Platform and industry focus to determine mobile application developers’ success: analysts

The ongoing economic downturn in 2009 will have a negative effect on a number of industries but the mobile wireless arena will fair much better than others, according to analysts. And they point to application development for the enterprise spurred by the device platform wars, healthcare and government as well as cloud computing as areas that will flourish. In the enterprise space, independent analyst Nick Lippis says Apple's iPhone will perform much better than Microsoft's mobile platform. "Windows Mobile has problems with market share," he says. "The smart phones that dominate are RIM, Nokia and the iPhone. The iPhone is coming on strong, but Nokia shipments are down, and RIM's guidance is down - they're having difficulty getting the BlackBerry Storm into the market place." Lippis is particularly bullish on Apple in the enterprise space, which is a bit of an anomaly for the company. He argues that Apple's App Store gives it a significant advantage. "RIM doesn't have the personal productivity tools that the iPhone has," Lippis tells Report on Wireless. "RIM has an enormous installed base in financial services, and that blew up. The iPhone is steadily gaining on RIM, and they have the application delivery model to support future growth - the App Store." Delivery of applications for the iPhone comes from iTunes, a firmly established and well-known application. "You can go to the App Store, type in ‘Oracle', and you can find an Oracle business application. Some are free, some you pay for, but you can download anywhere in the world and start using it," Lippis says. Having such rich enterprise applications on the iPhone is good news for Rogers Communications and adds a significant ripple to the platform and device wars in Canada. RIM's recent takeover of Chalk Media gave it some heft in the application space for mobile content delivery, with training being a big component. But for other mobile application developers the answer may be to use any extra cash they might have to consolidate their stock price. It also makes sense to target the right verticals. Kathryn Weldon, a principal analyst, enterprise mobility, with research-firm Current Analysis, doesn't agree with Lippis on the potential for Apple in the enterprise space. She argues that although the platform wars are a big part of the story - Chalk Media, after all, only developed for RIM - there are serious hurdles in order for the iPhone to give Windows Mobile and RIM a run for their money in 09. "Apple is making it difficult on the device management side," she says. "It is getting popular in the enterprise space, but the SDKs weren't there in the beginning, and RIM also took longer to open up tools. By contrast, Windows Mobile developers can use the same environment they have always used, and ISVs can leverage previous Windows experience." Healthcare and government verticals represent opportunity in 2009 "For application developers healthcare is a good space," says Weldon. "Heavily regulated industries offer opportunity, as does any application that addresses mobile security and device management." Tony Olvet, VP of communications and segments research at IDC Canada, agrees. "Healthcare and government are maybe the only two verticals that are okay in this economy. For financial services, capital markets are in the worst position," he says. "But assuming that cash flow is okay, and balance sheets aren't crazy, you could use the downtime to upgrade for operational efficiencies." The economic slowdown could be a positive for some sectors, according to Olvet. "When you're going a hundred miles an hour it's hard to change a tire," he notes, adding that some industries like the oil and gas sector can use the slowdown to catch up on their investments. Mobility is an obvious area for enhancement. However, Olvet says that large enterprises will need to control the mobile applications used by their workers - it may not be appropriate to just download applications from the App Store. Smaller developers looking to gain an edge during the difficult economic times should leverage relationships with larger partners and have a strategy for big trends like cloud computing. "If a smaller company can help reduce the number of applications on the server, then it will get included in the spend. There is a lot of room to move now with cloud computing, because there are no entrenched major suppliers," explains Lippis. Specifically, he references Google Apps and Amazon's Simple Storage Service as examples of where cloud computing is going. From a mobile application perspective, the challenge is to develop applications that make devices smarter without adding a processing burden - and here the cloud can help. "Around 2004 the spend shifted - today most enterprises are spending more on mobile than on landline toll charges," Lippis says, noting that this means the application development work is focused on mobility.

Platform and industry focus to determine mobile application developers’ success: analysts

News | January 7, 2009

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