Archive for the ‘Mobile Application’ Category

Offshore iPhone Mobile Application Development in China

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

09 April, 2010
Written by Daisy Wang
Beijing RayooTech Co., Ltd.

Its ‘iPhone wave’ going around the globe and people are going crazy over Development of iPhone mobile application and its outsourcing business. So what’s iPhone!

According to In-Stat report, there are more than 1 million iPhone users in national mobile network in China at the end of 2009, which occupied almost 15% of the global iPhone sales. In-Stat said “we are very surprised that this number is 4 times than we expected before, it is absolutely do not doubt that iPhone will be more successful than iPod development in China”.

The report also shows the U.S. mobile phone users and Chinese mobile phone users purchases exists the vast philosophy differences. Most U.S. users use phones as business and office tools, while Chinese users use it for network and entertainment purposes. This preference of Chinese users of Apple iPhone, just consistent with the functional characteristics of iPhone; additional, take the advantage of its user interface in China, iPhone is particularly suitable for the Chinese market.

With the launch of iPhone, custom built applications for them marked a new beginning in the mobile application development industry. The big plus points that iPhone hold is its popularity and density among users, no massive porting hassles, cost effectiveness in comparison to any other platform etc.

iPhone mobile application software development

iPhone OS is the platform used to develop applications for iPhone and iPod touch devices.

All of the tools and technologies required to develop application for iPhone OS are included with the iPhone SDK. The free SDK, one can say “the tool chain, don’t need license and not restricted to running only on Apple’s operating system .In fact ,a Linux and Windows user can build and install application on their iPhone without ever touching a Mac.

Few technologies bring out everyone’s hidden geek, and the iPhone did so instantly upon its release. Offshore mobile application development for iPhone took a new dimension. Beijing RayooTech Company is among the front runner companies to provide custom and web based applications on the iPhone.

iPhone mobile software development

For iPhone mobile software development, RayooTech is one of the best resources. Our iPhone application developers/ programmers provide a complete and integrated process for developing, debugging, and distributing your free, commercial, or in-house applications for iPhone. Complete with development resources, real-world testing on iPhone, and distribution on the App Store, you have everything from us you that need to go from code to customer.

Web Apps software Development for iPhone

The expert team of developers at Beijing RayooTech can create Web 2.0 iPhone applications that look and behave identically to the applications built into iPhone, and also provide seamless integration with iPhone applications and services together with making a phone call, sending an email, and displaying a location in Google Maps.

Porting of existing applications software to iPhone

Porting of existing mobile applications on different platforms to iPhone is also a major area. Every existing application owner would love to explore the customer base of iPhone by porting their application. And we are able to provide the following services:

-J2ME to iPhone
-Symbian to iPhone
-Windows Mobile to iPhone

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iPhone Application , in Touch with Tomorrow

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

26 Feb, 2010
Written by Effie Sha
Beijing RayooTech Co., Ltd.

It’s always very exciting when a new thing come to our world and changes our life. Apple opened the door to a new communication technology market and people can make their dreams come true in iPhone’s huge virtual world.

I read a news report on Inc. NEWS. The title is ‘Kid Entrepreneurs Build iPhone App – Two young brothers turn their school math lessons into an iPhone app’. The story talk about a boy, his name is Owen Voorhees, Owen overcame new programming languages and read lots of college level computer science textbooks, all to develop his own iPhone application. And finally, his application, MathTime, was launched in the Apple Store and rose to No. 13 in the paid ranking rapidly, educational application section. Why news paper reported Owen’s story? Because this boy, reached the top of mountain eventually after overcame many difficult problems, is only 11-yesar old. The MathTime works like this: people can practise addition, subtraction, multiplication and division on iPhone with two taps of the iPhone, one to show the question, one to display the answer. After Owen established the basic premise of the game, his 9-year old brother Finn designed the mathematical symbols in Photoshop. They launched MathTime iPhone application to Apple Store once Finn completed the symbols design.

iPhone application is so close to us, not only professional iPhone application programmers can develop and sell iPhone applications in Apple Store, but also novice programmers can do it. The iPhone application development environment is very easy, so no matter what your job is, everyone can complete iPhone applications with good ideas.

Let’s move to companies, organizations or governments. How about them? Are they going to use iPhone application do something for their business?

The answer is ‘Yes’. The BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation who is the largest and famous broadcasting network in the world, has announced it will offer iPhone applications for its news and sport content from April, 2010. This is a amazing news for iPhone fans. The BBC said they had been developed iPhone application because more and more people use ‘sophisticated handheld devices’ to view content. And some other news organizations also provide iPhone applications to view their online news content, including SKY, the Daily Telegraph, and the Guardian which costs £2.39. The news industry is struggling to find a business model in digital world.

‘The BBC iPhone application which is going to be released in this April, will offer content from the BBC News website, including written stories, correspondent blogs as well as audio and video. Users will also be able to send comments and pictures directly to the newsroom.’ The BBC said the sports iPhone application will be released in time for the World Cup, which starts in June, and will initially focus on football. Different languages version of the BBC iPhone application will be offered to international audiences.

You can be individual with a good iPhone application idea, or you can be a company or organization with your business needs, just contact RayooTech when you need iPhone application development outsourcing. As one of the leading software outsourcing company in China, we will help you to get in touch with tomorrow.

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The Best iPhone Application Development Team

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

26 Feb, 2010
Written by Effie Sha
Beijing RayooTech Co., Ltd.

RayooTech, an offshore software outsourcing company, the professional iPhone application development team provides global clients best services for end-to-end iPhone application development.

From iPhone concept idea to iPhone application development

What is concept application? For example, you have a very good idea and you need iPhone to make your dream come true. Probably this idea will change people’s life. And next, you need to find an iPhone application development team to help you. Because you are going to develop a completely new iPhone application, maybe some of creative ideas are just ideal thing which cannot be realized. So professional iPhone application development team will help you complete this iPhone application from concept to iPhone concept application through feasibility study and test iPhone concept application and modify it again.

At RayooTech, our iPhone application development team works closely with clients. Our concept development process involves research and analysis on the scope of the iPhone application and its target users. The reason why we need concept research and analysis is because we need evaluate whether your ideas can be approached by technique. If not, RayooTech iPhone application development team will give suggestions and help clients to achieve it.

The best iPhone application development team

RayooTech is working on iPhone development technology to help global clients in empowering the capability of iPhone development and to reduce development cost and time. Our iPhone application development team follows a complete and integrated process for researching, designing, developing, testing and debugging.

Tones of iPhone application development companies and developers to develop iPhone application since Apple found iPhone store on July 2008. Why RayooTech is so self-confident that RayooTech has the best iPhone application development team though iPhone store has more than one year history. RayooTech’s self-confidence comes from solid programming technique skills, full software development experience and advanced software project management ability which inherited from UFIDA Group – UFIDA Software Company. UFIDA Software Co., Ltd. is a major provider of management software and software solutions in Asia-Pacific area with 21-year experience. So that’s why RayooTech expanded from a small software outsourcing company to a large and modem software outsourcing company with over 1,300 employees and received CMMI 5 certificate. And after Apple opened iPhone store in 2008, RayooTech found the good opportunity to expand its business onto global mobile application market. RayooTech hired many talent programming geeks to research, develop and enhance iPhone application.

So if you have ideas what you want to develop, or have requirement of a tailor made iPhone application, please contact us and find out how we can help.

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iPhone Opened China Mobile Market

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

22 Jan, 2010
Written and Translated by Effie Sha
Beijing RayooTech Co., Ltd.

‘More than 100,000 iPhone units were sold since 30 October, 2009 the official iPhone sales in China, and 71% of them are 3G users. iPhone Chinese version has embedded China Unicom Woo-3G services, such as mobile information, mobile TV, mobile music, mobile newspaper, mobile phone bookstore, mobile phone business hall, etc. iPhone was widely welcomed by Chinese users and iPhone sales are steadily upgraded.

According to Bloomberg NEWS Agency reported, Xiaobing Chang, the president of China Unicom, said ‘Apple’s iPhone will become the best-selling smart phone in China’. He refuted that some analysts believed iPhone price is too high.

During an interview with Hong Kong media, Xiaobing Chang said they are very self confident for the iPhone’s market position. China Unicom has launched an advertising program for iPhone. China Unicom iPhone sales is below analysts forecasts, which sells for 7,999 RMB (about 1,172 US dollars), while the iPhone price in the United States was 299 US dollars only. iPhone has to face the competition from Nokia Oyj, RIM and China Mobile Ophone.

Aloysius Choong analyst, IDC in Singapore, said the sale of iPhone in different countries, iPhone has became the top-selling smart phones. China Unicom has to cut the price down to promote large number of customers to buy iPhone. BDA China consultant said 7,999 RMB for China Unicom 3G version iPhone with 32GB memory is much higher than the AT&T’s $299 iPhone. Many Chinese customers buy iPhone from gray market for lower prices. Xiaobing Chang said ‘The gray market sales will not be very significant. The official channels sales would definitely exceed the unofficial channels’.

5,000 iPhone handsets were sold during the first week in China, much lower than the one million iPhone 3G version handsets in North America. However, According to BDA estimates that Chinese customer will buy one million iPhone handsets from gray market in 2009 and the gray channel sales will reached 1.5 million handsets totally. Xiaobing Chang said, ‘iPhone sales are acceptable now.’ China Unicom will re-examine the iPhone market strategy when the right time comes.

IDC data shows that last year, Chinese customer bought 11 million smart phones and this number will be 3 times in the year 2013. Currently, Nokia E71 and Nokia 5800 are the most popular smart phones in China.

‘We are planning to increase one million 3G users each month, keep the same level in October, 2009’, said Xiaobing Chang. China Unicom will launch a fast wireless Internet advertising campaign. 3G users will improve the revenue of China Unicom’s bottom line. ‘We are concerned about users’ growth; investors should be pleased that we are cutting costs and maintain high growth’. At the end of September, 2009 the biggest competitor, China Mobile has 1.66 million 3G users; China Telecom reached 3 million 2G and 3G users. According to official government report, China has 720 million mobile phone users.

‘It is very helpful to promote the sales of smart phones in global market 2010 and 2011 due to Apple launched iPhone in China’, pointed by iSuppli, Market Research Reports & Industry Analysis.

The global smart phone sales are expected to increase from 184.2 million phones in 2009 to 235.6 million phones in 2010, the growth rate will be reached 27.9%. Even more in 2011, the number of sales will be 334.1 million, a growth of 41.8%. In 2008, the global smart phone growth rate was 20.6% and the rate was slowed to 11.6% in 2009 under the global economic crisis.

Compared to 2008, although the growth of smart mobile phone market was slow, it was still a fairly rare bright spot in the troubled smart phone market. The smart phone sales in 2009 were reduced 12.3%. ‘China Unicom starts the fourth season of selling iPhone in China. And that marks the start of smart phone race’, said by Tina Teng, Senior Analyst in iSuppli. iPhone’s arrival will force China Unicom to launch its own smart phone products and smart phone application store. And this will be the benefit to push China smart phone market.

According to iSuppli estimates, China’s smart phone sales will reach 30.2 million, compare with 21.2 million smart phones in 2009, the increase rate will be 42.5%. China will be the fastest growing country in smart phone market. In the next few years, China will experience the fast growth period than any other region in the global smart phone market. In 2013, the smart phone sales will grow from 16.7 million in 2008 to 63.6 million, the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) will up to 63.6%.

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Reference:

http://tech.qq.com/a/20091210/000371.htm

http://telecom.chinabyte.com/112/11036112.shtml

http://www.laoyaoba.com/ss6/?action-viewnews-itemid-19776

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iPhone Application Development in China

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

22 Jan, 2010
Written and Translated by Effie Sha
Beijing RayooTech Co., Ltd.

A large number of business companies are looking for Chinese software outsourcing companies to outsource their software project due to the terrible global economic crisis. And another reason of why they chose Chinese software outsourcing companies is because Chinese software outsourcing companies become more and more mature in technologies, talents, project management and development. So China, as the largest software outsourcing country, adapt to iPhone application market, provides a very excellent environment to develop iPhone applications to meet the requirement of iPhone application market.

Apple Inc has introduced its new mobile phone called iPhone in 2007. Very soon, people are attractive by the charming smart phone with its camera, text message, visual voicemail, media player, the Internet (with email, web browsing, etc.), and the fantastic multi-touch screen as a virtual keyboard in lieu of a physical keyboard. And iPhone also created a competitive cell phone market across the world.

No doubt, Apple Inc is a very successful cell phone company. Apple established the famous App Store which offers iPhone application and iPod Touch application for users. People can download applications directly to iPhone or iPod Touch for free or be charged cost. That is why more and more companies and individuals work day and night to develop iPhone applications, sell them to App Store and get a well fortune.

Why China is so self-confident to enter the iPhone application market? China Unicom, the second largest mobile service provider in China, who opened a giant new iPhone market to Apple and has made the phone available to hundreds of millions of iPhone fans in China mainland. China has nearly 700 million mobile phone users and reported US $2.4 billion in revenue from mobile music downloads and ringtones, just followed India and America. ‘Apple needs a good international success story to keep their momentum going, and China is a great candidate for that,’says Duncan Clark, Chairman of BDA, a Beijing based telecommunications consultancy.

As the rapid increasing economy and mature software outsourcing market in China, China becomes the ideally and attractive country for iPhone application outsourcing destination. China has incredible potential and encouraged market by government for iPhone application outsourcing development with its solid information and technology skills.

To be the leading software outsourcing company in China, RayooTech focus on developing various iPhone applications to meet requirements from global clients. RayooTech have a group of knowledgeable IT talents with the latest iPhone application development technologies. RayooTech will maximize the value of your business.

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How to Develop More Robust Mobile Local Search Applications

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

Trade and moonlighting software developers alike are clamoring to develop the next killer mobile local search application for one of the current mobile application stores—many now competing for attention with nearly 50,000 iPhone applications alone. This means mobile local search applications must not just stand apart in whiz-bang technology but also dominate in user experience. As Knowledge Center contributor Brian Wool explains, in order to secure and hold consumers’ attention, content is the critical ingredient to creating powerful and lasting mobile local search applications.

Mobile local search application developers should closely evaluate the content providers they select. Content management can be a confusing market with a wide range of pricing models, but a data provider on the cheap may have a negative impact post-launch. Mobile searchers expect local-based applications to deliver correct and dynamic content quickly, and they will grow discouraged with inaccurate results.

Mobile local search developers have three options for culling data to populate their search directories: data scraping, advertiser feeds and content providers. Data scraping involves original research to pull contact information from other research and Internet sources and input into a database. It can be a quick startup option; however, updates are time-intensive for a small operation.

Advertiser feeds from Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) sites can be a quick and low-cost option for pulling local content. However, developers typically don’t realize that they are not getting comprehensive business listings, as these providers typically only address 10 to 25 percent of the total local business universe in any given city. Also, with an advertiser feed, developers have no control over the presentation of the data or search results. Plus, there are limited opportunities to monetize the content as traffic generated by a search goes to the feed site versus the mobile application.

While these applications monetize their leads at a minimum of $3 per call (and typically much higher), only a nickel goes to the mobile application—which is not enough to build a sustainable revenue model. The bottom line is that inconsistent search functionality can have long-term impact and limits any short-term money savings.

If you decide that a content provider is the best option, remember these four best practices:

Best practice No. 1: Put a budget on content

Mobile applications offer limited real estate, with a maximum 3.5-inch screen, and require highly structured and contextual content. Data is essential to the long-term success of any mobile local search application and a few wrong moves can mean big consequences. Users will get frustrated quickly with poor search results.

Best practice No. 2: Consider serving a niche market need

Consider serving a niche market need and think of ways to slice and dice for the most relevant content to your application. If you are developing a vertical-focused application, you don’t need access to 15 million listings. You can trim your budget by tailoring your available listings. For example, an auto aftermarket estimating tool and iPhone application wouldn’t need to have data on restaurants, plumbers or doctors in its database.

Best practice No. 3: Don’t underestimate the power of search engine optimization (SEO)

While mobile users today typically are not browsing the Web on their phone the way they would on a laptop or desktop, that behavior is starting to change. With hardware and software advances, browser-based mobile searches are on the rise. Good, local content drives SEO and your application should be ready to monetize its searches.

Best practice No. 4: Provide more than just an address and phone number

Local searchers today expect more than just basic contact information. To enhance the search experience and drive repeat visits, select a data provider that can offer additional business keyword feature attributes appropriate for your market. For example, make sure your data provider can execute a search for a "Chicago restaurant patio" or "Chicago child cavity."

With the growth in mobile device use and technology, mobile local search application developers today have an opportunity to make their mark. Make sure you don’t waste your energy by not fully evaluating one of the critical ingredients to mobile local search success. Remember, it’s all about the content.

source: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/How-to-Develop-More-Robust-Mobile-Local-Search-Applications/

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Mobile Applications Market Set to Experience Major Growth

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

 

Mobile applications will experience dramatic growth globally over the next 12 months, according to predictions released by IHS iSuppli, a major internet research company.

The firm estimates that the sector’s total revenue will increase by 81.5 per cent over the course of the year, resulting in income that surpasses $3.8 billion. The firm believes, however, that the driving force behind this massive expansion is the growing popularity and predominance of freely downloadable mobile applications.

HIS iSuppli refers to this as the "freemium" business model, in which mobile apps are available free of charge, but the company charges a separate fee to access premium content, services or enhanced usability.

Mobile app developers have seen an impressive rise in revenue over the course of the past two years, including a 160 per cent increase from 2009 to 2010, when revenue rose from just $828 million to $2.2 billion.

Google’s Android is seeing the most rapid growth, and the Android Market has now become the third most popular place to purchase mobile apps.

Android’s overall revenue in 2010 skyrocketed by a staggering 862 per cent and it now controls more than 4.7 per cent of the total application development market.

This represents a key rise from 2009, when its market share stood at 1.3 per cent. Most observers predict that Google Android will continue to chip away at the lead still enjoyed by its largest competitor, Apple.

Blackberry App World is the second most popular provider of mobile applications and experienced 360 per cent growth last year.

Source: http://www.bluhalo.com/news/view/8413/mobile-applications-market-set-to-experience-major-growth

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Top 5 mobile app development skills in demand

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

 

Bangalore: As the tech predictions suggest, mobile app industry is going to be one of high tech’s hottest sectors. As per a new study by research firm Gartner, mobile applications downloaded from online stores will be a $58 billion worldwide business by 2014. Driven by the popularity of the iPhone and Android operating system, the demand for skilled app developers is reaching the highest point ever. This trend is likely to follow the fast growth of iPhone projects which saw more than 8,800 jobs completed on Elance in 2009. In addition, Android is rising fast in the ranking of skills in demand, with more than 170 projects posted in early 2010. Analyzing the increasing demand for mobile app developers we have picked up five mobile application skills that are ruling the job market of app developers today.

1. Java

Application programming for Android-based cell phones is primarily done in Java. Android includes a set of core libraries that provides most of the functionality available in the core libraries of the Java programming language. Having Java as the base language, is one of the key assets of Android as a whole and one of its key success factors. Google will engage engineers to create a range of apps from games to services based on users’ location, and for the purpose it is hunting for mobile app developers who are at home with Java.

2. Objective C

Apple’s iPhone has created a great buzz in the Smartphone industry because of its rich UI and plethora of features. The demand for iPhone app developers is increasing and knowing the new platform and skills is all what developers need to do. Writing objective C program code from scratch, ability to use existing APIs and knowledge of various frameworks needed for development is must thing which iPhone developers should know.

3. HTML5

Although there has been no finalized HTML5 standard, but a lot of web browsers, and even mobile web browsers, have now some HTML5 capabilities. And, it will really help in the development cycle for basic applications. HTML5 will take us miles forward and diminish the difference between the desktop and the mobile environment. HTML5 is a critical step for mobile web application development. Some of the key elements that it provides are – offline support, canvas and video, geolocation API and advanced forms.

4. HB++

HB++ is considered to be one of the best development environments for Windows mobiles and Palm OS smartphones. HB++ for Palm OS is designed to accelerate the development of robust, enterprise-grade Palm OS applications for today’s mobile workforce. With the use of HB++, developing handheld applications and connecting them to the enterprise data becomes fast and easy.

5. Silverlight

Microsoft Silverlight is a website application development framework that is indeed these days as it incorporates multimedia, animation and graphics. Although Adobe’s incumbent Flash platform remains more popular, it is competing with Flash, java FX and AJAX as well in the world of mobile app development. Apart from providing high quality video, Silverlight application development also gives complete control over rich media content to the content providers.

The list of certainly not exhaustive. Adding to the above five skills, there are some other mobile app development skills as well that the employers are creating demand for. Some of theses skills are – Qt, Adobe Flash Lite, CSS programming, Python and Apple’s proprietary Xcode development language. As the sales of mobile devices is growing, so as the demand for specialized talents.

Source: http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Top_5_mobile_app_

development_skills_in_demand-nid-78284.html

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Android Development – Android Now Second in Mobile Development Race

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

By Austin Davies

According to a new study released today by Millennial Media and DigiDay, Android is the silver contender for developers creating content for mobile platforms. Android managed to shake off stiff competition from the iPad which placed third in the study with 21% of the development pie.

The iPhone managed to capture gold with a convincing 30%, followed by Android at 23%. The other contenders were RIM with a safe 12%, Palm with 5% and Symbian at 3%. Windows Mobile also made an appearance with a tidy 6%.

Application developers and publishers also announced their future plans on supporting each platform. Apparently we’re going to see Android support increase to 29%, along with WP7 at 20% tied with the iPad. RIM will stay completely still while Palm drops a miserable 1%. Symbian will double its percentage to 6%. The biggest change however is with the iPhone which drops dramatically to 8%.

So expect to see an influx in Android and WP7 apps in 2011.

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Mobile Business Apps Flourish at IBM, Google

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

 

by Rachael King

IBM engineer William Bodin needed a way to communicate easily with a team of developers halfway around the world. So he turned to an application, created by colleagues, that could be downloaded to his smartphone and that let him collaborate securely with co-workers in Vietnam—even when he was sitting rink-side at his son’s hockey practice.

Bodin, IBM’s mobile chief technology officer, has since created an online storefront that gives employees across IBM (IBM) access to similar downloadable apps. The store is called Whirlwind, and in the six weeks since it opened, it has been used by more than 11,000 employees. "People love the concept," Bodin says.

Staff at IBM headquarters in Armonk, N.Y., use the programs for everything from scheduling conference rooms to approving purchase orders, from accessing marketing materials to logging onto the internal social network, Bluepages. They can also rate apps according to their usefulness. Previously, employees couldn’t carry out many of these tasks unless they were logged onto a desktop PC or a network-linked laptop. With apps, whether they’re created within IBM or by outside programmers, workers can handle all these jobs from a handheld device.

Corporate Evolution
The rising popularity of Whirldwind and the apps it brings together in a single storefront reflects a shift under way across industries. By 2015, about half of the devices on corporate networks will be mobile, according to an Oct. 14 report from Forrester Research (FORR). Sales of Internet-enabled mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and e-readers, have already surpassed those of Internet-enabled laptops, notebooks, and desktop computers, says Andrew Jaquith, a Forrester senior analyst.

As companies spend more money developing mobile apps or buying them from third-party programmers, the North American market for mobile office applications may surge to $6.85 billion in 2015, from $1.76 billion in 2010, according to analysis by Frost & Sullivan, a research and consulting firm.

Google (GOOG) also has created an internal mobile app store. Employees go there to get software for such tasks as expense reporting or finding free conference rooms. "I would not call them rocket science apps, but they’re very practical, pragmatic apps that Googlers need throughout the day," says Dave Girourard, president of Google Enterprise. The company also uses the store to test some apps before they’re released to the public, through a site that showcases apps for the Android operating system. "It’s actually a model we want to deliver to companies around the world so they can have their own app store for Android apps," Girourard says.

Not Just BlackBerrys
App use is surging in the workplace as more companies, including Kraft Foods (KFT) and SAP’s (SAP:GR) Sybase business, become comfortable letting employees use smartphones for work. "The first hurdle was to allow these devices to connect securely to the enterprise," says Jaquith at Forrester. It’s not just Research In Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry anymore, either. In October, Apple (AAPL) said the iPhone is being deployed or tested by 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies and the iPad is being used or tested by 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies. Users of the iPhone and iPad have access to more than 280,000 apps in Apple’s App Store.

Apple (AAPL) has also taken steps to make it easier to create iPhone and iPad apps for employees. Its iOS enterprise developer program gives programmers access to resources for $299 a year that will help them develop proprietary, in-house applications.

Smaller companies, including Apperian, Mobile Iron, JackBe and Ondeego, specialize in software or services to help companies open mobile app stores. About 50 companies have signed up for an Apperian program called EASE, for enterprise application services environment, and they’re working on as few as two to as many as 20 apps apiece, says Cimarron Buser, vice-president for marketing at Apperian.

IT Headaches
Useful as workplace apps may be, they also pose challenges for company information technology staffs. In the past, IT departments controlled worker mobile devices, which were mostly limited to BlackBerrys. Now they need to accommodate a broader range of mobile operating systems, including Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows 7, sold by a range of wireless network operators. "There’s not a single operator that can handle all the devices," says Paul Nerger, vice-president for marketing at Ondeego. "What makes a company think they can do it?" Ondeego sells a product called Appcentral that lets companies distribute apps to employees and another product called Appguard that lets the IT manager secure the application. If an employee leaves the company, the IT manager can wipe the corporate apps on that device, one by one. PepsiCo is an Ondeego customer.

IBM and Google take different approaches to corporate policies for using mobile devices. IBM now only lets BlackBerry apps on Whirlwind, though it’s testing other mobile devices, including iPhones and Android handsets, and engineers are writing apps for iPhone and Android devices. The apps will probably be added to Whirlwind once the company approves other devices, Bodin says. Google, on the other hand, lets employees pick from an array of smartphones, says Google’s Girourard. Most employees work outside the corporate network, and systems that house secret proprietary information, such as source code, are strictly guarded.

Another way IBM encourages use of Whirlwind is by letting employees write their own apps and upload them to the store. The process is so easy, Bodin says, that he was able to add an app to Whirlwind in October while he was waiting for a doctor’s appointment to begin.

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