Last weekend there was a mobile application fest at ‘Silicon Roundabout’ (the would-be London home for tech start-ups) run by the BeMyApp, an organization that can best be described as an instant incubator. The idea is that individuals pitch up – those with ideas, development expertise, sales and marketing skills and so on – and this pool of talent organizes itself to select and build a mobile application in 48 hours. The idea is to create real applications for commercial release.
There are several interesting aspects to this.
1) It demonstrates an innovative way of finding and bringing talent together using the principles of collaboration for businesses purposes– surely this could not have been fostered without the background of web-based user generated content, social technology, and the culture of collaboration. And there is potential to adapt this for use within a formal business environment.
2) The speed at which mobile applications can be developed (even though the applications will no doubt need refining beyond the 48-hour timeframe). Although mobile games featured among the London event pitches, there were some viable business applications too.
3) Viable applications can be created with minimal investment. Couple this with the sales and distribution potential available through mobile application marketplaces, and the threats to established suppliers stack up – new competition can arise from many more sources.
4) Sponsoring or running such events could be a canny move for established software houses, to get a feel for what’s in demand on mobile devices and connect with individuals and start-ups, as well as with vendors that wouldn’t normally come into each others field of reference (the London event sponsors were Intel AppUp, AppPromoter, WebMynd and Vserv.Mobi).
5) And of course, if this sort of event helps start-ups on their way that has to be applauded.