Rackspace got into the app store/marketplace space today with the launch of it’s AppMatcher service. You fill out some corporate demographics – type of company, number of employees, budget, and features needed – and AppMatcher tries to suggest SaaS applications to you. The fact that eHarmony was one of the presenters today gives you ample metaphor to understand the app-matching Rackspace is trying to do.
The idea is nice, for sure: as Rackspace’s Andy Schroepfer said during the announcement, getting found is key to the (now) crowded SaaS and web app landscape. This problem exists in spades in the iTunes App Store, where app developers carp like 49’ers who can’t find their claim among the crowded creeks. At the moment, AppMatcher claims to be serving up 1,000 apps, which is a lot to whack through. While it’d be easy to restrict the apps to ones running on Rackspace, it looks like they’re going to open submitting apps to anyone, no doubt following the “grow the pie, and our slice is bigger” strategy made famous by Google and all it’s Internet freebies.
In the pre-iPhone era, I would come across market places like this a lot (folks like JackBe and JamCracker come to mind, if only tangentially). It was always a tough row to hoe, but the iTunes App Store has changed that perception.
Success Elsewhere
To add in some context, one of RedMonk‘s clients MindQuilt was recently featured in the Google Apps Marketplace, resulting in 15% sign-up growth over a few weeks (for a 30 day free trial). Their CEO Dan Kim also pointed out the quality of the leads and, thus, feedback they received too:
…the google apps sign-ups are coming in with a particular use-case and problems in mind, so they been very vocal re: feedback… something that’s really valuable to a Startup trying to evolve and pivot and find market fit.
Over half of those companies have given very in depth question and feedback as opposed to the general group which only about a fifth of them bother to send us feedback.
Clearly, it pays to be on the endcaps of the cloud.
More
- Official press release from Rackspace.
- Mike Vizard covers the launch.
- And more from Chris Crum at WebProNews.
Disclosure: Rackspace is a client, and, as mentioned, so is MindQuilt.
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