One of the most popular and functional third party launchers on Android's Play Store, EverythingMe, will no longer be available for download.
The team behind EverythingMe announced in a blog post that they will pull the plug on the app that scored 15 million downloads since its debut.
The launcher was very useful at organizing apps from similar domains, as well as finding new apps that users would have enjoyed. It applied to all kinds of applications, from games to social media. Also, EverythingMe was adept at predicting which app the Android smartphone owner would use.
"Some of our core features started appearing in other launchers and operating systems" the coders stated. Actually, the functionality that EverythingMe introduced was so popular, that some OEMs started to embed in-phone search and organizers into their devices.
Based on the developer team's blog post, the reason for shutting down the launcher is lack of financing. The message of the team is simple: the install-based revenue model that it used was not sustainable.
"EverythingMe's revenue model assumptions were based on contextual discovery," the blog post read. This means that users received apps and original content recommendations which were relevant and synchronized with their needs, often in real-time.
According to the development team of EverythingMe, their advanced features were shaming rival companies.
"The #'s we've shown were breaking all industry benchmarks," the coders pointed out.
The team explains in rather fancier terms that their financial strategy proved inefficient. To summarize, they were simply unable to capitalize on the app downloads to a satisfactory degree.
"Growing in emerging markets meant we couldn't convert this value-added discovery to significant income for the company to keep pursuing its vision and build its product," EverythingMe's team underlined.
For Android handset owners who still want to use a launcher on their device, Google Now is a good alternative, according to the ex-EverythingMe coders.
The launcher will still be up on Google Play for "a few more days," but it is clear that its days are numbered.
In a slightly optimistic tone, the coding team ended its goodbye letter to fans with a quote from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
"So long, and thanks for all the fish."
