In the last couple of weeks, we’ve talked through two big facets of customization with App47: product extensions and a concept we call “enterprise integration.” This week, we’re going to round off the series with a concept you may not be familiar with: embedded app stores.
Unlike the other two customization elements we discussed in this series, which are likely to be pain points for the person at a company charged with deploying a BYOD strategy, the person at a company most likely to care about embedded app stores is a product manager who has either gone digital or is going digital. In their case, they’re taking what was traditionally a closed system—something with a dedicated LCD monitor, perhaps—and modernizing them with internet connectivity and other features.
The advent of commercial-grade hardware has changed the equation for product managers. New hardware with a standard UI that looks and feels the same (and in some cases is the same) as consumer-grade hardware requires less training than older dedicated products. As a product manager, now that you’ve taken that step in the modernization process, ask yourself: is the interface you’re serving only dedicated to a specific product, or is there additional functionality you would like to provide through an embedded app store?
Certainly, you could do all of this through Google Play—the big challenges there being that Google is going to take a cut of proceeds, that you don’t own the UI, and that the customer experience isn’t exactly tailored when you’re sending them to a public app store. On the other hand, if you use your own app store, you own the experience and can make better guarantees about security and consistency. So: how do you implement an embedded app store?
You could build one on your own. Or, you could engage with a company like App47. We’ll take our standard app store, bring it to your product, and do our part with a bit of integration that uniquely ties your app store in with your product. This is more than just throwing a style sheet on our app store. It’s an engaged partnership where we sit down with your team, go through things screen-by-screen, match fonts, colors, and UI flows, and ultimately, develop the user experience you want for your customer.
The end result is a digital product with internet capability and the UI you want. The embedded app store will extend your digital product, and, if your ecosystem is large enough, you can bring in third parties. Everything opens up because we’re able to bring our product to you in a customized, tightly integrated way. Our customers that have products with embedded app stores are typically very pleased with the additional functionality built out within them. An embedded app store is a terrific way to expand a product or line of products.
Want to learn more about our customization process, or how an embedded app store might benefit your business? Contact us at sales@app47.com to get the conversation started!
