Hypercompetitive Mobile Platform Ecosystems: an Empirical Analysis

Mobile smart-device ecosystems (e.g., iOS, Android) have democratized innovation and rejuvenated the mobile-device industry. Yet, two key participants of these ecosystems, developers and consumers, continue to face significant challenges. The market is inundated with more than a million apps making the discovery and assessment of apps a daunting task for consumers. The easy substitutability of apps and the ability of consumers to delete apps in their devices at the flick of a finger make app development a hypercompetitive turf for developers. This paper takes an important step in addressing competitive strategies in these hypercompetitive, but potentially lucrative innovation value chains. We conceptualized the takeoff and continued survival of apps as a function of app positioning, developer actions, and user engagement. Empirically validating our conceptualization using lifecycle data of 91,207 apps in the Apple iOS platform, we discuss our insights for competing in the hypercompetitive mobile smart-device platform ecosystems.