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By Sue Kelly
The research firm Forrester is forecasting the mobile app explosion
will shift end user focus away from the Web. This will in time create
new opportunities for the programmers and developers of Apps as well as
the enterprises that sell and service them. This "app internet" is still
a nascent industry with plenty of room to grow and if you are an IT pro
thinking of re-tooling your skill set then this could be the right
choice for you. We have not seen this much demand for a specific talent
in quite some time.
The proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and app ecosystems such
as the ones around the iPhone/iPad and Android devices are setting the
stage to change the way the internet users conduct their business. This
shift will arrive through a new wave of innovation that links
cloud-based services, smart computing, and app-enabled devices,
including cars, appliances, and entertainment systems, according to new
research from Forrester.
A new report, "Mobile App Internet Recasts the Software and Services Landscape,"
from Forrester's John McCarthy says that the App Store/Android Market
revolution is just the start of this change. The second wave of
innovation that will direct end user activity away from the Web and
toward apps as the mobile market and the emerging platforms they
operate within continue to grow. This shift will continue to accelerate as mobile devices
become more sophisticated and increasingly the preferred IT gadgets of
choice. This transformation will present a major opportunity for both
Apps developers, programmer, designers, UI engineers, and enterprises
to create the apps, as well as set up and manage the devices they're
on.
This is a positive and welcome trend for computer scientists,
engineers, and programmers, as the demand for their skills have been
waning for the last decade due to outsourcing. This trend is confirmed
by money.com in an article which states, "The startups are competing for
talent not just with each other, but also against established
companies with much deeper pockets. A study by consulting firm BDO
found that 46% of top U.S. technology companies plan to increase their
employee headcount in 2011."
New demand for IT talent always brings more opportunity. "Good talent
is always employed," says Shannon Callahan, who recruits for companies
backed by venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz.
That can lead to some sticky situations. "As CEO, one generally
doesn't have many true friends in business and raiding your friend's
company is a sure way to lose one," Andreessen-Horowitz partner Ben
Horowitz wrote last month in a blog on the ethics of poaching.
In a blog post on the mobile app internet forrester analyst McCarthy
predicts that the combined spend on apps and services will be $54.6
billion a year by 2015, with $17 billion going to app support services.
Also, he foresees the app Internet disrupting "basically everything
you thought you knew about building, delivering, and managing
applications. It will also dramatically impact how traditional software
is sold and delivered." Enterprises and support firms have a chance now
to position themselves to grab a big slice of this lucrative pie --
enterprises via ambitious IT plans that capitalize on this adaptation
and support firms by, well, supporting those plans via device
management, security, and the like.
As for apps developers, Jeffrey Hammond says that "we're witnessing
the rebirth of the rich client in real time, on the mobile device
instead of the laptop or desktop." Hammond sees some potential hitches
in the app Internet - namely in the challenges associated with making
app development cost-effective. This app-web conflicting dynamic could
help the Web-based content delivery and end user engagement approach on
track due to its' momentum. He recommends that developers "keep their
options open and understand the costs involved with going native, using
mobile middleware, or investing in a Web-based approach." He notes that
"in the end, you're probably going to use a combination of one or more
approaches."
Published by myITview.com
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