It looks like 2020 is shaping up to be quite different than most of us thought. With public health experts predicting that social distancing protocols could be in effect for a year or more, we at Nami have felt the need to do something to help people affected by the pandemic. I would like to take this time to share with you two things that we are working on currently to support our community.

Volunteer-Driven Coronavirus Relief Projects

After speaking with our colleagues in several developer communities, we have compiled a list of volunteer-driven projects related to solving problems caused by this crisis. Currently, there are many groups of people working tirelessly to manufacture masks and ventilators for those in need. However, we are a software company with no manufacturing capabilities. Therefore we have come together to find seven community software projects helping problems like vaccine research data mining, elder outreach, and healthcare system capacity. We encourage all software engineers and app developers to take a look at the list of projects and contribute if they can.

Supporting Independent App Developers

Born in 2008, the App Economy has become very large. Just one of the ecosystems— the Apple App Store— has paid out more than $155 billion dollars to developers.

Unfortunately, during this challenging time many developers are seeing a drop in revenue. Just as we are all trying to help support our favorite local cafes or restaurants during this challenging time, let’s all try to support independent app developers who depend on a robust App Economy.

To do our part, we want to celebrate independent app developers that we admire. Some of these are Nami customers, but many of them aren’t. Either way, we want to use our audience to give them exposure during this challenging time.

Follow us on Twitter at @HelloNamiML for our daily #SupportIndieDevs shoutout. We’re tweeting by way of a list of indie apps from our public GitHub repository. If you would like to be on the list, please submit a pull request or let us know.

We are all in this pandemic together, let’s do everything we can to help each other out.

I worked at Apple during the 2008 financial crisis. Steve Jobs made it crystal clear to employees, customers, and investors that Apple would invest through the downturn. Instead of layoffs, Apple increased R&D spending and created a robust product pipeline for the eventual economic recovery.

History defines memorable leaders by their ability to:

• Manage the current crisis
• Prepare for the future

It’s that second one that creates a truly historic leader, who has the ability to think strategically in the midst of a chaotic, fast changing environment.

Invest Through This Historic Moment

We are working with a diverse group of companies managing the crisis while prepping their future. Let’s explore three examples:

Company #1: Unprecedented Traffic

Once-in-a lifetime traffic generated by their product which empowers people who work from home. Unlike other companies, they are managing the current demand, allowing for strategic planning for the eventual economic recovery.Unique data about the tsunami of users, provide insights why their users register, convert, and churn, so they can optimize the customer experience and boost revenue.

Company #2:  Plummeting Engagement

A media company finds itself suddenly with a subscription product in stasis, because it is built around live audiences. Even though engagement is down, it’s not zero. They too realize that they have an opportunity to use this moment to gather new insight and learn how their business is impacted by a Black Swan event.

Company #3: Entering the Unknown

A new streaming service is preparing to launch. While managing the day-to-day priorities to get to market, their strategic thinking has already paid off. They are striking the right balance between what to build and what to buy externally. Many diverse tools are needed for their arsenal to help adapt and iterate quickly as they launch in a distressed economy.

The Cost of Doing Nothing

Imagine if Apple had pulled back on R&D in 2008 along with layoffs. It’s hard to know for sure, but it’s not difficult to imagine a few years of stagnate products giving competitors an opportunity to catch up.

As a friend of mine often says, hope is not a strategy. As responsible leaders, we have a duty to think strategically and act decisively so we can help our companies rebound and our teams prosper in a stronger position than before.

Are you going to join the ranks of the smart companies who are investing through the moment or….becoming stuck by the moment?

We’re Ready to Help

If you are an app developer or company with mobile apps and are experiencing unprecedented traffic, plummeting engagement, or uncertain revenue…we are ready to help.

We have pioneered a solution that deploys Machine Learning (ML) models to increase subscriptions conversions, boost app revenue, and reduce churn. The models run on-device, so they are tailored for your app’s unique usage patterns,  optimize your experience in real-time, and protect end user privacy.

If your traffic is high, Nami’s algorithms for iOS and Android can help accelerate the trends you are already seeing in engaging, converting, and retaining paying customers in your app.

If engagement is dropping, Nami can help you understand the key engagement signals that show a user is about to cancel their subscription so you can re-engage them to reduce churn in your app.

If you’re not onboarding many new users right now, Nami can still find cohorts that are interested in your product. Nami provides data and insights to help you figure out who those users are and use our ML algorithms to help you convert them into paying customers.

At a time where we’re all focused on our family and community, we make it easy to get started quickly. Our Nami SDK drops in and starts passively gathering anonymized training data. This means Nami is learning for your app while you focus on what’s most important.

A Final Thought…Support the Indies!

Indie developers are having an especially challenging time right now. I know many of us are trying to support our favorite coffee shops, restaurants, and other small businesses. I’d ask that you consider also supporting one of the multitude of indie app developers who depend on the app economy.

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The Waning Years of Traditional TV

We have approached the milestone predicted years ago that streaming video will ultimately overtake cable as the preferred source for home entertainment media content. Consulting firm Deloitte reported that 69% of consumers currently pay for some type of video streaming service. The report also found that only 65% of consumers pay for traditional cable or satellite subscriptions. This is a significant increase of 10% from last year. In 2009 only 10% of consumers subscribed to internet video services.

The big three streaming services – Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime were joined this last year, to much fanfare, by Apple TV+ and Disney+. Both of the new streaming services are expected to attract a significant number of subscribers by releasing large-budget content that will no doubt shake up the balance. However, this second wave of streaming services, with the introduction of Apple TV+ and Disney+ will not necessarily mean the viewership pie will be sliced.

An increasing number of video streaming consumers are choosing multiple app subscriptions today to satisfy their viewing content interests. A recent survey found that most people are now willing to pay between $17 and $27 a month for all streaming subscriptions. It is no longer a matter of which streaming service to choose from. It is now how many can I subscribe to for the best value.

The trends in cable cutting from the Deloitte report shows a generational preference among consumers. When we look at millennials, 22 to 35, we see 88% who chose online streaming services while 51% subscribed to traditional cable or satellite. There is still 43% of consumers overall that pay for both services (traditional TV and Internet video services). These consumers, on average, subscribe to three different streaming services. The primary reasons why they chose online streaming services included, access to original programming (57%) and to avoid all advertising (44%).

More Streaming Apps Lead to More Subscription Apps

The dominant model for video streaming services in the United Stated remains the subscription model where a monthly fee is paid to watch video content free from ads. The competition in this market is no longer just about gaining eyeballs for advertisements, it’s about building a subscriber base that provides consistent monthly revenue for the provider. The subscription revenue vs advertising revenue debate has seen clear winners in the music and video streaming space.

This has led to app subscriptions increasing significantly in other verticals as well.  Subscription gaming, identity-theft protection software, podcasts, credit reporting, antivirus tools, even SaaS solutions like Photoshop all indicate demand and increasing acceptance of the subscription model as the better option for apps and content consumers.

Subscription services are continuing to grow in markets outside just the streaming space. For app developers that want to grow and optimize a recurring revenue stream, we recommend using Nami ML. Now is the best time to publish your app with Nami, the world’s first platform purpose made to optimize subscription revenue powered by advanced machine learning. Try it for free today.

With the global mobile application market size to reach $407.31 billion by 2026, it is no surprise at how the enormity of this technology touches all facets of our lives. There is no better time to be an app publisher, whether it is in mobile, desktop or streaming services.

Streaming Services

2020 is an opportune time for independent publishers to be a part of the streaming service economy. The driving forces behind this development have been the convergence of new technologies with internet penetration and a major increase in mobile users outside the United States. As the statistics for streaming services shows below, there is a continued upward march of worldwide revenue growth in the steaming services industry.

It isn’t just movies that are breaking ground, audio services (e.g. music streaming, podcasts, audio books) are on the rise as well. In a recent study, mobile devices drove 79% of total global internet usage. That said, new streaming apps that provide in-demand content and ease of use are most likely to be adopted.

Immersive Technologies Becoming an Increasing Share of App Development

Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) all continue to command consumer attention for 2020. These technologies not only represent a large market, but that market continues to grow quickly.

VR has been the standout, extending far beyond gaming and entertainment. Both VR, AR and to a certain extent, AR technology are finding niches in disparate applications from large companies like Walmart to military applications with the US Army.

AR seems to have found solid footing lately with respect to enhancing the shopping experience, creating a more immersive and interactive adventure. Many large eCommerce’s companies use AR to enable customers to try products before purchase, such as displaying furniture in the home to check “fit” before purchase.

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Demand is on the rise for smarter, more intuitive applications using ML or AI within their platforms. Sectors like, Education, Healthcare and Manufacturing are providing a lots of opportunities for app developers. In the enterprise sector, there is growing demand for apps with machine learning that can run analytics alongside CRM platforms to reveal more information on how better to serve repeat clients and customers. Chatbots in retail is one early example of widespread ML usage that continues to grow.

Final Thoughts

There is no end in sight for the demand for app development and no better time than now to be an app publisher. This space continues to expand at a rapid pace. During the first generation of mobile apps, every product was either free or had a price. At Nami, we believe that there is increasing demand for apps with freemium offerings, subscriptions and in-app purchases.

Nami helps developers focus on profitability and recurring revenue streams. We want to empower developers to to create engaging experiences that users will happily pay for. Start your free trial today.

We've updated our Apple SDK with a host of improvements including a smaller build size and improvements to ML data collect and debugging.

The full list of improvements include:

• Simplified method and parameter names, see https://docs.namiml.com/reference.
• Added support for disabling auto-raise limits for triggered paywalls.
• Stability fixes for more reliable presentation of paywalls for auto-raise cases.
• Improved frequency limiting of paywalls by hour.
• Improved debugging output for understanding paywall auto-raise choices.
• Improved environment detection so server reporting of transactions can be given testing transactions.
• Added canRaisePaywall method to determine if the SDK has enough data to raise a paywall.
• Improvements to tracking of paywall impressions and transactions.
• Stability fixes around calls for Nami session.
• Improved support for React Native Bridge
• Added fetchCustomPaywallMetaForDeveloperID() call to get paywall definitions for alternate paywalls.
• Made presentNamiPaywall() public so that developers could make use of the internal Nami paywall through a custom paywall meta definition.
• Xcode 11 now used for primary framework builds, Xcode 10.3 frameworks in Xcode10-3 folder.
• Added environment to cart signals sent to Nami, so testing purchases can be checked with Nami.
• Fixed issue found with ML data collection.
• Fix consumable product consumption in SDK, so that purchases are not remembered.
• Compiled framework to optimize for smaller build size.

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You can head on over to our Apple SDK repository on GitHub to grab the latest bits: https://github.com/namiml/nami-apple

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As always, we welcome your questions, comments, or requests via email.

Thanks for using Nami!

Nami co-founders Dan Burcaw & Joe Pezzillo will be at CES 2020 talking about how to build a smarter subscription business in the App Economy. If you’re like to meet with them, use the scheduling widget below.

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