APPSWORLD – LONDON. There are likely to be more than 500 million active TV app users worldwide in five years.
The forecast was made by Michael Lantz, CEO and founder, Accedo Broadband, who also argued that the success factors of social TV apps and TV apps in general are critical mass, convenience (keeping things simple by not adding too many functionalities), context and consumption.
A critical factor was currently not to expect to make money from TV apps but rather to regard them as a means to build loyalty.
Lantz categorised social TV apps as being integrated, content driven, stand-alone and functionality driven.
While stand alone apps are easy to develop and with us now, the most difficult ones, still to be introduced, are those found in the integrated/content driven space.
More generally, he identified the “reasons” for TV apps as being marketing, loyalty, revenues (currently indirectly through advertising and upselling new or existing content) and extending the TV experience
