India set to become the world’s ‘app’ central

Our mornings begin with a daily dose of news bytes on our smartphones and Whatsapp messages from friends; emails and calls comprises our day; and we spend our nights streaming media over the Internet. We enjoy such a seamless browsing experience on our mobile devices because of the apps that our smart devices come loaded with. And these apps, which bring convenience right at our fingertips, are getting bigger and better. All thanks to Microsoft, Apple and other tech giants who are delivering nothing but the best app experience to consumers on their mobile devices.

So, what next do they wish to deliver to Indian consumers? To understand this and to know more about the app market, we got into a candid conversation with Joseph Landes, general manager, Developer & Experience team, Microsoft India. Here are the edited excerpts.

What role does your team play in India?
We help organisations pave their way to the future leveraging the latest technology available. (Pauses and then explains) Don’t you always wonder when you are driving around the country like who put up that bridge, how it actually got from here to over there – like hanging off the edge, building the pieces – so what sort of bridge builders there are today. Similarly, in tech ecosystem, when you know there’s a product coming out like Windows 10, it is essential for an organization to enable an ecosystem for Windows 10. Developers should be acquainted with what Windows 10 is all about and what they can do with it. And this is where we come in. As these organisations analyse what role new technology can play in their business, we help them create an enabling ecosystem.

What level of maturity Microsoft apps have achieved in the Indian market?
I fondly remember I came to India 3 years back, when we were getting ready for the launch of Windows 8. Our real big focus was on getting the apps into the store because at that time we didn’t have a very reputable app store. We had an app store in place, but there weren’t much stuff in it. So to gain more footage in India, we concentrated on bridging the app gap that people felt is missing on our store. And after 3 years, I feel good where we are currently. Now, I can claim there’s no Indian app that Android has and we don’t have.

Did you make any changes to your global app strategy for India?
As I said before, when we came to India what we wanted to do was to bridge the app gap. And that is precisely what we did: eradicated the local app gap that existed. Our objective is to ensure that Indians to have a ‘wow’ experience on their Windows phone and for this we ensure that all their favourite apps available on other OS platforms are also available on Windows market.

So, how many apps are there on your store? And which among those are your top apps in India?
Today, we’ve 550,000 apps in the Windows store and most of them are relevant to the Indian consumers often. Naming our top apps is slightly difficult, as I don’t have exact numbers to quote. But on the basis of my experience, I can say IRCTC, Flipkart and Jabong are the most popular India-specific apps. Times news app and Gaana is also popular among Indian audiences. Apps that gain exception traction are the seasonal apps. For instance, when movies like Chennai Express, Dhoom or Krrish hit the theatres, their apps got popular with masses. The sad part, however, is that they eventually die down after a period of time. Obviously, I didn’t include global apps like Facebook, which are popular with people across the globe.

Would we get to see some vernacular Microsoft apps designed specifically for India?
Well…vernacularity is not one of the big pillars that we want to focus on. Yes, it is a nice and important thing to have, and I can certainly ask developers to write apps that are relevant for their local language, but we don’t plan to do it extensively at this stage.
As of now, our focus is to cloud enable apps and help developers make universal apps.

Did you observe any differences in the Indian app market from the global market?
Yes, there indeed is. For Indian audiences, the user interface, graphical interface, design...all matters. After having worked with Indian developers, I can undoubtedly say that they are very good in coding and technicalities—albeit there is some of improvement in terms of design.

Having said that, I still believe, the next big app market would come from India. This country has got the talent that is needed to create wonderful apps like Angry Birds, Candy Crush or more such. I am just waiting to see a brand new gaming app from the Indian developers.

Do Indian consumers app-buying pattern differs from the global audiences?
The buying pattern in India is very different from many other countries of the world. Mostly, people want something cheaper. I am not generalising this, but this holds true. The trend here is that people are keener to have a free app with some in app purchase. If you look at Xbox, it comes free with some sort of in app purchase.

However, I have seen purchase going up wherever there is direct operator billing system in place.

And, finally what do is your take on the ongoing native vs Cloud mobile apps debate?
For me, there is a symbiotic collaboration between mobility and cloud. Though native apps are great, I personally feel it will be Cloud mobile apps that would pave way to the future where smartphone won’t look that exciting unless it has great cloud servicing connectivity. Even today, some amazing cloud mobile apps are available on the MS platform. Be it Skype, Bing or One Drive Office 365 – all offer mobility and enable high productivity.