In a few short days, on January 21st, App47 will hit a big milestone: 7 years in business.
When we opened up our doors in 2011, the mobile app market looked quite a bit different than it does now.
Consider a few milestones: the iPhone was, at that point, just 4 years old. (The iPhone 4S was the latest model of the day.) Apple’s App Store was not yet 3 years old. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, today at over 25,000 points, had not yet passed the 12,000 point mark since the recession. And, in perhaps the most telling figure of all, the most popular app of the year was–wait for it–Angry Birds.
The mobile app market has evolved significantly since we opened our doors 7 years ago. So too has App47. When we first opened for business, our bread and butter was mobile application management by way of enterprise app stores. Although enterprise mobility was relatively nascent at the time, companies were already starting to realize a need for apps in the workplace, and for a better way to manage the many devices that were starting to make their way into the enterprise.
Today, while enterprise app stores still comprise a significant and important part of our business, demand is growing every day for embedded app stores–a tool that helps companies increase the functionality of their products through existing mobile app technology. We’ve already proclaimed that in 2018, embedded app stores will be king at App47. These embedded app stores share a lot of technology with enterprise app stores of years past, so while this seems like a seismic shift, you can really just think of it as a different prioritization of features within our business.
Part of running a successful company is being able to recognize when the market is changing–and we’re doing just that. The preferred method of app distribution has come to fruition in a different way than we thought it would. Although there’s still a lot happening with enterprise app stores, we see more opportunity and value on the horizon with the enterprise machine. (Before you ask: we aren’t abandoning enterprise app stores. They remain an important part of our business.)
As we look towards the future, it’s fun to look back and see how much things have changed since we opened for business some 7 years ago. Angry Birds has come and gone, and we’ve got our eyes set on the enterprise machine, but there’s a lot to be excited about in the coming months and years. Here’s to more exciting things ahead, and many more exciting anniversaries for App47!
