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From: October 2008 Alberta Venture, http://www.albertaventure.com/?p=2759

This years wireless spectrum auction should usher in a whole new wave of mobileapplications. Thats where several Alberta developers come in, all vying to bethe next RIM

By Scott Valentine

Most of the growth of the mobile Internet is based on the idea that sooner or later businesses, consumers and everyday folks will want a web experience on theirhips that looks, acts and feels as good as what they get from a desktop computer. One with everything and a side of customizable personal expression to go, please. Take away the device that fits in your hand, and you have the realm of applications. This is where network operators and mobile software developers the creative architects of the on-hip experience are carving the future of the mobile web.

In truth, mobile applications are what last summers wireless spectrum auctionswere all about: creating more (and more profitable) airspace for the swell of in

teractive mobile Internet expected to crash down on us at home, work and at playin the coming years. As a sector, mobile applications the software and middle-ware that powers wireless devices and networks is booming. Rogers, Telus andothers just forked out nearly $4.3 billion for rights on Canadas newly fat-and-flirty wireless spectrum. Its probably not an accident that public policy, private capital and personal penchant for hip-borne bling have converged at this point. The time is nigh for a market disruption. You in?

Heres a quick look at what it takes to play in the world of mobile technology,via snapshots of four homegrown companies working to change the way the wandering world lives, works and spends.

Challenge one: make the mobile application work. Its tougher than it sounds. Le

ts say you code a nice little game of hangman and want to get it out to every hip on the planet. Theres not a carrier in the world that will let HangHip (patent pending) on their network unless the application has first been strenuously beta-tested a mind-splitting process of testing and tweaking that every piece of commercial software must undergo before deployment.

Challenge two: there are more than 1,000 different mobile devices worldwide, twoor three times that figure if you include regional model variations. Each device could be running on one of a dozen or more popular operating systems and transferring data over the networks of hundreds of carriers. So deploying an application to every device worldwide means potentially thousands of beta-testing projects to deliver quality to each user, all before HangHip ever sees the light of da

y.

Think of Calgary-based Mob4hire as a beta-broker to the mobile world. Paul Poutanen, president and founder, explains Mob4hires technology as a crowd-sourced mobile application-testing platform. Basically, Mob4hire acts like an agency, collecting revenues to manage the delivery of beta-testing services provided by subcontractors. You cant really test code on one carriers network if youre logged in on another, so you either have to send people there or find someone qualified whos already in the right place to test, says Poutanen. Its a useful service offering to mobile applications developers because writing, compiling and deploying mobile code across a labyrinth of technology, regulations and grey-areamarket share aint easy, though Mob4hire is making it look that way. We incorporated in September 2007, says Poutanen. Now, we have resources in 36 differen

t countries and are working with eight major carriers.

So, on the continuum of mobile applications commercialization, Mob4hire is build

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ing a home where it can help businesses sidestep the pain of mobile applicationsdeployment.

A bit further up the supply chain, at the point where the end user is engaged, an application needs to be fast, friendly and secure in order to compete. HotButton Solutions, founded and nurtured by Jane Glendon, is a wireless business intelligence play that offers real-time data capture and decision-making analytics ta

rgeted to Big Oil and the defence industry. Its been a long road since 2000, but weve made it, says Glendon. Now we have a real solution to extend softwareapplications to the field through wireless handhelds. Big business loves the idea of mobile data capture, but worries about the implications of integrating itwith older technology and data security not an easy sales path to navigate.

But one of the interesting things to come out of the wireless spectrum auctionsfor Alberta users is the great likelihood that areas in the north, where the oilindustry rules, will have much better mobile coverage in the near future. Witha looming wave of spectrum availability, wireless business-to-business plays like HotButton represent early plunges into deep-pocketed industry sectors lookingto make a major market splash.

Assuming HangHip has passed muster with beta-testers, potential clients and network lawyers, were now free to launch our application and monetize the mobile widget. At the end of the day, we need to cover expenses, motivate sales, fuel creativity and either make or save people a lot of money.

Calgary-based Singletouch draws on founder Marty Hilsentegers experience as anaccountant in the construction industry to fuel its proof-is-in-the-pudding value proposition. The construction services market has been plagued for decades with manual business processes, he says. By contrast, Singletouchs software wasdesigned from the job site in, to capture real data as decisions are being made.

Construction jobs are incredibly expensive to operate. So much the more so in places like Fort McMurray where labour costs are hyper-inflated. By giving construction companies and the people that hire them a tool to capture and measure thecost of every business process, Singletouch can honestly say, We get you. Heres something that can help you run your business, and deliver on the promise. But in order to take the next step, beyond novel solution and on to market leadership, Singletouch, HangHip or any other mobile application must meet one more keycriterion. It has to be marketable to the world.

Mobile can hang with us anytime, anywhere. As a result, its a great tool for catching us in the very human and commercially exploitable act of being ourselves.Take a cool picture? Upload it to Facebook or Flickr and share it today. Need directions? Tell Google where you are and what you want to do and it will happilymake a sponsored suggestion. Want to catch the world news or a little saucy European cinema on the train home? Tap your iPhone a couple times and so it shall appear.

MoboVivo is the first company in Canada to license and distribute TV shows online, says Trevor Doerksen, founder and CEO of Calgary-based MoboVivo Inc. My background is as a television producer, but around 2005 I saw an opportunity to distribute content in different ways, he says. We started by licensing technologies, then created a web store and now were on the iPhone.

The success of people like Doerksen no techie, at least to begin with illustrates a truism about this emerging field. On the economic landscape, the conflue

nce of mobile technology and market opportunity occurs at the headwaters of interactive content and Whats in it for me? The question is not: Do consumers want an entertaining, interactive experience on their hips? Its: How are we goi

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