Mobile Applications
Being on the edge of a revolution in mobile computing and application deployment, there are many opportunities presented and many challenges to consider when discussing investment within such an industry. The market for mobile applications is extremely diverse, encompassing everyone from mobile phone carriers to application developers. This diverse mobile environment provides a large amount of investment options while also showing the influence and future impact the mobile applications sector will have on consumer and enterprise markets. When considering current deployment of new 3G (3rd Generation) networks from telecom carriers as well as their expansive customer base, it’s clear that mobile applications development has a lot of room to thrive.
Market Obstacles
The biggest obstacle within the mobile apps market is for all of these diverse components to work together to create common platforms in which applications can be shared and operated effectively. With the present nature of interactive technology and the increasing functionality of mobile phones, it will be mobile applications development that will create the stepping stones for future communication and information exchange. The goal is to define how New Wave Investors can profit from the new mobile opportunities in this developing market.
The biggest challenge facing the mobile applications market is the lack of interoperability among differing platforms and devices. With a number of different service providers, device manufacturers, and software developers, there is no universal platform or operating system. The difficulty with this is that in many cases, applications for one phone will not be compatible with another, making it hard for developers to target cell phone users as a whole instead of just a small segment.
Another issue is that while the makers of software for smartphones, such as Apple, Microsoft and Google, have their own approaches for enabling applications, there is an open market for less expensive handsets still used by the vast majority of cell phone users.
Solutions
With the current obstacle in mind, emerging mobile devices and applications are already addressing the problem. Virtualization is one solution that is working towards allowing applications to run on multiple operating systems. Companies such as VirtualLogix are offering virtualization solutions for mobile devices that would allow applications written on different operating systems to run on the same mobile device.
AT&T, one of the largest wireless carriers, is presently working towards standardizing its mass-market phones on one simple operating system. By doing so, they will be able to develop more of a market for mobile applications. They will also be looking to have an operating system that handles the low-en phones so that developers will have a way to develop low-end applications that don’t need Google’s Android, Microsoft Windows, or Mac OS X. Many of the current initiatives are trying to open up the market for developers to create applications more efficiently for a larger consumer base.
Links
http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199703669
http://www.dailybits.com/virtualization-on-mobile-devices-a-bright-future-for-mobile-applications/
http://mashable.com/2008/10/22/monetizing-mobile-apps/