Fostering innovation: Factors that attract and retain third party developers in mobile ecosystems

The popularity of smartphones and the related growth of mobile application markets created a need for mobile platform owners to open their software platforms up to third party developers in order to meet user demand for mobile applications. This external innovation provides a tremendous opportunity for mobile platform owners to develop a volume and diversity of products they could not develop in-house, but it also presents challenges in attracting a sufficient number of developers and users in order to harness the two-sided and same-sided network effects required to successfully cultivate a robust mobile ecosystem. The main objective of this study is to investigate the factors which attract and retain third party developers in mobile ecosystems, a topic about which limited study has been conducted to date. To achieve this goal we developed a research framework based on theoretical and industry literature related to the mobile industry. Using this as a basis for our research we interviewed developers for the iOS, Android and Windows Phone platforms as well as an independent expert specialising in research of the telecommunications industry. These interviews provide a list of factors relating to what motivates third party developers to select a particular ecosystem. Factors are presented in terms of economic considerations, the boundary resources within the mobile platforms, the related development community and the reach the ecosystem provides. These factors are detailed and compared concluding that monetary reward, user engagement and market share are the most dominant factors influencing developer choice. This research complements and extends existing research on third party developer motivation in competitive open innovation communities as well as providing insights into the industry for prospective mobile developers

Fostering innovation : Factors that attract and retain third party developers in mobile ecosystems

The popularity of smartphones and the related growth of mobile application markets created a need for mobile platform owners to open their software platforms up to third party developers in order to meet user demand for mobile applications. This external innovation provides a tremendous opportunity for mobile platform owners to develop a volume and diversity of products they could not develop in-house, but it also presents challenges in attracting a sufficient number of developers and users in order to harness the two-sided and same-sided network effects required to successfully cultivate a robust mobile ecosystem. The main objective of this study is to investigate the factors which attract and retain third party developers in mobile ecosystems, a topic about which limited study has been conducted to date. To achieve this goal we developed a research framework based on theoretical and industry literature related to the mobile industry. Using this as a basis for our research we interviewed developers for the iOS, Android and Windows Phone platforms as well as an independent expert specialising in research of the telecommunications industry. These interviews provide a list of factors relating to what motivates third party developers to select a particular ecosystem. Factors are presented in terms of economic considerations, the boundary resources within the mobile platforms, the related development community and the reach the ecosystem provides. These factors are detailed and compared concluding that monetary reward, user engagement and market share are the most dominant factors influencing developer choice. This research complements and extends existing research on third party developer motivation in competitive open innovation communities as well as providing insights into the industry for prospective mobile developers