Blog by Paul Golding

I believe that this opportunity also exists for mobile developers, especially in the enterprise sector. I identified this opportunity in my own 2009 predictions, but the point is better made by enterprise mobility expert Philippe Winthrop in his outlook for enterprise mobility in 2009.

With the recent Palm announcement for the Pre, we have entered 2009 with a major boost for smart phones. And these are the devices that are essential for the enterprise mobility market.

When addressing developers at the O2 Litmus Hack Day, I pointed out two areas where I think mobile matters for the workforce. The first is in social enterprise applications, the second is SOHO ('freelancer') apps.

The use of social apps, like blogging, presence (status updates) and social networking within the enterprise. Whilst most people in the enterprise have heard of these tools and already use them personally, they are not so widely used within the enterprise.

For example, I have come across very large companies wishing to implement so-called "Agile" processes into their culture, but have failed to spot the importance of 'thinking aloud' and 'information sharing' via project blogs, Wikis etc.

All too often now, there are times in most projects where a large number of people and deliverables have to come together in a very short space of time, during which real-time availability of information can make a difference. Putting together RFP responses is a key example.

The use of something like Twitter would enhance project communications by allowing a common "hailing" channel to chart progress, ask questions, raise issues, announce documents etc. With virtual teaming, home working and increased pressures for time-critical deliverables, having instant access to data and the ability to deal with that data in real-time becomes more important. Smartphones are ideal platforms to achieve instant-response solutions and I expect that more IT solutions in the enterprise will put mobility as a key requirement.

For SOHO workers, productivity is vitally important, as is management of client communications. Mobiles are essential tools, as most freelancers already know. With smartphones, freelancers can potentially operate their whole business from their pocket. Whilst freelancers will invariably try to find things for free, if they can, there seems a willingness to pay for solutions that just work 'out of the box' and leave the worker free to focus on their core business, which is, most of the time, what they are charging for. No freelancer wants to turn down business in this climate, so the ability to deal with peaks and find more time in the day is important.

In both these areas, the dominant business model is subscription or licensing, so these are key areas for mobile developers to look at who are interested in developing products that generate direct revenue. In the case of iPhone applications, I also believe that there is an opportunity to 'branch out' into Mac desktop solutions to increase revenue. This was discussed in my recent podcast interview with iPhone developer Andrew Ebling.