Enplug Launches What It Calls 1st Public App Market For Digital Signage
July 9, 2015 by Dave Haynes
LA-based Enplug has launched what it calls the industry’s first Public App Market – the highlight of the signage content and solutions company’s upcoming software release, called DisplayOS 4.0.
The App Market pitch is that it brings the smartphone app store idea to digital signage – allowing users to poke around the Enplug App Market and selecting from a variety of content-focused apps for different use-cases.
“Enplug’s App Market is a major step in democratizing digital signage,” says Navdeep Reddy, one of the company’s founders, in a news release. “Until now, the ability to curate truly custom content for digital displays was the exclusive domain of a handful of companies. Enplug and DisplayOS 4.0 allows anybody to develop custom applications via our SDK and offer them for public consumption on the Enplug App Market.”
My instant reaction to news of an app market was that I’ve seen that movie a few times – with everyone from open-source Rise Vision to fee-based Four Winds Interactive already having some form of apps marketplace or store. So I asked Enplug what’s distinct about this offer.
Most “apps” made available by software vendors, the company suggests, are in closed stores and only accessible to end-users who have subscriptions or perpetual licenses with those vendors. If it is a more open store, the “store” operator may be taking a cut of sales or requiring a fee to be on the virtual store shelf.
Enplug says its store is an open app market with a public SDK – similar to something like the Android App Market, in that anyone is able to develop and deploy apps to the Enplug platform and offer them up to end-users via the Enplug App Market, at no cost to the developer
It’s a pretty modest market, with 10 apps in there now with a another batch of six listed as being in development.
The company, in its news release, also says DisplayOS 4.0 is released this fall it will include an improved web dashboard that provides a more streamlined and configurable app and display management experience.
“We’ve learned an incredible amount from our customers around the world. We’re constantly evaluating and questioning how we can make our product better for them,” says Zach Spitulski, Chief Product Officer at Enplug. “With this free update, we’re making our product even more intuitive, engaging, and frictionless.”
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