Great Business Apps Are Hard to Discover

With smartphones and mobile technologies having caused yet another seismic shift in the tech landscape, apps have emerged as the most powerful software platform on the planet. Right now, 87 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 own at least one smartphone, and 80 percent of smartphone users say that the first thing they do after waking up in the morning is check their phone. It’s clear that apps have transformed the consumer market. So why are business apps lagging behind?

While apps such as Dropbox have made inroads in the business market, commerce is suffering from a relative lack of powerful, purpose-built apps that are specifically designed to take full advantage of the reach of mobile technology. Numerous high-profile experts and industry analysts have pointed out that a large number of business apps on the market simply repeat the functionality of services available through the company’s website.

With many a mobile app development company looking to earn a piece of the $100 billion enterprise app market pie, there remains a deep and largely unfilled need for “authentically mobile” apps that tap into the rich repositories of data generated by smartphone users. Other features of authentically mobile apps include:

• The ability to gather information through so-called “lightweight inputs”
• Features that exploit the frequent device usage seen in smartphones
• Far more ways to personalize and customize device operation and accessed content

Many analysts cite these features as critical to the commercial success of an app in the consumer market, and there’s every reason to believe these same principles would translate to the largely unexplored world of enterprise.

For iPhone app developers in Chicago and throughout the country, there is a very clear window of opportunity available. Enterprise apps that are every bit as indispensable to businesses as the most popular consumer apps are to regular smartphone users would be game-changers. App development companies and professionals trying to build “the next big thing” in mobile software may well find the enterprise market is less saturated with competition and more ripe with opportunity.