Samsung App store sees revenue increase

The Samsung App store has seen more than 245% year on year increase in the number of app downloads in its Bada store.

Says Brett Loubser, B2C Apps Development Lead at Samsung; “Such growth in our Apps Store reaffirms that being locally relevant is critical to driving growth in this market. We are starting from a small base in SA and events such as the recent Mobile Entertainment Africa held in Cape Town, has opened up new avenues to reach out to SA developers and work together to provide relevant content to African consumers.”

The Bada Store now has more local variety, with more than 45 Africa specific applications and more than 15 apps specific for SA consumers including the likes of Times Live, Getaway, Mail & Guardian, Cosmopolitan SA, Eat Out and FHM SA to name but a few. And although the Android Store is a new addition, there are 8 SA based applications that will be released soon – with the likes of developers such as I-Imagine Interactive and Toby Kurien contributing to ensure local relevance.

Additionally, Samsung South Africa also recently announced the development of the first locally developed Smart TV application in Africa with News24 – an application designed to provide consumers access to the latest in breaking news and lifestyle content from the comfort of their living rooms. The app is free of charge and will be accessible from the Samsung Apps Store via the Smart TV UI in September to further drive the ‘Smarter Life’.

“Samsung are serious about providing an abundance of entertaining and interactive applications that are optimized to make your smartphone even smarter, but most importantly, are developed for Africa by Africans. We will continue to work closely with developers in the South African and African marketplace to ensure that we can back our world-class technology with locally relevant content,” concludes Loubser.