iTunes, developers and wholesalers unite: appbackr is here

The age of Web 2.0 has ushered in colossal advancements for programmers and consumers alike. Nowhere is our affinity for the latest technology more evident than on iTunes, where some 190,676  apps are active today and thousands are added each month.     

Despite the numbers, the era of Apple has hardly improved the bootsrapping lifestyle that runs rampant in Silicon Valley. Talk to any application developer and they'll divulge the horrors of ramen-infested, sleepless nights. Enter appbackr inc.

You might not be familiar with the name just yet, but if you're a developer or a wholesale buyer, you should be. Here's the skinny on one of Silicon Valley's most innovative start-ups that is due for launch May 24.

A wholesale digital marketplace, appbackr is a long-awaited forum for iTunes developers and wholesalers alike. App developers bypass iTunes funding delays in favor of selling units of apps immediately to wholesale buyers. 

Wholesale buyers, in turn, take value-added marketing to a new level and benefit from an ingenious way to solve the lack of wholesale infrastructure on iTunes. 

Here’s how appbackr works:

• A developer puts any number of their latest app on appbackr. Devs can choose who to sell to and how many units they sell. 

• A wholesale buyer purchases a certain number of units of the application (in queue) from the developer, giving the cash strapped dev an immediate $0.25/unit (on a $0.99/app pricetag) and thus funds the development process without delay.

• The buyer proceeds to promote and sell the application, making $0.18/unit once their queued unit numbers sell on iTunes.  

• The developer sees an additional $0.11/unit once the queued app sells on iTunes for a grand total of $0.36/unit.

• appbackr takes $0.15/unit, creating a great niche to smartly cash in on the Apple cow while providing a service that has far reaching consequences even beyond the Apple behemoth. 

appbackr doesn’t need our stamp of approval, of course. It’s already garnered significant attention thanks to two recent funding awards from the PayPalX Developer Challenge and the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs. What some might call appbackr’s brilliance is how the startup melds centuries-old economic common sense with the digital age.

Founder Trevor Cornwell says the fruition of his light bulb idea is attributed to a series of "impossible deadlines," not terribly unlike those faced by developers themselves. For insight into this imaginative start-up, I sat down with Cornwell recently. Developers, wholesalers and entrepreneurs take note: even small, insightful ideas can create a revolution. 

Follow Bonnie's interview with Trevor Cornwell, founder and CEO of appbackr inc., by reading Inside: a Silicon Valley startup in good company

 Follow Bonnie on Twitter: @BonnieBRandall