AppBackr was launched this week as an invitation only beta. The service offered by AppBacker, Inc. of Palo Alto, California offers iOS app developers a new way to get cash advances for future app sales. Developers earn these advances by selling their apps wholesale to buyers via the AppBackr online catalog.
The return on the buyer’s investment depends on whether or not the app sells well. This sounds risky for the buyer, but not necessarily since they are expected to promote the app in magazines, blogs, etc. or they might just hire a good public relations firm to help.
Therefore AppBackr provides three very important services to app developers that are not very easy to come by: marketing, financing, and an online wholesale sales catalog.
This is especially good for smaller developers that don’t know the first thing about public rations and simply don’t have the cash on hand to get stuff done. Marketing takes a lot of time and money something many developers don’t have a lot of. The online catalog offers a market place where wholesale buyers can shop for apps they might be interested in investing in.
Developers agree to sell a certain number of copies of their app to wholesale buyers at a discount. The buyers in turn purchase the apps in bulk and pay their money up front to developers. Once the app sells in the iTunes App Store the buyer pockets the difference between the wholesale and retail price.
Therefore it is only natural that the wholesale buyer becomes a promoter for the app they’ve invested in. Appbackr calls these wholesalers “backrs” and they are expected to promote their apps as much as possible. The return on the “backrs” investment is pretty good ranging between 27 and 54 percent after retail sales of the app in the App Store
Appbackr is the first wholesale market place for iOS app developers and it currently doesn’t have any rivals. I think the whole concept behind it is interesting and a win-win for developers who need up front financing to help support future app development. It will be interesting to see how it is doing in a few months.
