Salt Lake City's PushButton 2010 Summit: Mobile devices next boon for business?

SALT LAKE CITY — As businesses try to figure out the best way to grow in today's high-tech world, the answer might fit in the palm of their collective hands, according to one industry insider.

Ian McKerlich, director of mobile Internet and content for T-Mobile, told an audience of technology professionals this week that smartphones might be the next major tool used to boost a company's bottom line.

Speaking Wednesday at the PushButton 2010 Summit at the Rose Wagner Theatre in Salt Lake City, McKerlich said the proliferation of smartphone mobile devices offer flexibility and huge growth potential for people seeking to expand their business.

"They are becoming more and more common and are reaching more and more people," he said. "With that, people have more access to innovation … creating applications (that can) increase productivity and improve people's lives through this exciting new platform."

A smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, often with computer-like functionality.

The devices that consumers have access to today are as powerful as computers were years ago, making them much more useful and practical, he told the Deseret News.

"A lot of smartphones have GPS (and other applications), and that creates a great set of opportunities (for innovation) for developers," McKerlich added.

In terms of which markets may be a focus for developers, creating top-notch mobile applications that are useful and effective should be high priority, according to Anthony Romrell, professor of animation at Utah Valley University.

"(The application) would have to be something amazing that could multi-task … (for example) handle your contacts, handle social networking, handle scheduling," he told the Deseret News. While that technology already exists, he added, there is still an opportunity for a creative developer to raise the bar even higher, to the benefit of consumers and business.

"If you get a few good guys together and they innovate in ways (that someone else) hasn't, then there is certainly some possibility (for growth) in that direction," Romrell said.

e-mail: jlee@desnews.com