Apple's App Store offers lessons for USPS digital mailbox

The US Postal Service could develop an electronic mailbox platform along similar lines to Apple’s App Store, according to a new report from the Office of the Inspector General. In the second in a series of reports on digital mail opportunities for the USPS, the OIG’s Risk Analysis Research Center says a USPS eMailbox could be opened up to independent developers to come forward with potential applications making the most of the secure electronic communications system.

The paper entitled “Expanding the Postal Platform” lays out possible applications for the Postal Service to develop itself for the eMailbox platform, which would link residential and business addresses to electronic versions, possibly using the top-level domain name “.post” rather than standard “.com” email addresses.

For the USPS-developed applications, the OIG study recommends apps that would build on Postal Service core competencies while also being “considered proper for the Postal Service”.

But, the OIG also suggests that as with Apple’s App Store, which distributes independently-produced applications for iPhones and iPads, the Postal Service should invite external software developers to develop other digital products for use on its trademark-protected eMailbox platform, which could become as “universally recognized” as Apple’s App Store.

“Apple invites all developers to bring their applications to its online App Store, as long as they meet the required
technical and content standards,” the paper notes, adding that the USPS could do likewise, identifying “the standards to allow innovation and allow market forces to determine success and failure.”

As Apple’s success in benefiting from the consumer trend in using “apps” is based on its iPhone and iPad technology, the report suggests USPS is in a position to follow suit by taking advantage of its address management database, retail network and track-and-trace systems.

A licensing system for developers to provide products for the eMailbox could be similar to the way approved vendors already provide online postage systems, such as Endicia, Pitney Bowes and Stamps.com.

USPS applications

After developing the central eMailbox platform itself, the Postal Service could quickly gain the “critical mass” of users to make such a system work, the study suggests.

The USPS could develop some core applications itself, including government communications services and ecommerce applications that might include payment and returns systems.

Hybrid mail applications might include digital-to-physical mail services, where consumers or businesses could have online items or documents turned into a physical mail piece – for example for the sending of online photo-postcards, or for consumers to receive coupons. Reverse-hybrid mail applications could also be produced to allow documents in the mail stream to be scanned and managed electronically.

While the USPS and private companies already offer some kinds of hybrid mail services, the eMailbox would provide a perfect platform, and could even support the Postal Service’s universal service obligation, the OIG study suggests.

“Hybrid and reverse hybrid mail are applications that are facilitated by having both physical and electronic platforms and further encourage innovation to pair physical mail with its digitized counterpart and electronic mail with its physical equivalent,” stated the report.

• Part one in the OIG report series, The Postal Service Role in the Digital Age, looked at the trends in digital communications that suggest an opportunity for the USPS to act as a trusted intermediary in internet services.