Infy to develop mobile app stores for nine telcos

After partnering with telecom operator Aircel to build a mobile application store, the country’s second-largest (information technology) IT services company, Infosys Technologies, is set to do the same for at least nine other mobile operators across the globe.

“We have an exclusive partnership with Aircel till April, after which we will begin work with two more Indian carriers, and other operators in West Asia, Europe, Africa and North America,” senior vice-president Subhash Dhar, who heads the communications, media and entertainment business unit at Infosys, told Business Standard.

An application store is a web-based service that enables customers to browse and download applications like games, books and utilities on their mobiles. Bharti Airtel is the only Indian telecom company that has launched an application store. Infosys claims it can deliver a full-fledged app (short for applications) store within 6-8 weeks, with its application platform Flypp.

Dhar said Infosys is developing utility-based apps that can be used across mobile devices, regardless of the operating systems or hardware constraints. “We are developing several apps in house that can be used for real-time services like cab rentals and grocery shopping,” said Dhar. Infosys has also collaborated with several app developers to co-develop mobile apps.

As part of Infosys’s new engagement models (NEMs), Flypp has already been deployed by Aircel, which is set to launch Aircel pocket apps soon. Flypp is offered to operators on a revenue-share basis. “Flypp hosts 2,000 apps that can be directly deployed by mobile operators into an app store and we will grow the number to about 10,000 by mid-2010,” claimed Dhar.

Dhar, who is instrumental in the structuring of the NEM strategy and its implementation at Infosys, said the mobile application is a critical business unit for the company. “We aim to be bigger than an app store. We are providing operators a host of localised mobile apps that can differentiate one app store from another and drive data consumption at the customer end.”

Infosys asserts that Flypp provides independent software vendors a viable and attractive channel to showcase and monetise their proprietary applications across multiple geographies and service providers. “We don’t charge the app developers to host their apps; only when an app is downloaded by customers does the operator pay us for the download and we share revenue with the developer,” explained Dhar.

Bangalore-based Infosys only began targeting the domestic telecom market during the past 12 months, having previously targeted its efforts towards North America and the UK. Already the mobile platform has helped the company to report good numbers from the telecom industry that contributes nearly 16 per cent to its revenues.

The company is confident on NEMs like Flypp, wherein it would price its services based on business level outcome against input based pricing or fixed price projects. Expected to be a critical focus area for the company, nearly 1/3rd of the company’s revenues are estimated to come from NEMs in the next 5-7 years. Currently, the non-linear initiatives contribute about 5 per cent to its revenues and the pie is expected to grow going forward.

The Indian market’s contribution to Infosys’s revenue is a mere 1.2 per cent, and with initiatives such as these, the company wants to increase its domestic revenues.