PPA Conference 2010: Publishers struggling to generate revenue from apps

Gavin Dutch, managing director of Loc8 Solutions, speaking at a session examining the ‘iPhone revolution', said the new model, known as inapp payment, should join the more widely used paid-for and ad-supported app models to help publishers monestise their apps.
 
The inapp payment method, which has only had a small uptake so far, allows publishers to showcase content before charging users.
 
Dutch said: "At the moment, it is hard to make significant revenues compared to the market size."

Amazon's e-reader Kindle got blasted by another speaker at the conference, Adam Tinworth, head of blogging at Reed Business Information, who proclaimed it was "stuffed" as a piece of hardware and could only work as a platform-agnostic distributor.
 
Gavin Dutch pointed out that many publishers had yet to embrace content that was locally relevant and incorporate geolocation tools in their apps which would make the user experience a richer one.
 
"The whole experience needs to be tailored to their [the users'] goals," Dutch said.

More from the PPA Conference

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Future chief says magazines will become 'collectable artefacts'

Publishers divided over value of UGC

GNM leader charts the erosion of magazines

Bauer shifts away from ad-funded models for online brands

Facebook executive admits site's privacy failings

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk