All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
As a GeekDad who spends a lot of time playing with, reviewing, and talking to those who develop and design apps for children, there is one thing that most people agree on: it is not going to stay like this. When does it ever remain the same for long in this rapid-paced world of technological revolution? But several people have begun to talk to me about "a shake up" -- I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I am guessing this should matter to those of us interested in obtaining the best quality apps for our kids.
The current situation in app development from a consumer perspective is at the same time fantastic and a disaster.
It is fantastic because the ease of access Apple and Google have provided to the development tools and delivery platforms like App Stores mean that the diversity of developers and consequently the number of apps available for next to nothing is amazing. This has also meant that those investing a lot of money are still having to price their apps reasonably low to even begin to access a market.
It is a disaster because this also means that trying to find the apps that are of high educational value and high quality design isn't easy. there are a lot of 99c 'trinket' apps out there. Increasingly, I am talking with parents who are willing to pay a bit more just to be supported in their app choices, and not have to spend hours researching online and sifting through the app store. "New and Noteworthy," "What's Hot," and the plethora of app review sites are not effectively helping parents make more efficient decisions about which apps to download. It isn't a matter of cost, but of time. (Interestingly, they aren't helping many app developers market effectively, either.)
So we should be interested in the evolution of the children's app marketplace because it will have an impact on us: it will impact what we pay for apps, how we find the best apps, and the quality and diversity of apps we have at our disposal to support our children's development.
Over time, we are likely to see a shrinking of the number of players in the app market. Look at any entertainment or educational product and you will see that eventually key players rise to the top and start absorbing others who are doing great work, but can't afford to keep doing it. Niches always exist, but as smaller players are unable to continue to self-fund their development activity and as Apple, Google, and Amazon respond to consumer demand for a better way to find quality apps it will be generally harder to make a dollar. This will possibly have the unintended consequence of allowing larger developers and those with more money to find ways to make themselves more obvious in the marketplace.
In this space of growth and acquisition, we can look towards two types of companies: existing children's media companies and emerging children's media companies.
The existing companies are those like Scholastic who have already begun producing apps, but also the likes of Pixar and Disney or traditional publishers like Penguin or Harper Collins (or Pearson, the granddaddy in the educational publishing space). Any of these companies with a strong capital base could look in the future to begin buying up the best app developers and establishing their own children's app development arm to promote their brands and new franchises in the app space. Along with being best positioned to make licensing deals that favor them. The investment from these types of players is what I am sure some smaller developers are interested in, following a similar model to tech startups who are most interested in who will purchase their ideas -- Google, Apple, or Facebook.
The emerging children's media companies have positioned themselves well because they are working in the space, they are developing and getting to understand the process and the nature of app development -- and how it differs from similar software development and media production. These companies are also seeking capital and have found some good backing. Callaway Digital Arts, as well as producing some great apps, has received some good investment from both the Martha Stewart Corporation and the Department of Education. Ruckus Media Group has also secured millions in capital investment and is producing quality material like "A Present for Milo." Then there are the mergers like the recent announcement that US-based FrogDogMedia and German zuuka! GmbH have collaborated to form Zuuka, which they claim is the world’s largest publisher of mobile children’s entertainment under the brand iStorytime.
The emerging companies will possibly, once established, be looking to obtain some of the quality that is out there thanks to the rise of the small indie and mom-and-dad developers, because there is a lot of talent right there. This is only one possible scenario, of course. It could be different if small developers get organized and start building their trade and alliances in the same way indie publishers and indie musicians have in their respective industries. We can see some of this happening with groups like Moms With Apps.
It is these smallest developers who are most at risk -- those who have often begun developing for kids as a hobby (to meet their own kids' needs) and as a consequence have become part of a wave of innovative developers with little money and little time, but lots of passion. The investment of time and energy by people like Lorraine Akemann, co-founder of Moms With Apps, has helped support some of these smaller developers, but I've learned from my conversations that for many it is a case of how long they can hold out in a saturated market where 20-40 downloads of your app a day does not meet even the most basic costs.
There could be the potential for these smaller developers through a Moms With Apps-type arrangement to establish a collective or establish some type of industry body that gives them greater capacity and the potential to grow. I really would love to see this happen, but it is more likely that some will not be able to maintain their work, others will be bought out by some bigger developer (at a good price I hope), while others may obtain a few licensing agreements and manage that fine line between creative control and earning a living.
It is these developers who will be most interesting to watch. The nimble players with a bit of cash behind them. There are a growing number of them and it will be interesting to see what decisions they will make.
How will Oceanhouse Media continue to grow and what will be its first big change? What will Night and Day Studiosproduce with licenses with people like the Yo Gabba Gabba! crew?
Will LaunchPad Toys take Toontastic to another level and demonstrate that an app can launch a whole new type of children's media company?
Will a fledgling company like PeaPod Labs grow enough and find capital to keep its innovative works and educational approaches happening?
What we as app consumers should be most invested in is that the quality of apps remains. How can this process support those who are innovative and creating new stories, or new edu-gaming platforms that extend our children's learning and development? The best way we can do this is continue to support apps and app developers who are delivering on those promises. Promote and purchase quality, and hopefully the cream will rise.
