Factors influencing the pricing of applications in the Apple App Store: A developers\u2019 perspective

Many know how Apple Inc. owes its success in Mobile Commerce to the introduction of the new \u201cApp Store\u201d business model. This new market is characterized by the opening to third party mobile apps, which are distributed to consumers through the App Store. This paper investigates factors that might influence the pricing of applications in the Apple Mobile Application Store. By reviewing the existing literature on the issue and analyzing the strategic features characterizing the App Store, we detect three main factors that could influence prices for apps, that is the number of developed apps, the presence of two-sided network externalities and developer\u2019s specialization. An empirical analysis on data from 68,220 apps downloaded from the Italian App Store is used to test the hypotheses. Regression results support our hypotheses. We argue, that even if the research here presented can be considered as a started analysis to the pricing problem in such markets, this work may have important managerial implication for the thousands of developers that are competing in this emerging market

Measuring Mobile Portal User Satisfaction

With the rapid advancement of mobile technology, smart devices have challenged the extant research concerned with time and space. Based on a user’s specific interests, mobile portals allow quick and easy access, anywhere, anytime to a world of data, applications and services. Whilst this provides an enhanced, dynamic and personalized user experience, knowing how satisfied users are with their mobile portal is crucial to understanding users’ needs, identifying important factors in the improvement of existing mobile portals and enhancing Information Technology (IT)-related business value. The study extends research knowledge about user satisfaction to the context of mobile portals. Secondly it contributes knowledge regarding mobile portals, particularly concerning post-adoption mobile portal user satisfaction. Thirdly, the research contributes a new reliable and valid instrument to measure user satisfaction with mobile portals – a contribution to the research stream within the IS literature concerned with measurement

Corporate web portal as a business enabler

Tämän diplomityön tarkoitus oli tutkia web-portaalien hyötyjä yritysten liiketoiminnassa, selventää siihen kuuluvia teknisiä elementtejä ja web-portaalien tarkoitusta. Tarkoituksena on myös avata web-portaalin määritelmää ja esitellä erilaisia portaalityyppejä. Tämä työ keskittyy yrityksen tyypillisiin portaaliratkaisuihin, joita ovat yritysten väliset (B2B) portaaliratkaisut ja yritysten työntekijöille tarjoamat portaalipalvelut (B2E). Portaalisovellus perustuu yleensä monikerrosarkkitehtuuriin ja tarjoaa palveluita. Nämä palvelut koostuvat teknologiasta ja liiketoiminnasta. Teknologian avustuksella ominaisuuksiin kuuluu informaation yhdistäminen monista eri lähteistä ja siksi web-portaalit voidaan nähdä yhdyskäytävänä tietoon ja palveluihin. Portaalisovelluksen kehys on rakennettu joustavasti ja siihen on mahdollista sovittaa Web 2.0:n ominaisuuksia, kuten esimerkiksi Web Service-palvelu. Käytännön osuus tässä työssä oli suunnitella ja toteuttaa kaksi muokkausta asiakkuudenhallinnan (CRM) portaaliratkaisuun. Käytettävä ohjelmistoalusta oli valmisohjelmana (COTS) myytävän ohjelmiston mukana tullut JBOSS-sovellusalusta ja muokkaukset toteutettiin uusina portletteina ohjelmistoon. Toteutettavat portletit yhdistivät dynaamista tietoa ja grafiikkaa. Toinen muokkauksista sisälsi myös karttalinkki mashup-sovelluksen. /Kir12The aim of this study was to examine the benefits of a web portal for corporate business, to clarify technical elements and the purpose of a web portal. Thus the aim is to define the concept of a web portal and to different types of portals. This thesis concentrates on business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-employee portal (B2E) solutions which are the typical forms of a corporate web portal. Web portal application typically uses multitier architecture and includes different services. These services combine technology and business. With help of technology information can be aggregated from various sources and web portal can be seen as a gateway to information and services. Web portal applications are flexible solutions, their framework can adapt Web 2.0 features like Web Services. The practical part of this thesis was to design and develope two customizations in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) portal application. The platform used was Commercially available Off-The-Shelf (COTS) bundled JBOSS Application Server and the customizations were created as new portlets. The portlets created combine dynamic data and graphics, one of the portlets includes map location mashup application

An Investigation into the Adoption, Implementation and Utilisation of Campus Portals: A Comparative Case Study of Saudi and U.K. Universities.

Enterprise Information Portals (EIPs) have become crucial components in contemporary organisations, including universities. Campus portals (CPs) have found their way into the academic environment and universities are increasingly implementing these technologies. While there are many studies concerning EIPs in organisations, there are few studies that touch this issue in the academic environment. This study investigates factors affecting the adoption, implementation and utilisation of CPs from the implementers’ and users’ perspectives. It adopts a comparative approach based on multiple case studies in some Saudi and UK universities. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and documentation, which was analysed using hermeneutics and other qualitative data analysis techniques. Findings show that adoption and implementation of CPs are affected by factors including: technological, organisational, environmental, financial, innovation and user-related factors. Results from the users perspective reveal that although CPs are perceived to be useful in terms of accessing information and services, there are many concerns related to system, content and service quality. Moreover, the study has identified two main gaps between users and the implementers: a communication gap and an expectations gap. Consequently, users complained about a lack of user involvement and poor communication. Findings are interpreted using elements from institutional theory. Development of CPs is affected by many institutional factors such as coercive, mimetic, normative and competitive pressures. Furthermore, the introduction of CPs could lead to a clash of institutional logics among various stakeholders. Institutional arguments are likely to arise between portal teams and other campus constituents such as service providers and users. This study has three major contributions. First, it used institutional theory to investigate CPs adoption and implementation. As a result, it extends the line of research on the use of this theory to study IS in organisations. Second, it responds to calls from other IS researchers to study portals by conducting in-depth field investigation using qualitative research. Third, it addresses issues related to the development of bilingual portals in universities.Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabi