Preloading is back

I’ve been saying for some time that antitrust efforts to dismantle the Apple and Google mobile app market duopoly are likely to lead to a re-flourishing of the app-preinstallation route to market via telcos. And proof came this week with Telefónica’s announcement that it will be preloading the Epic Games Store on millions of Android devices across its footprint straddling Europe and Latin America.

Telco preinstalled apps were common in the featurephone era, but they became increasingly rare after smartphones took over, and completely out of bounds on iOS. Following the EU’s implementation of the far-reaching Digital Markets Act last year, and other antitrust moves elsewhere, new market challengers have thrown their hats into the app distribution ring with alternatives to the Apple App Store and Google Play.

One such challenger is Epic Games, which has rolled out an iOS mobile games store in the EU and an Android version worldwide. But, with both Apple and Google taking a workaround approach to regulatory compliance, users wanting to install the Epic store on Android devices have encountered a lot of software barriers, for which Epic is suing both Google and Samsung.

Better than having to get users to download your store is to get a telco with market heft to talk handset makers into preinstalling it for you, so that it’s already there out of the box for users to start using. And that is what Epic has pulled off with Telefónica.

For telcos, Google and Apple have become their main carrier billing revenue staples. Although the changing market landscape threatens to reduce this revenue stream, it also opens new opportunities. Telefónica was the first telco to enable carrier billing on Epic’s store online and it will be deepening that relationship with the preinstallation deal.?

#mobileapps?#gamesindustry #regulation #omdia