Zoho launches app marketplace; Aims to rally developers

The application marketplace is becoming a critical cog in the software development ecosystem. Zoho is that latest to hop on the bandwagon.

Zoho on Tuesday launched Zoho Marketplace, an app store with software from its developers, which offer their wares for free or a fee. Zoho's app store is deployed in its Creator software, which launched its 3.0 version today.

The company, which adds apps at a rapid clip as it tackles everything from CRM to productivity software to the enterprise market, said its Marketplace wares are specific to "a particular use case or situation." In other words, Zoho's Marketplace isn't nearly as fun as Apple's App Store, but arguably more business friendly.

The bigger question is whether Zoho's Marketplace can attract more developers to its ecosystem. Salesforce.com's AppExchange has been a critical cog to its development and strategy. Zoho could do the same. For now, Zoho says its market "is not big enough for vendors to make a living and not small enough to ignore."

Simply put, Zoho Marketplace won't lead to world domination, but you have to start somewhere.