Sharing mobile services: beyond the App store model

The app store model used by Apple's iPhone has presented a successful model for installing new applications; however, only a fraction of current mobile phones have access to a dedicated app store. Thus there is need to investigate alternative ways of discovering and installing mobile services and applications. We performed studies on two services, focusing on the social aspects of sharing mobile apps between users. The services were a portrait sharing application prototype called Portrait Catalog, and a commercially available chat application called Hanashi. They differ not only by functionality and design, but also by their availability to the public as well as the means of distribution they offer. We present initial insights in how users share mobile services between each other, when using a phone that doesn't include mobile application distribution as part of the user experience. We found that factors such as users' habits of downloading and testing new applications, their understandings of the service they are using and the means of distribution the services offer, all affected how the services were shared.