DEVELOPERS BLOG

Manny on the Road: AppsWorld North America

EVENTS / 05.21.15 / mannyelawar

appsworld

Written by:  Manny Elawar

Last week my colleagues and I took part in the AppsWorld North America 2015 conference in San Francisco.  The event had 350+ Exhibitors, and roughly 10,000 attendees; needless to say, there was a lot going on, and I want to recap the week with you by sharing some nuggets of info I picked up along the way.

If you have followed my previous blog posts over the last year, you may have seen a theme developing: I’m big on mobile apps for the Enterprise.  My argument has been based on research and personal experience indicating that remaining lucrative in the mobile app game requires a shift to targeting the Enterprise audience.  AppsWorld reinforced that line of thinking for me in a few key ways:

  1. The Enterprise World Track – AppsWorld dedicated one of the five 2-day tracks entirely to the Enterprise (the other four being gaming, developer, connected car, and droid worlds). This track contained a host of talks and panel discussions focused on the challenges, solutions, trends, and new innovations in the enterprise space as it pertains to mobility.  I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel discussing the challenges of device and application management in the Enterprise, and it was an interesting and lively session.  Other areas touched on were Secure Containers (by my colleague Shikhir Singh), Cloud, Mobility in the Government, Mobility and Security, UI and UX for Mobile in the Enterprise, Tools, Messaging, and more!
  1. The CIO Leadership Summit – AppsWorld didn’t stop at the Enterprise World track. The increase in demand for Enterprise Mobility led the organizers to develop a one-day track on day #2 specifically for CIO’s.  In this track, my colleague Brent Thornton gave the keynote address discussing Building a Strong Foundation for the Future of Cross Platform Enterprise Mobility.  In his talk he emphasized the need to embrace cross-platform development methodologies in order to build a lean mobility strategy for Enterprises, allowing the employees of an organization to become more productive.  The message sincerely resonated with the CIO’s in attendance, and directly aligned with what they have been experiencing within their businesses.
  1. The Exhibitors – Not only were the organizers dedicating stage time to discussing Enterprise topics, but the multitude of exhibitors were showcasing products and services that were directly targeting the Enterprise. I saw companies that provide Enterprises with the ability to perform remote automated mobile testing for their applications, companies that allow for extremely scalable two-way push notifications, companies that have created mobile content platforms that increase Enterprise productivity, and provide data security and compliance, and much, much more.  It was clear to me that the companies that are succeeding and want to share their products and services with others were targeting the Enterprise audience to succeed.
  1. The Huge Interest in BlackBerry – My colleagues and I took part in panel discussions, talks, and keynote addresses, but we also had a dedicated BlackBerry booth on the exhibition floor to engage with the 10,000+ attendees present at AppsWorld. To say we were busy is an understatement; the booth had non-stop traffic, which is something I haven’t experienced in a while in the Bay area! People involved in the mobility space are quickly realizing BlackBerry is the leader in Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM).  Not only were they interested in application development, but also in the solutions we provide, our expertise in security, and what the future holds for EMM solutions.  From our BES12 service, to our continuously evolving IoT strategy, the questions and interest were non-stop, and extremely refreshing!

So the message is clear: when it comes to mobility, the Enterprise is the big thing.  Whether you are developing mobile applications, targeting wearables, or looking to break into the IoT space, the Enterprise audience is where it’s at.  To learn more about developing for the Enterprise, and to gain access to the benefits of BlackBerry’s Enterprise Partner program, visit https://partner.blackberry.com/

 

 

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