Category Archives: Ecommerce

Kindle Fire Makes Amazon Appstore Cozy for Devs

Some developers are creation some-more income by showcasing their things in Amazon’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) Appstore instead of Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android Market, according to investigate from Distimo.

The mobile analytics organisation looked during a 110 apps permitted in both online stores that generated during slightest US$200 per day in income during a final week of January. Of those, 42 warranted some-more income sitting in a Amazon Appstore than they did in a incomparable Android Market. The Appstore also accounted for 28 percent of a sum income from a tip 110 sellers.

Much of a Appstore’s success came interjection to a recover of a Kindle Fire, according to a report. Amazon’s Appstore had a 14-fold boost in app downloads during December, when a inscription was released, compared to October.

The total impute to U.S. sales only, given a Amazon Appstore is not permitted anywhere else. Neither Amazon nor Google responded to a requests for comment.

Fire Makes Amazon Apps Hot

Google’s Market is still a Android app store personality in terms of sales and size, charity about 14 times some-more applications than Amazon’s Appstore. But a launch of a Kindle Fire gave Amazon’s one-year-old Appstore a reason to keep growing. After a tablet’s release, a series of new apps in a Google Android Market dipped to only 5 times a series of new apps in a Amazon Appstore.

“We remarkable that in January, about 70 percent some-more apps were combined to a Amazon Appstore than in December,” Hendrik Koekkoek, researcher during Distimo, told a E-Commerce Times. “One of a reasons for a boost in focus expansion in Jan could be that a formula of expansion in terms of downloads in a Amazon Appstore were commencement to show.”

It’s different now either Kindle Fire sales are going to stay high, or if Amazon will be charity some-more hardware offerings to contest on a broader range in a inscription market. If developers can keep saying a remunerative lapse on a apps they’re fixation into Amazon’s Appstore, though, Koekkoek pronounced a store could keep a movement going.

“Since a comparatively high download volumes in a Amazon Appstore continued during January, we consider that a high focus expansion will continue as well,” he said.

Challenges for Android Marketplace

Amazon has other factors operative in a preference as well. Google combined an app store that minimized exclusion, where developers of all sizes could sell apps of all levels of quality. The store shortly collected hundreds of thousands of apps. Though a Android Market has some-more to offer, though, infrequently smaller, some-more curated stores are some-more appealing to consumers not peaceful to collect by thousands of decaying apps to find a gem.

“The Amazon knowledge in some ways is some-more same to iTunes than it is to a Android Market,” Aaron Watkins, cofounder of Appency and researcher during GigaOM Pro told a E-Commerce Times. “The Android Market is still a Wild West in some ways, with apps that pile-up and are ripoffs of other apps are most some-more expected to be found in a Android Market than in other app stores due to a open nature.”

Also like iTunes, it’s imperative to supplement remuneration information on logging into Amazon’s Appstore, creation a one-click squeeze discerning and easy.

In Google’s Android Market, Koekkoek said, a user can record in with a Google comment though but comparing it with a remuneration method, so requiring an additional step if a squeeze is to be made. “Therefore, purchasing apps is reduction permitted in this store,” he said.

But some-more severe for Google than a process of remuneration is indeed removing apps to be purchased in a initial place. The series of paid apps is dwindling in a Android Market, according to Distino. The past 7 months saw a dump in a suit of paid apps in a store from 38 to 32 percent. The commission of paid apps in Amazon’s Appstore is solid around 65 percent.

“Angry Birds Season,” for instance, a top-selling app on all platforms, is 99 cents on a iPhone, 99 cents from a Amazon AppStore, and free, with ads, in a Android Market. The probable arise of a Amazon Appstore and iTunes’ ability to monetize a offerings, then, is a stability plea to a approach a Android Market earns revenue.

“Many developers have given adult on creation income by approach sales on a Android Market. Google shot themselves in a feet when they launched it, creation it tough for developers in many countries to make apps paid. This led them to selecting a giveaway track and training Android consumers to design all for free,” pronounced Watkins.

Article source: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/74485.html

Can a Nook Find Its Niche?

Barnes Noble (NYSE: BKS) expelled a new Nook Tablet Tuesday, shred US$50 off a cost and shortening a storage by half. The new price, $199, matches Amazon’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) Kindle Fire. The new Nook emulates a Fire on a series of fronts — cost and 8 GB storage. The new Nook comes with a 1 GHz dual-core processor and a container for a microSD label that will reason adult to 32 GB.

BN also forsaken a cost of a Nook Color e-reader $30 to $169.

Amazon exhilarated adult a inscription marketplace final tumble when it deliver a Kindle Fire during a cost that many cruise a loss-leader, counting on calm sales to expostulate profit. BN needs some glow of a possess now.

The association reported third-quarter benefit on Tuesday, a same day a Nook Tablet was released. Although income grew 5 percent, distinction forsaken 14 percent. Bam;N expects Nook business to beget $1.5 billion in sales over a entrance year.

Compared to Kindle Fire

With a cost of $199, it’s flattering transparent BN is looking for a square of a movement Amazon has influenced in a past few months. As for hardware and software, a new Nook appears some-more like a Fire than it does any of a other inscription contenders.

“It does demeanour like BN done a clever bid to compare a Fire’s specs,” Neil Mawston, executive of tellurian wireless use during Strategy Analytics, told a E-Commerce Times. “The 8 GB’s cost dump from $249 to $199 is a strongest indication.”

The Nook also maintains a 7-inch form factor, he noted.

“BN is gripping a newest charity in a reduce finish of a inscription market,” pronounced Mawston. “They’re fundamentally staying divided from competing with Apple.”

BN will have a tough time reaching a high bar Amazon set, however.

“The new Nook Tablet compares pretty good with Amazon’s Fire in terms of hardware, though it is still lagging in terms of a calm ecosystem,” Stephanie Ethier, comparison researcher during In-Stat, told a E-Commerce Times. “Amazon’s charity of digital and earthy products is deeper and broader than Nook’s offering.”

Selling during a Loss?

One of a distinguished aspects of a Fire is that it seems to be offered during a loss, presumably to expostulate calm purchases. Teardowns of a Fire prove a components alone can sum $199. The Nook might be a tad different.

“BN is expected to be self-subsidizing a Nook reduction than Amazon is self-subsidizing a Fire,” pronounced Mawston.

BN can’t means as vast a subsidy, in his view. “Amazon’s pockets are deeper, and a financial health is comparatively strong.”

The some-more costly chronicle of a Nook was self-supporting, BN noted, though a new chronicle could be a opposite story.

“In a benefit call, there was anxiety to a strange inscription now being gross-margin positive. This summary was not steady about a new $199 model,” Peter King, executive of inscription and touchscreen strategies during Strategy Analytics, told a E-Commerce Times. “This leads us to consider that for now, during least, a indication is being subsidized in sequence to benefit income from calm serve down a line.”

Is self-subsidy an effective business model? It might count on what we have to sell. A intensity Nook spinoff might also be partial of a equation.

“If we are perplexing to emanate a short-term gratefulness of a Nook business, it would be profitable to uncover a high uptake of devices, and a reduce ASP would capacitate that,” pronounced King. “However, on a downside, stating comparatively short-term total of calm sales would be negative. Overall, it is not an surprising business indication for those that have a device and calm ecosystem.”

Who Needs a Nook?

So who needs a Nook? Why would someone buy a Nook when a Fire, with a incomparable ecosystem, comes during a same price?

“We trust a initial aim assembly for a Nook Tablet will be middle-income males and females aged 30 to 65 vital in civic and suburban areas,” pronounced Mawston. “Yet a Nook inscription will be competing in an increasingly swarming market.”

BN will need to scream really shrill to get itself listened above a sound of Amazon and others, Mawston said.

Ultimately, consumers will expected emporium content, given a Nook and a Fire are identical in cost and function, and in that contest, BN will have to work tough to win a sale.

“The cold law is that BN doesn’t have a clever calm charity that Amazon has,” pronounced Ethier.

Kindle Fire owners are means to entrance distant some-more than books on their devices, she noted.

“Amazon offers a stronger ecosystem,” pronounced In-Stat’s Ethier. “BN has a edition library, though in a end, we still consider a Color Nook lineup is directed during zealous readers who wish color, notwithstanding a fact that it’s positioned as a tablet.”

Article source: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/74476.html

Yelp Steps Out on IPO High Wire With Cautious Pricing

Yelp, a online internal examination service, expects to sell 7.15 million shares in a IPO, during US$12 to $14 each. The sum intensity take is $100 million. The association will list a batch on a New York Stock Exchange underneath a pitch “YELP.”

Yelp’s cost aim values a association during roughly $778 million, about 9 times final year’s sales. That compares to Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) IPO during 5 times sales and Yahoo’s (Nasdaq: YHOO) IPO during 4 times sales. Yelp listed both Google and Yahoo as competitors in a IPO filing.

Yelp claims about 66 million singular visitors per month and has about 25 million sum reviews of internal businesses such as restaurants, dentists and salons.

The Goldman Sachs Group is heading a IPO, with additional partners that embody Citigroup and Jefferies and Co.

A Goldilocks Price

The cost of Yelp shares might be low adequate for humility, while high adequate for credibility.

“I consider a $12 to $14 share cost is a good one,” Laura DiDio, principal researcher during ITIC, told a E-Commerce Times. “The pretence with a gratefulness is to keep it on a reduce finish with a medium IPO.”

It is critical for Yelp to lift money though not lift expectations so high that a share cost falls in a following 48 hours, DiDio said. It’s a balancing act.

“They also don’t wish to be a penny stock,” she added. “The cost here is in line. This will let them beget money to deposit in a company.”

Yelp has picked a unequivocally good time to go public, pronounced DiDio.

“Yelp’s value could go aloft formed on what’s function in a market,” she said. “We’re in a longhorn marketplace here. The marketplace has been buoyed by Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) flitting a $500 market.”

The stream marketplace is a many confident we’ve seen for some time, DiDio continued. “Yelp could locate some of that call and boyant on it.”

Even so, she sees intensity problem for a company. “Yelp had scarcely a $17 million detriment final year. Yet their income climbed by 74 percent. If they can lift $100 million, that helps.”

Plenty of Risk

Yelp’s plea will be to expostulate promotion in a unequivocally rival market.

“Yelp is positively large adequate now to make this IPO legitimate,” Zeus Kerravala, principal researcher with ZK Research, told a E-Commerce Times. “Yet there is risk in this. The value that some of these sites have is in a distance of their community.”

Even given a village of some-more than 60 million visitors, branch eyeballs into ad dollars is difficult.

“It’s never unequivocally been proven what value there is in a site like Yelp,” pronounced Kerravala. “Going open is a approach to find out.”

There is usually so most ad income to go around, Kerravala remarked. “So we consternation — is this is a Internet of 1999, where there was a lot of value associated to a Internet that wasn’t proven?Now it’s about amicable networking. Some will tarry and some won’t.”

When it comes down to it, Yelp’s intensity value is only not clear, he said. “If Yelp doesn’t get acquired by someone, their destiny is not assured. This is one of a some-more unsure IPOs.”

Article source: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/74464.html