A White-Label API App Store Platform

by Kin Lane on 06/08/2011

The goal of any API evangelist is to encourage its community to build mobile and web applications around their API.

When you and your community have several web apps, mobile apps, plugins or other tools you are proud of, showcase them.

Whether you call it a showcase, directory, gallery or store...having an area that highlights the applications built upon your API is critical to continued API adoption and success.

Application showcases do several things:

Show developers love by showcasing their work and giving them the exposure the need
Emphasize the work of your partners and the value they add to your platform
Highlight the best apps your company has developed internally
Show, not only do people use your API, they have delivered actual applications
Demonstrates your API is easy to use and has value

There are two ways to deploy an app store for your API. 1) build it yourself or 2) use a private label App Store solution like AppStores.com. I can speak from experience, your time is better spent evangelizing, and not building your own app store.

AppStores.com provides a white-label / private-label solution for deploying an app store for your API. Here is a little of what AppStores.com bring to the table.

They help with developer acquisition:

Self Service App Submission - Enable developers to submit apps on their own, using a process you control
Developer Dashboard - Developers are provided with a dashboard to monitor approval status, manage and update their own apps
App Marketing - Developers will get the exposure they need being featured in your ecosystem

They provide a complete set of management tools:

Approval Process - Accept, reject or request changes to developers apps using approval dashboard
Customizable UI - Complete control over the design of your AppShowcase
ContentManagementSystem (CMS) - Add custom pages to your AppShowcase

They encourage application discovery:

App Categorization - Create categories to organize applications and feature the very best
App Details - Provide descriptions, editorial reviews and ratings. Include screenshots and video tutorials on each app
Mobile Ready - HTML5 app store allows app discovery on a variety devices

AppStores.com is a ready-to-go, App Store as a Service for your API. Their goal is to save you money, reduce time to market, and be your team specializing in delivering your app showcase.

They are fairly new, but already have a couple of high profile deployments:

An application showcase is an innovative building block to showcase developers and partners, while also bringing attention to your API and the value it can deliver.

When deploying your application store, I highly recommend checking out AppStore.com, tell them API Evangelist sent you.