After Apple banned the Pay Per Install model, What strategic options exist for companies?

The PPI/PPA companies have acquired a customer base and database of Analytics that can be leveraged to adapt to the new market realities. Editorial: app store rankings that are based on downloads that are not a representation of the app itself i.e. I downloaded to get something other than the app, are not good for consumers. Although the app store ranking is huge for developers of paid apps, in the long term a new model must emerge that will showcase apps with value that are priced based on the value they provide to customers.

If you look at apps now, they are heavily weighed to games and gaming. With the iPad and iPad2, Apple now has a mobile device which is ideally suited for education and productivity apps, which are much less suited to incentivized downloads.  In contrast, the iPhone4, with its small screen and form factor, is much more suited to casual games and gaming. My guess is that there will be a gradual flow of companies who decide to use the iPad platform as their form factor for education, productivity and medical apps, and new companies will enter the field and start developing them, and will charge prices between US$10-100 per download. For them, the sales price of the downloaded app will more than mitigate the need for incentivized downloads.

Really interesting question. I'll try to give the perspective of G6pay. It's true that Apple has banned/capped PPI networks to a point that it's pretty hard to scale, but it doesn't mean we can't adapt. a) Yes, we can focus on Android. You can see that almost all of the PPI networks have already shifted to Android, but is this sustainable? Apple has already voiced (or at least Tapjoy has done it for them) that they don't like PPI, and Google might be one to follow. However, I feel we have at least a year of calm on Android before Google even meddles with the idea (they need as many downloads as they can get!) It'll also be harder for them to completely close out PPI networks as users discover apps from 3 separate app stores. b) This is also a very viable option. Whoever thinks that incentivized app installs is the future needs to get up to speed. I think the advertising ecosystem for mobile really needs to be reexamined to find out how ad networks can deliver the highest # of real retained users as opposed to simple scale that PPI networks can deliver. PPI is currently the best/most cost effective model for networks as it can launch you into the Top 25 and allow you to access premium exposure and organic traffic, but there must be a better way. Whoever solves it grows a billion dollar company. c) This is also a possibility, but it's not going to be the prime focus of any ad network. An ad network is an ad network, not a game publisher. Yes it is true that we may publish a game from time to time, but it is simply to learn more about the gaming industry ourselves as well as add an additional publisher. d) Not an option. At least not for G6pay haha. I hoped this helped, and as usual, take whatever I say with a grain of salt.

With the changes made by Apple on incentivize PPI, the ability to acquire installs profitably through banner (NON-incentivized traffic) has dramatically increased. At MdotM, this has been our specialty for quite some time.  We specialize in enabling advertisers to buy installs on a PPI basis in NON-incentivized traffic.  We've seem great success promoting apps in various verticals across our inventory.  We also allow advertisers to notify us when we've driven a valuable user, through post-install tracking.  This enables us to optimize the campaign, not just on installs but on users they define as valuable.  We're doing this on both iOS and Android. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you'd like to learn more about this strategy (rodney@ mdotm [dot] com)