Mobile business app development 'to flourish'

27th January 2009

Almost half of developers believe that the building of mobile apps for business use will increase over the next 12 months, according to a new survey.

Conducted by Evans Data, the Wireless Development Survey polled 400 mobile developers worldwide and also found that 46.4 per cent of respondents expected the market to see the same level of development in 2009 as it did in 2008.

Less than a tenth of developers said they thought fewer mobile apps would make it to the market.

The survey also revealed that money is the main deciding factor when choosing a mobile platform to develop for, with one-quarter citing revenue potential, while a fifth pointed to the identification of marketing opportunities.

"These results continue to support significant opportunity within the mobile application development segment for both the corporate enterprise and commercially-focused developer," remarked John Andrews, president and chief executive of Evans Data.

Google recently announced in its earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2008 that its Android Marketplace for mobile apps now has about 800 products available for users of compatible handsets.