Applications – the new multimillion dollar business?
It all started with Apple’s App Store and it turned into an avalanche almost unstoppable.
Today you can get all kinds of applications for an ever growing number of different phones. Or even cars!
Rumor has it that BMW is working on an own application store where you can download apps to implement in your car. Yes, I mean it. At this year’s IAA automobile fair in Frankfurt, BMW presented a small glimpse of what is yet to come.
BMW onboard app
Based on BMW Connected Drive, this new new technology could enable you to download local maps on the go (or rather on the drive), update your car’s operating system with whatever application is useful. Stay in touch with friends – no problem with facebook on board. Or Twitter the most recent traffic jams right to the global web audience. You could also access personal music libraries while driving miles away from your home.
Applications are everywhere, and they grow at an enormous pace. You will barely be able to surf on facebook or myspace without encountering Farmland, CastleAge or some useless cookie surprises. But if you thought this was just the output of second-rate developers or bored geeks, you may find your facebook account the center of a multimillion dollar industry. In recent times, purchases of such app businesses have reached triple digit millions. Electronic Arts acquired Playfish for up to $400 million and now the creators of blockbusters such as Farmland and MafiaWars are estimated at almost a billion dollars. Bloomberg reports that “if the IPO [for Zynga] were timed to price around mid-2010 or later, our expectation would be for a billion dollar or greater valuation.” As cute as the Farmland animals may be, this is serious business, almost billion dollar business. Let’s see how classical game producers such as EA, Ubisoft, or Nintendo react to this. One solution seems promising: Buy them now while they are still available at a fair price. Whatever a fair price may be….
Image source: BMW Deutschland
