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The Google Apps Marketplace has launched a YouTube channel to promote its third-party partners. Less than a third of the vendors have posted videos to the YouTube channel. Google Apps is not rocket science but the idea of integrating third-party applications into Google Apps is a new concept for most customers. The YouTube channel will by no means make an app successful. But it does provide a channel to explain what the product does and how it fits with Google Apps Marketplace. And the video can be used in different channels, too, such as on a blog or Facebook. Sponsor So far, the YouTube channel includes 16 videos. Overall, 60 vendors are now part of the Google Apps Marketplace. Some of the videos are pretty professional, done in the Common Craft vein. But surprisingly, many are pretty mediocre, telling us little about the products and how they integrate with Google Apps Marketplace. Others tell too much about how the product works, not providing a clear value statement about the integration. Of the videos on the YouTube channel, Aviary is one of our favorites. Aviary is a service with tools to create graphics, edit images and do basic design. In smart fashion, Aviary then uses its blog to show how they used their own tools to produce the video. Jira Studios from Atassian is a service to manage software development projects. It's short and to the point, telling us why the service is a value to customers. The YouTube video from Concur Breeze is entertaining but it does not explain the product at all. Only in the last few seconds do we see someone doing their expenses online using the Concur product. On the contrary, Expensify gets right to the point. It's just 32 seconds. It looks like a video the founder made it with a USB microphone but that's okay. He gets to the point - fast. Mindmeister is mind mapping tool. They show the problem that comes when fleshing out ideas then go directly into a demo of how the product work and fits with Google Apps Marketplace. Drawloop has a complex product to explain but 2:42 is a bit too long for most people. Tell this story in less than 90 seconds and we think it could have a lot more value for the viewer. Conclusion The vendors that created videos for Google Apps Marketplace deserve some credit for at least taking advantage of the YouTube channel. But what is it about trying to be cute? Some of these videos are like advertisements. That can be fine and well for a blog or for an event but it seems like a lost opportunity for a YouTube channel on Google Apps Marketplace. Discuss
Excerpt from:
The Good and the Bad of a new YouTube Channel for Google Apps Marketplace
Tags:
common-craft,
concur,
concur-breeze,
google apps,
integration,
marketplace,
news,
point,
product,
video,
videos,
viewer,
YouTube
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The arrival of Apple's App Store in 2008 changed the marketplace for mobile developers and mobile carriers alike. The App Store changed the perception of what an app store for mobile devices should look like and started a new arms race among mobile carriers and handset manufacturers. According to a new survey by market research firm Nielsen , however, Apple is still ahead of its competitors. Apple's customers install more applications on their device than users of any other platform and Apple's customers are also more satisfied with Apple's app store than the users of any other app store. Sponsor Apps Installed Per Device iPhone users have installed an average of 37 applications on their devices - more than the users on any other smartphone platform - while Blackberry users only use 10 apps on their phones. Android users have around 22 apps on their phones, followed by Palm users (14) and Windows Mobile users (13). Unsurprisingly, feature phone users don't install a lot of apps on their devices. Only 12% of cell phone users with feature phones downloaded an app in the last 30 days. In contrast to this, about 46% of smartphone owners installed an app in the last month. App Stores With regards to the popularity of different app stores, Nielsen's data isn't that interesting, as most users don't really have a choice. Apple's App Store is the most used mobile app store and has captured 25% of the market, followed by Blackberry's App World Store (16%). Carrier stores run by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are also still very popular and have a market share between 8% (T-Mobile) and 15% (Verizon). The Android Market only had about a 2% market share by the end of 2009, but given the small number of devices on the market at that time, this number will surely grow in 2010 as more device manufactures add Android devices to their lineup. Customer Satisfaction When it comes to customer satisfaction, Apple's App Store and the Android Market are far ahead of their competitors. 84% of Apple's users are satisfied with the user experience in the iTunes store and 81% of Android users are happy about their experience. All the other stores, however, still have a lot of catching up to do. In Nielsen's survey, the Windows Marketplace ranked the lowest (56%), followed by the Blackberry App World store (58%). Discuss
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Apple's App Store Still Ranks Highest in Customer Satisfaction, Android Close Second
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competitors,
devices,
itunes,
market,
marketplace,
mobile,
perception,
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Store,
user,
users,
windows
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We store music on iTunes despite its stringent DRM, preventing us from freely sharing music. But like any innovation in the marketplace, it takes time for us to determine what is acceptable and what is not. The promise of cloud computing and the ability to store limitless amounts of music may perhaps be that turning point. But it could also mark a more stringent time than we have ever known. Sponsor Canonical has unveiled the public beta of its Ubuntu One music store that gives a glimpse of what cloud computing may offer as an alternative to storing music on our hard drives or a proprietary service like iTunes. This is new territory. As Canonical point out, integrating a cloud service like Ubuntu One with buying music is new for digital music stores. Ubuntu One serves as a desktop music service that stores the music in the cloud and syncs it with your computer. It allows someone to purchase music and then store it in their Ubuntu One account . Ubuntu One also serves as a service to store other kinds of information such as images or documents. The service will go live in late April to coincide with Ubuntu's new release . In the meantime, Canonical is looking for beta testers to give it a try. Helpful infomation is on the Popey blog : As with everything in Ubuntu Lucid, the developers are keen to get people testing the store before Lucid is shipped at the end of April. If you're running Ubuntu Lucid either on bare metal or inside a Virtual Machine, it would help greatly if you could take some time to test this new functionality. So far only a very limited number of beta testers have been using the store, so opening up the store to public scrutiny should generate plenty of feedback to the developers. These are the early days of music services that allows you to purchase, store music in the cloud and sync with your computer or smartphone And it comes with definite kinks. The Ubuntu One service is free for up to 2 gigabytes of storage. If you go beyond that you start to pay. That could happen pretty quickly as people can use the service to store any kind of information they want. Plus, there are the copyright laws that have had to be taken into consideration for the service. Music, in some respects, defines how we view the ways we store information. Music is deeply personal. We want easy access to it. We want it always to be there. Cloud services may provide this capability but they also run the risk of acting as walled gardens that can be controlled perhaps even more easily than a service like iTunes. Discuss
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Canonical Ubuntu One Music Service Goes Into Public Beta
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cloud,
cloud computing,
copyright,
deeply-personal,
developers,
drm,
marketplace,
music,
Store,
ubuntu,
ubuntu-lucid,
using-the-store,
virtual,
virtual-machine
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Since the announcement went live yesterday about the Google Marketplace , we've had a number of companies come to us about how its applications will fit with the service. We'll do a fuller look at these companies this week but for some immediate perspective we decided to take a look at Zoho , a service that competes with Google Apps. So it is it interesting that the company joined Google Apps Marketplace in its launch. Sponsor Buy why would Zoho offer its applications to integrate with Google? Yes, the companies compete. But Raju Vegesna of Zoho says that it is far more important to complement Google Apps. Over the past few years the company has worked to make it simple for Zoho customers to use its services in tandem with Google Apps. Zoho offers Google Sign-in, Google Apps Sign-in and recently it integrated with Google Docs. Vegesna gave us three reasons why Zoho decided to be part of the launch. His perspectives should provide some insights about the symbiotic relationship Google Apps Marketplace will foster. Extending The Relationship For many developers, integrating with Google Apps represents a significant business opportunity. Google announced at its launch that it passed the 25 million customer mark over the weekend. Vegesna: "First, we have 50% more apps than Google, especially on the business side (CRM, Project Management, Web Conferencing etc). This means, these additional apps can really complement Google Apps. Google has over 20 million users on G Apps and our Business apps can be sold to those customers. " Google Dominates The Landscape To play in this era, you have to play with Google. They dominate as much as any company has in the past 30 years. The domination in large part is now solidified by its investment in its cloud infrastructure. Vegesna: "Second, we understand that this is going to be a Google dominated eco-system (IBM dominated Mainframe era, Microsoft dominated PC era and Google will dominate the web era) and we wanted to be an important player in this web era. We talked more about this here and here ." A Platform Built On Email, Not CRM Yesterday, we touched on why the marketplace makes sense for companies standardized on Google Apps. With all the contacts in one place, people can add applications to fine tune Google Apps. Does a company start with the same foundation if the platform is built on CRM? Vegesna: "Third, when someone builds a platform, email is a great app to build the platform around, rather than CRM (which salesforce did). We think it'll be a good and succesful platform for online apps which will move the web app momentum forward and we want to be a key player (the same way Adobe was a key player in PC era)." For more about the Zoho integration: Discuss
Excerpt from:
Insights: Three Reasons Why Zoho Joined the Google Apps Marketplace
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announcement,
Business,
companies,
google apps,
google-sign-in,
landscape,
marketplace,
Microsoft,
news,
platform,
project
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Google launched an application marketplace today comprised of services from third-party providers that integrate with the Google Apps ecosystem. The news has been anticipated for some time. In particular, it shows how much Google is embracing open-standards and leveraging its search and Google Apps platform to attract third-party developers. Sponsor Google made the announcement at its Google Campfire One event tonight. The emphasis Google is putting on the enterprise is apparent in how much attention the company put into the event. Over and over we heard that Google passed the 25 million customer mark over the weekend. It is that mark that Google is using as its hook for attracting developers to its platform. Developers will be charged $100 to join the program. With that entrance fee, they may add as many apps as they wish to the Google Apps Marketplace. The marketplace supports OpenID to provide a single sign-on for developers. Authorization is integrated into the platform. The customers get access through OAuth, the open standard for authorizing users. A "manifest page" is the foundation for the service. The developers provides information when adding the application to the marketplace that identifies it. Developers then provide additional information about the product. The system is a controlled. Application developers submit the app for approval, which might take a few days. Intuit provided an example of how the system works by showing how payroll could be managed. The customer accesses the account. With Google Apps integration, the customer accesses an account where they have the employee information. It's that collected contact network that is then integrated with the payroll application. Atlassian showed how Studio, its project management application, would integrate with GMail and Google Apps. Again, if the company is standardized on Google Apps, the information is available through the network. Manymoon is another project mangement application that was demonstrated. It uses Google Apps to develop features such as a calendar, showing how a startup can leverage Google Apps to add features to its service. Other companies that were a part of the initial launch include Socialwok and Appirio . At its core, the marketplace is built upon Google's search capabilities. Google Apps can be extended with applications. In turn, developers have access to the built-in capabilities of Google Apps. Perhaps the greatest value to customers will be if they are centralized on Google Apps. If so, they can get some pretty powerful capabilities of the marketplace. Discuss
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Google Launches Apps Marketplace for the Enterprise
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announcement,
application,
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enterprise,
google-campfire,
marketplace,
network,
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project