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iPhone Redefines “Mobile Application” My advice to developers? Think Big.

by West Decker on 10/06/09 at 7:38 pm

West Decker is Vice President of Apperian, a mobile application development company and contributing editor for iPhoneCTO.

Many companies are leveraging the iPhone to take advantage of a way to engage and provide new services to customers. This B2C momentum is stronger every day. The ability to present your brand and your services to customers is becoming as important to a company as having a web presence.

My contention is that the B2C momentum is the obvious play for companies, but the other competitive edge is the ability for corporations to envision and build a new type of mobile application suite that empowers decision makers and employees. The more quickly and accurately decision makers can see critical data and on the same device and make and initiate key decisions, the more effective they are. This level of empowerment is completely different from the usual deluge of email and WAP based mobile web services. Imagine a scenario where an email came in on a Blackberry. The user would be left trying to pull out their laptop, hope to find a wireless connection, probably send of a series of emails and try to make phone calls to get at the data they need and make the right decisions.

The real excitement about the iPhone and the latest improvements in hardware and software boils down to Apple’s latest tag line: “there is an app for that”. Enterprises, if not already planning, will soon be rushing to develop their own transformative applications. B2C applications are beginning to make a splash, but the CTO or CIO who is concerned about how to leverage the latest technology in order to provide real benefit to their companies will be looking to the iPhone for custom applications as a solution. Solution provider’s who are focusing on this critical need are beginning to surface but are few and far between and companies looking to hire in house iPhone developers are on the rise. Despite this year’s Apple Developer’s Conference having over 5,200 participants, the challenge for CTO’s is going to be finding the partners and talent that understands their needs and can deliver.

We are entering a truly transformative time in the technology industry. The excitement, the applications, and the creative energy being put into solutions for the iPhone is amazing. My advice to companies interested in leveraging iPhone’s unique capabilities is to challenge them to broaden their definition of “mobile application”. Just because you developed mobile apps on other devices doesn’t mean you should treat this platform the same way. The overwhelming lesson learned from developers at this year’s WWDC is that simply porting an application from one platform to another just doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t yield revenue, nor does it leverage level the solutions possible with the iPhone. The developer’s who design for the iPhone are inventing new ways to use the technology. Stretch your imaginations and think differently. The iPhone has changed the way we interact with our devices and it has the potential to empower individuals in ways that I can’t even imagine. But years of working with talented CIOs, CTOs, and their organizations has taught me to look forward to what people can create. Now is the time for your company to really shine.

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