>"Many of these [education] apps [from smaller publishers] seem to work well, but they may be overtaken once the aforementioned “trusted names” start establishing a larger presence."
really? i bet if the non-brand name apps are done well and stick through the effort of making a name for themselves they could still compete.
Big textbook publishers have a lot of pull in the education industry. They can spread the adoption of resources (including iPhone apps I'm sure) much faster than small, indie players who don't have the connections.
I'm not saying you're wrong, just that it's an uphill battle in some cases.
They can spread the adoption of resources (including iPhone apps I'm sure) much faster than small, indie players who don't have the connections.
Luckily, they're not that clueful about the Internet, primarily because it does not fit into their business models.
Houghton Mifflin and Scholastic both sell significant amounts of bingo cards, on dead tree, through retail stores and catalog sales. (Or they did last time I checked.) These two companies have 8 digit marketing budgets, massive connections, and industry clout.
Now I don't want to toot my own horn too much, but if you were to, say, Google "[pick a subject] bingo cards" right now, you probably would not see Scholastic on the first page. Nobody at Scholastic just slapped themselves on the head this morning and said "Oh, effity, we didn't have a Martin Luther King Day bingo activity today. That was a missed opportunity!"... but I just did!
I don't know about it being ultimate study machine, but I predict the buddy of mine who just repackaged his language learning software for the iPhone is going to make a mint:
Serious study of foreign languages skews towards college students and young professionals in the US, and the overlap between them and iPhone users is probably pretty substantial. Plus I think given the socio-political aspirational goals of many Mac users, I think it could be a good fit.
To phrase this a little more politely than Stuff White People Like did, there are a lot of people who think it is important that they are educated and cosmopolitan enough to learn a foreign language. They also tend to overlap quite a bit with Mac users.
My 7yo daughter is totally hooked on Mighty Math. Standing in line (zoo, store, whatever), other kids are almost cartoonishly leaning over her shoulder to play along.
It may be evil, but the realy game changer was when I started experimenting with paying her for right answers: $1.00 for ten out of ten right the first time, $.25 for 7 out of ten right the first time, or $.01 for each one right less than 7.
Am I destroying my child's humanity through pay-for-performance? If so, how?
I always figured that the main demographic of iPhone users would be those with a tidy amount of spare cash, which students aren't exactly famous for having.
Students are a main demographic of video games. Just b/c your customer base doesn't have tons of cash doesn't mean you cannot make tons of money off of them.
Plus the most people I see w/ iPhones are college students and 20 somethings.
Why only the iPhone is mentioned? What about Rim, Android and even MS? Nokia actually added a category in their latest challenge for e-learning system they should be included too...
I was involved in such an attempt to break that market and it wasn't easy. Its like the social mobile applications. everyone are saying that its a billion dollar market but no one got a clue how to generate good cash out of it.
