Hungry for iPhone Business Apps

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Even if they're not going to get rich directly from iPhone business apps, developers have other incentives to build them. First, they see the growing popularity of the iPhone within corporations and want to capture those users. Some developers say they develop for the iPhone because its users download more applications than BlackBerry users. Retronyms' Saul says developing business apps is attractive because the market is still in the early stages and growing quickly. "Apple is doing a lot to support business apps in particular," he says. The next version of iPhone software, due in June, will give developers the ability to sell additional services within their applications.

Already, business apps are getting advertising help from Apple. The company has recently begun a print ad campaign featuring a dozen free and paid business apps with the tagline "Helping you run your small business one app at a time." Apple is also running a TV commercial targeting small businesses showing them how they can use iPhones to process credit-card orders, print shipping labels, and check on order deliveries. In the past, similar commercials have been effective at getting consumers to try new apps, says Danielle Nohe, director of telecom and media for Compete.com. Two apps consumers singled out by name in Compete.com's March survey were Shazam, an app for identifying music titles and artists; and LoseIt!, which tracks weight loss. Both apps had been featured in TV commercials. "Apple has done a good job of educating consumers on why they need apps and how they can enhance their lives," says Nohe. It remains to be seen what impact those ads might have on small business owners, however.

BlackBerry App World

Developers hoping to sell business apps for smartphones now have another outlet. On Apr. 1, Research In Motion (RIMM) opened BlackBerry App World, an application store for BlackBerry smartphones. Currently, BlackBerry is the leading smartphone used at U.S. companies. Previously, BlackBerry users went to Handango and other online sites to download apps. Yet it's not clear just how much BlackBerry users are clamoring for apps. As of March 2009, about 32% of BlackBerry owners had not downloaded any applications to their smartphones, while that was the case for only about 2% of the iPhone users surveyed by Compete.com. About 46% of BlackBerry owners had downloaded 1 to 5 applications, and only 21% had downloaded more than 5 applications. Among iPhone users, 82% had downloaded more than 5 applications.

David Reed switched from a BlackBerry to an iPhone in December and says he's more satisfied with his new device. "The BlackBerry apps were pretty anemic," says Reed, a senior sales executive at Enablus, a software design firm in Alpharetta, Ga.

For now, Denali Software's Lin is stuck carrying two devices. Aside from his iPod Touch, he also uses a T-Mobile Dash, a Windows Mobile smartphone paid for by his company that he mostly uses for calls. Lin says he's been bugging his IT department to support the iPhone for a while, but it has reservations about the security of the devices for connecting to corporate e-mail. "I'm ready to switch," he says, "I've got two devices that I would like to converge into one."

King is a writer for BusinessWeek.com in San Francisco.

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