[asterisk-users] 3rd party app store

[Rod Montgomery]

Thanks, Dean. I was able to listen to that conference live.
Digium's current licensing server has some limitations that make it 
unsuitable for general use. We are investigating options to improve 
the licensing platform, but have nothing to announce today. Even if 
we did, it would be only one missing component to a one-stop 
Asterisk software store. 

We'd also need a universal packaging format. AsteriskNOW (currently 
on CentOS 5.5) is happy with yum-installable RPM packages. It would 
be clean and simple for everyone to develop on that uniform image, 
but there is a lot of variety out there. The initial release of 
AsteriskNOW was on rPath Linux, which is marvelous for building 
software appliances, but unfamiliar to, well, everyone. Unlike a 
strictly controlled iPhone environment, there is no one solution 
that would work well for Asterisk developers.

It would also be useful to have a ton of end-user information like 
iTMS gathered for years before the launch of the App Store. Part 
of the genius is that the transactional barrier is so low: millions 
have trusted Apple with payment details for music purchases, and 
need only tap "Install" to charge another payment for an iPad app. 
There must be hundred of thousands of installed Asterisk systems, 
but we only know the ones that become Digium customers.

Also, there are a number of ways to build something marketable with 
Asterisk. Custom channels or resources, clever dialplan, AGI scripts,
AMI-speaking services... it's often easier to incorporate Asterisk 
as a dependency into a purpose-built software appliance than to 
assume that Asterisk is at the center of the application's world. 
We cannot be all things to all people, especially when so many 
ecosystem partners are providing a service rather than a software 
product.

Last but not least, Asterisk-based apps are not high-volume 
consumer content. I just don't see many telephony apps selling at a 
pace similar to music, movies, and games.

Then I look to the RHX example I mentioned earlier, in which our 
friends at RedHat (and Novell before them) tried to become a hub of 
commerce around their flagship platform. And they failed. Customers 
didn't want a middleman. Customers wanted to be introduced to great 
products and services, and to do business directly with those 
third-party vendors. That's why AsteriskExchange is more a directory 
than a storefront.

As a product manager, I can dream up a situation that imagines 
Digium as the all-controlling Apple of the Asterisk world, and 
conjures a ridiculously lucrative App Store that hauls in cash for 
talented and lucky developers that align with us. I even have a 
couple of black turtlenecks. But I am not convinced that more than 
a few want to use our current licensing mechanism. I am not 
convinced that the market wants Digium to be a central transaction 
point. I am not convinced that Digium should aspire (or stoop?) to 
that level of control.

I am, however, convinced that ecosystem partners want to be visible 
to the Asterisk community. As Digium balances our goals of being a 
good sponsor of Asterisk and a profitable company, we tread very 
carefully on Asterisk.org. Perhaps keeping the goals apart is not 
as important as we make it out to be. It clearly has its negatives: 
keeping AsteriskExchange separate from Asterisk.org also separates 
it from the heavier visitor traffic.

Does anyone reading this have an opinion on whether commercial 
listings for complementary products and services should appear 
directly on Asterisk.org? 

rm
--
Rod Montgomery
Digium, Inc. | Product Manager
445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA
direct: +1 256 428 6267   fax: +1 256 864 0464
Check us out at: http://digium.com & http://asterisk.org