Entrepreneurs find opportunity in mobile phone apps | ColumbiaTribune.com

In the fast-moving world of mobile computing, small is all, and apps for BlackBerrys, iPhones, Droids and other gadgets are the sultans of software.

Which translates into a bonanza of opportunities for app developers. App stores had more than $4.2 billion in revenue last year, according to Gartner Inc., which tracks information technology worldwide. Analysts expect that to increase to $29.5 billion by 2013.

Todays mobile phones are as powerful as many desktop PCs more so, if you consider that theyre also location-aware and have a built-in billing and payment system, said Lisa Allen, a board director of Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic, the local chapter of a global group that aims to foster education and networking among the mobile-development crowd.

Were seeing people run their entire lives, even their entire businesses, from their mobile phones, she said.

Apples introduction of the iPad, a 10-inch touch-screen computer sized between a laptop and an iPhone, is expected to further fuel the apps boom. Current iPhone apps can be downloaded onto the iPad, and developers are being sought to build applications for Amazons Kindle e-reader, its chief rival.

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