COMMENT
The iPhone and others have caused a growth spurt in mobile apps, says the Naked CIO. But are they truly committed to business?
For many years I have argued that mobile providers neglected and abandoned business customers in their consumer-driven market.
So I've been intrigued by the growth in mobile applications - most notably driven by the iPhone application platform. And as applications for both B2B and B2C become a reality within the mobile market you might presume that I would be an enthusiastic supporter of these initiatives.
Something , however, disturbs me with these applications - similar to the birth of the dot-coms a decade ago.
The principle of developing business-centric applications for mobile applications is not the issue.
But the carnivorous, unstructured, chaotic frenzy to develop the killer app does concern me from a CIO perspective.
How many of these developers will see through the commitment they have to these applications so that they can truly benefit business?
In addition, how does the difference between mobile devices and application development environments impact these applications?
With both BlackBerry and Apple entrenched in this market and other mobile operators following suit, are we going to have piecemeal and fractured applications that become cumbersome and a nuisance?
The difficulty this type of market creates is that it is more about being seen to be part of the craze and less about providing services and applications that are innovative and drive businesses forward.
If you are going to invest in, develop or partner with companies in order to develop business-centric mobile applications, be sure to have a roadmap like you would have with any other application prior to engaging.
Do research on your partners or developers and ensure that they have a track record for developing that goes beyond just mobile applications as there are a lot of unstable start ups right now in the space.
Also make sure you know your customers and how they use mobile devices, and that any application is developed in relation to how these customers can best benefit from a mobile app. Maybe even set up a test group.
Define what mobile devices you will develop for and formulate a good rationale as to why you might choose one environment over another and how this also will impact your customers.
I think this new world is exciting and long overdue. But if a business is looking to leverage the power of mobility it is critical that they do it right the first time: and if this takes more time then so be it.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
We have customers asking if they can have an iPhone app to do this and that, with little comprehension of the effort involved.
That being said, decisions of managers, directors and CEO's can be analysed and re-packaged into a rule/AI driven App.
iManagement/iDirector/iCIO/iCEO - There could be an App for that too !! :-)
2. anonymous
This piece appears to miss the point of the iPhone application market at least. It is not business driven but developer driven! If business applications are not there for you then develop what you need. This methodology is valid and provides an evolutionary development of applications.
My big problem for the evolutionary nature of the development is that the tools for the iPhone platform are not open enough, this restricts the growth. If Apple want to be a business player they must supply business with tools they can use.
3. Radical Meldrew
The I-Phone is an impressive piece of kit, the available apps make it very attractive, but I still refuse to own one.
Why should the supplier be able to dictate terms to the consumer? The I-phone is doubly tied with it's I-tunes
dependency.
So as far as I'm concernerned, you can shove anything to do with restrictive practices where the sun don't shine! We all get a free choice and my Hero's an Android!