appbackr Wholesale Marketplace for iPhone Applications Wins PayPal X Developer Challenge

March 23, 2010 - PRLog -- PALM DESERT, CA (March 23, 2010) – Today at DEMO Spring 2010, appbackr (www.appbackr.com), the first wholesale digital marketplace where iPhone app developers can get immediate funding by selling wholesale units to buyers, was named a winner of the first PayPal X Developer Challenge. appbackr was chosen from eleven finalists by a panel of expert industry judges, including Pierre Omidyar, chairman of eBay Inc.; Scott Thompson, president of PayPal; Marc Andreessen, general partner of Andreessen/Horowitz; Roelof Botha of Sequoia Capital;  and Scott Cook of Intuit. The eleven finalists also were selected by popular vote on x.com, PayPal’s developer site, having been chosen from a starting field of more than 650 entrants. The two winners share $150,000 in prizes.

appbackr represents a new approach for Value Added Marketers (VAMs) and other wholesale buyers to purchase wholesale copies of iPhone applications before they are available on iTunes. The challenge facing many iPhone app developers is that it takes time and money to launch new applications in the iTunes Store. appbackr gives developers immediate funds by letting wholesale buyers and VAMs buy wholesale copies of the apps in either finished or conceptual form. This generates immediate funding for developers, and generates future revenues for buyers who can realize a profit of 25 to 67 percent when the apps are sold on iTunes. And all transactions are processed by appbackr and powered by PayPal.

“Today we are proud to have appbackr selected by five preeminent judges and the PayPal X developer community to be one of the winners of this challenge” said Trevor Cornwell, founder of appbackr. “We created appbackr to help developers build a value added marketing channel and to extract value from their iPhone development before they reach the iTunes Store. appbackr is simply a digital marketplace that brings developers and backers together, letting developers sell wholesale interest in new applications, and giving buyers and value added marketers a means to profit from the more than $250 million in applications are sold through iTunes each month.”

The process is simple. Developers register their iPhone apps for pre-sale with appbackr, controlling who can purchase queue numbers of applications that will be sold in the iTunes Store. The buyers have the option of paying $0.30 per queue number for an application that is still a raw concept, or $0.45 per queue number for finished applications. When the application is made available on the iTunes Store, wholesale buyers are paid automatically for each download, and monies are flowed directly to their appbackr bank account using PayPal. It’s an innovative solution that leverages the innovation of Apple’s iTunes, PayPal’s adaptive API, and the patent-pending appbackr technology to help developers fund and sell their applications.

Using this wholesale digital marketplace model, Value Added Marketers become wholesale buyers and essential distribution agents for iPhone applications. VAMs can promote iPhone applications through social media, blogs, online storefronts, and other means, expanding market reach for iPhone app developers. Since the $2 billion iPhone and iPod Touch application market has no formal wholesale financing infrastructure, appbackr is an ideal infrastructure to power retail sales of mobile apps. For example, video gaming retailers can use appbackr as a wholesale clearing house for new mobile games.

Developers earn their money from buyers in advance of app release, as well as a portion of sales from the iTunes Store. appbackr also collects a small fee per transaction, typically $.05 at purchase and $0.04 at distribution of funds for a $0.99 app. The PayPal API on which patent-pending appbackr is based allows revenue to be distributed seamlessly.  As the iTunes market continues to grow, appbackr executives predict that as the iTunes market continues to expand, they will be a marketplace for thousands of iTunes apps by the end of 2011.

appbackr is currently available for registered users by invitation. For more information, visit www.appbackr.com, and follow the company on Twitter.com/appbackr #paypalx.

About appbackr inc.
Founded in 2010, appbackr is the first wholesale digital marketplace where iPhone and iPod Touch developers can sell wholesale units to buyers who then profit from retail units sold in the iTunes Store. appbackr is a marketplace that connects buyers and sellers, making it possible for developers to get paid in advance for creating iPhone and iPod Touch applications, and allowing buyers to profit from these apps once they are released. The company has its headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

For more information, visit appbackr on the web at www.appbackr.com.

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Contact:
Sam Zappas
appbackr inc.
410-929-4411
sam@appbackr.com

Tom Woolf
Woolf Media & Marketing
415-259-5638
tomw@woolfmedia.com