Mobile app store apprupt hits iPad with RTL

apprupt is a German-based mobile application store that I tend to keep an eye, because I enjoy the model it represents. It’s a distributed app store, also known as an “app warehouse”. Today, it has announced a deal with massive media group RTL – which finally sees apprupt getting placed on the iPad.

What’s apprupt?

apprupt acts as an app warehouse/network, and delivers applications to it’s publishing partners in the same way that an advertising network delivers ads. It’s partners place a shopfront in their mobile website or application – and apprupt delivers applications directly to that shopfront. The selection of applications is tailored to the mobile app or website, so that visiting mobile users are shown a selection of applications that could be relevant to them. It’s effectively a form of mobile advertising – and the developers who want to place their apps onto the apprupt network pay for it per download.

apprupt has been growing steadily during the year, and has been acquiring decent publishing partners in Germany and the rest of Europe.

What’s the news?

RTL Group is the second biggest TV group in Europe… the only group that’s bigger is the colossal BBC. The digital branch of RTL, called RTL Interactive, has integrated an apprupt storefront into both its mobile website and its iPhone app. This announcement has also been timed to coincide with two additional properties that apprupt is integrated with – the RLT iPad app and the iPad app for an RTL-owned video service called Clipfish. Both of these now present a rotating app-recommendation carousel to visitors, powered by apprupt.

Robert Fahle, Director Mobile at RTL interactive GmbH said “with the [apprupt] recommendation formats on our mobile website, in the iPhone app and now also within the RTL NOW and Clipfish iPad and iPhone apps, we offer the ever increasing number of users of our mobile web services interesting apps for download across platforms and devices. Thanks to the innovative recommendation formats, our users can take a new approach to finding the apps they want.”

What we think?

It’s hard for us to get an accurate idea of how well apprupt is doing from here, because it’s still a mostly localised German phenomenon. But in the past year it has seen a significant investment from Deutsche Telekom, the launch of an English office, and it’s first international client in November – so it seems like a pretty strong proposition. Of course, its making my life a bit easier now that the company has started to send translated releases my way!