There is a tremendous growth in mobile app market which has opened up new areas of opportunities for developers to build apps and monetize on. However, statistics prove that mobile app market is yet to be matured.
The research done by Google demonstrates that there is a high demand for apps which are created to address local needs. As per the statistics, 90% of the mobile searches are related to local information, while a whopping 86% of purchasing decisions are made based on this information. This establishes that today’s consumer behavior relies heavily upon information on mobile devices. Nevertheless, with over 60% of consumers being more aware of the credit card risks than ever before, there is an increased level of hesitancy in paying over a mobile device, (Syntel Telecom, 2014), making simplified payments like mobile payment instruments more popular especially in emerging markets.
Considering these facts, it seems that Telco operators are yet to realize and utilize their competencies in order to become prominent players of the mobile applications and corresponding mobile app-store market.
Telcos can come into play in this arena by securely exposing API service capabilities to third-party enterprises and application developers to create Telco applications that can address local needs and enable simplified payments with customer’s mobile accounts.
In order to pursue on a successful API initiative, Telcos need to consider developers as value added application resellers, and turn their network services into resources that can be accessed via APIs.
