App Indexing, Predictive Services, And Unlocking Mobile Distribution

There is a perfect storm brewing in consumer mobile: Developers, companies, and investors see the explosive growth of smartphones (with no sign of slowing down), yet consumers only have so much bandwidth to interact with a small set of apps, let alone enough time in the day for another app. Consumer eyeballs are fixated on smartphones, triggering once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for application creators to reinvent products, interactions, and industries, but tragically, limited means of getting their creations discovered, or reengaged with, or paid through them. The result, for the time being, is driving app installs and engagement is all the rage, as companies frantically line Facebooks pockets to help drive downloads and retention of their mobile apps while a bustling ecosystem of third-party app analytic providers wait to scoop up the remains. Something has to give, right?