News & Updates

AppDirect Report: One in Five Top Companies Operate App Marketplaces

By Daniel Saks / Nov 12, 2013

The app economy is one of today’s hottest technology topics. There’s no shortage of news articles and analyst reports covering app trends and predictions, from available apps, to app downloads, to app revenue, to mobile device market share, and beyond.

At AppDirect, we decided to explore the app economy from a different perspective. Instead of focusing on mobile or end users, we examined how the biggest companies in the United States—the Fortune 500—are influencing application distribution and development.

The result is our inaugural Fortune 500 App Report, a unique look at apps and app marketplaces across the top companies in the U.S. The report contains newly discovered data, including the fact that almost one in five Fortune 100 companies operate app marketplaces, and that the majority of these online stores focus on Software-as-a-Service apps, not mobile apps.

The report includes numerous other insights, among them:

• App marketplaces are the Fortune 500’s preferred method of app distribution by an overwhelming margin, 99 percent
   
• 66 percent of Fortune 500 companies offer apps, while 84 percent of Fortune 100 companies do
   
• 37 percent of app stores operated by the Fortune 500 do not offer full marketplace functionality
   
• Telecom companies lead all industries in offering third-party apps (at 53 percent), confirming analyst predictions that service providers are becoming central hubs for app distribution

As the report shows, enterprises are realizing that app marketplaces are an ideal way to deliver software. Not only are they easy for customers to use, but they enable companies to build ecosystems around software in a way that benefits developers, as well as their own bottom lines.

We invite you to view our Fortune 500 App Report infographic, as well as download the full report, and explore how enterprises are embracing apps and app marketplaces as a key business strategy.

Click here to download the 2013 Fortune 500 App Report infographic.