this could really help,” Goldman says. Clients in fields like education, healthcare, and retailing are also clamoring for iPad apps to fit their unique needs, and Goldman wants to help them create applications that will make their businesses more efficient.
“Apperian is not just about building utility-based applications for the iPhone, but truly building transformative point-of-service apps and moving your business to a mobile platform,” he says. “This is the next step for us in that process. You can’t do that really effectively on a 4-inch piece of glass. To move your business to a mobile platform, most companies are going to require a larger device. So I think [the iPad] is going to transform healthcare, it’s going to transform education, and it’s going to further accelerate enterprise mobility, and that’s really what we’ve been waiting for.”
On the app development front, I also spoke with Greg Raiz, founder and CEO of Raizlabs, a smaller iPhone app development outfit in Brookline, MA. (Raiz contributed to our story yesterday on early reaction to the iPad news.) Raiz he expects inquiries from clients interested in workplace applications of the iPad. “I suspect we are going to see a lot more line-of-business apps, where they would traditionally get a Windows Tablet-type computer for data entry,” says Raiz. “I see it more like a clipboard, in many respects, than a phone. A doctor’s office, or a business setting, or a retail environment—this device may make a lot of sense for those types of business.”
Many of the apps Raizlabs has built for the iPhone, such as FitnessKeeper’s GPS-driven RunKeeper app for tracking runs, wouldn’t translate well to a tablet-sized device, Raiz points out. “A lot of our clients are really looking for mobile apps that fit in your pocket,” he says. “RunKeeper needs the GPS, and you are not going to put a tablet in your backpack and run with it. But Survey on the Spot [a Newton, MA-based Raizlabs client whose app allows consumers to provide feedback to restaurants, retail stores, and other local businesses] is an interesting one. Mobile surveys done on a larger device may be interesting. We may talk to them about that in the future.”
Finally, I spoke this morning with Paran Johar, chief marketing officer at Jumptap, a 100-employee mobile search and advertising startup based in Cambridge. Jumptap helps companies place targeted advertisements on mobile devices, whether the ads appear on Web pages or embedded on mobile apps. The company announced yesterday that it’s
