the coming distribution war

Tony Parisi

The Coming

Distribution War

who will be…

The App Store for VR? The Steam of VR? The YouTube of VR? The Netflix of VR? The Console of VR?

App Stores

App Stores: The Good

Discovery User Ranking Monetization Curated content

– nobody wants bad VR… or do they?– thank you for making sure I don’t hurl– um remember that porn you

promised…?

App Stores: The Bad

Deployment, distribution and discovery are bound together– On Gear VR you can’t deploy without going through the

store, and users can’t find you outside of the store interface

– You can’t deploy Cardboard VR apps without going through a store UNLESS web (more on this later)

VR store interfaces, though good, are limited

App packaging doesn’t always make sense– A separate app for a Paul McCartney video?

Really? Curated content

– um about that porn… ?

Fun Fact!In 2013, 60% of developers were below the “app poverty line”, i.e. earned less than $500per app per month (all mobile platforms) 1

1 Developer Economics Q1 2014: State of the Nationhttp://www.visionmobile.com/product/developer-economics-q1-2014-state-developer-nation/

2 Bloomberghttp://www.bloomberg.com/bw

/articles/2014-01-07/apple-users-spent-10-billion-on-apps-in-2013

Apple’s 2013 App Store Revenues: $10B 2

Apple’s 2013 App Store Take: $3B 2

When you play the game of

apps, you win or you

die. There is no middle ground.

#thoughtfortheday

the Metaverse might be too big of an idea…

for an app store

Downloads

Downloads: The Good

Discovery, ranking – Steam’s interface works.

Monetization – PC games still making great money! Even after 30% Steam cut

Downloads: The Bad

Big downloads and installation requires core/midcore interest level and commitment

Consumers don’t like to install stuff on desktops

Fun Fact!

Valve is a private company. It doesn’t publish Steam revenues. But they must be good. And developers generally don’t

seem to be complaining.

(tries to imagine people downloading a VR

history experience on Steam)

#headdesk

Browsers

Browsers: The Good

No downloads Instant publish/update Deployment, distribution, discovery

are decoupled – the full power of the Web

HTML5 lowers barriers to entry for developers

Hyperlinks

Browsers: The Bad

Monetization – not so obvious Second-class support; WebVR

catching up to native features Performance gap, though small, is

critical for many apps Browser UIs are getting long in the

tooth, not designed for navigating the Metaverse

Uh-oh… watch out for bad VR :-o

Fun Fact!YouTube creators get $1.50-4.00/1k

views 1

1 Quorahttp://www.quora.com/How-much-money-can-you-make-on-YouTube-if-your-video-goes-viral-and-is-monetized

2 WSJhttp://www.wsj.com

/articles/viewers-dont-add-up-to-profit-for-youtube-1424897967

YouTube grossed $4B in 2014 2

#ihaveadream

creating VR will be as easy as making web

pages, sharing VR will be as simple as sending a link, and experiencing

VR happens at the touch of a button

“Winter is coming.”

Survival Strategies

Be platform-agnostic– Cross-platform solutions like WebVR, OSVR are

in their infancy– Unity’s a good bet… but you’re still cooking an

app for each platform– We could AT LEAST figure out a portable, cross-

platform video format… ?

Be platform-specific– Choose a side– If you choose well, you will live to see

another day

Tony Parisitparisi@gmail.com@auradeluxe

The Coming

Distribution War