The idea behind wholesale application placement company Appbackr is an interesting one. We covered their launch earlier this year by wondering 'when and why should developers sell their apps wholesale?' Recently, Appbackr has added a new tool, called XChange, that serves as a data analysis tool to can optimize when and how developers use the wholesale services and help get developers paid.
Developers do not often think of their apps in the typical terms of 'product.' Yes, it is a product, but the fundamental nature of product is that it needs to be stored, transferred and eventually sold to consumers or thrown away. For the top apps, that is not a problem. Appbackr's XChange program looks to help the developer middle class.
People that know me or have read my bio know that I used to be a chef. I spent years in the culinary industry ordering produce, meat, fish and staples like flour, coffee and sugar. My job was to then turn that product into something that people will want to spend money on, hopefully multiple times.
Think of Appbackr as the produce delivery people. Application stores are restaurants. The developers are the cooks. In the value chain of a restaurant, the produce people collect food from the farmers (or larger wholesalers) and bring it to the right place to be sold. There are sometimes seasonal or interesting products that the purveyor will want to sell to certain restaurants. Fresh abalone? Give me a call.
That is what XChange does. It gives developers a data analysis tool so that their abalone (app) can get to the right restaurant (app store). There are literally hundreds of different app stores out there that could give developers a better channel than just wallowing in the middle of the Apple App Store or the Android Market.
Appbackr is bringing traditional business intelligence to a market vertical that does not always think in terms of traditional business intelligence. It is at once a very forward-looking concept while taking an approach from the past.
'We are working on being the Amazon App Store for the upper middle class of developer, ' Appbackr CEO and founder Trevor Cornwell said in a recent conversation with ReadWriteMobile. 'We are fragmenting segmenting the Android Market and making it easier to work with us.'
Update: Fixed the quote from Cornwell for accuracy.
Appbackr XChange will attempt to optimize an app for best monetization approaches. Is it a premium Android game that needs a boost to get it out of the second tier of the Market? Perhaps GetJar is the best place for it. Have a reading app with a potentially high female demographic? The Barnes & Noble Nook store, perhaps.
'We are kind of a traffic cop to move apps in the right way,' Cornwell said. 'Like an agency model for apps.'
Note: XChange is not quite ready yet but developers can register for early access to the program at Appbackr's website.
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