerships with developer companies and distributors.
Strong app discovery service and app management services for
enterprises.

SlideME
Android only app discovery
Has an Online store which can compete with stores of carriers and
OEMs.

Appitalism and Appolicious

App discovery
Has an Online store which can compete with stores of carriers and
OEMs
 USPs
For Developers
Appia has partnership with individual developers for free and paid apps
just like eBay and Amazon has with individuals(anyone can sell).
Developers can quote their own prices
Advertising charges are based on number of downloads
Developers can choose geographical regions/languages to target
Developers can expect greater traffic due to partnerships with carries
and OEMs.
Greater traffic will in turn mean greater revenues for both developers
and company
For Channel Partners
While label apps
Highly customizable content catalog
Apps ratings and reviews

Apart from MobiHand, Inc. ,Appia doesnt have any direct

competitor for these USPs.

Source Company Website

 Potential Buyers
Vertical Merger
Buyers in this category can be any
Channel Partner.
Potential Buyers:
Vodafone, AT&T, Verizon
Following phone manufacturers
can also acquire:
Nokia, RIM, Samsung.
However app base may prove to be
too wide to derive a value out of
acquisition for a phone
manufacturer.
Horizontal Merger
MobiHand is a mobile app
supermarket and some common
partners with Appia. One of those
markets has similar business model
as Appia
Iambic develops apps for all major
OS platforms and to gain audience
it may either partner with appia or
acquire it altogether