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According to the latest study from Juniper Research , the market for cloud-based mobile applications will grow 88% from 2009 to 2014. The market was just over $400 million this past year, says Juniper, but by 2014 it will reach $9.5 billion. Driving this growth will be the adoption of the new web standard HTML5, increased mobile broadband coverage and the need for always-on collaborative services for the enterprise. Sponsor Cloud Apps in your Pocket Mobile cloud computing is a term that refers to an infrastructure where both the data storage and the data processing happen outside of the mobile device from which an application is launched. To the typical consumer, a cloud-based mobile application looks and feels just like any app purchased or downloaded from a mobile application store like iTunes. However, the app is driven from the “cloud,” not from the handheld device itself. There are already a few well-known mobile cloud apps out there including Google’s Gmail and Google Voice for iPhone . When launched via iPhone homescreen shortcuts, these apps perform just like any other app on the iPhone, but all of their processing power comes from the cloud. In the future, there will be even more applications like these available, but they won’t necessarily be mobilized web sites like those in Google’s line-up. Cloud-based mobile apps are perfectly capable of being packaged in a way that allows them to be sold alongside traditional mobile apps in mobile application stores, with no one but the developers any wiser. HTML5 Paves the Way for Mobile Web’s Future Earlier this year, ABI Research released a future-watching report called Mobile Cloud Computing which comes to many of the same conclusions as the new Juniper Research report . Where they both agree is on how HTML5 technology and the mobilized enterprise will help drive this trend forward. Specifically, HTML5, the proposed standard for the next version web markup language (the core language used to create the web), offers offline data caching. That means cloud-based mobile apps can behave just like their device-based cousins: when the Internet connection goes down, the app still works. In addition, HTML5-enabled apps resuming from cached mode only pull down the data from the server that changed during the time they were offline. That reduces server load which is a critical need in delivering mobile apps to developing nations and other regions where network coverage and connectivity is poor. Enterprise Drives Mobile Growth Like the earlier report from ABI, Juniper also sees the enterprise as a major force behind the move to the cloud. 75% of the mobile cloud-based application market is enterprise, notes the report . Mobile apps allow corporate users to access company data, share files, collaborate on projects and more via their smartphones. This business need will help fund the growth and development of the mobile cloud-based app market. However, although enterprise will drive this growth, consumer-oriented apps will benefit, too. Over the next four years, these apps will comprise an increasing proportion of the total revenues with business plans that involve subscription-based content and mobile advertising. The Power of the Cloud: Scale Finally, the Juniper Report notes that the processing power of the cloud itself is also key to the future of mobile. Cloud-based mobile apps can scale far beyond the capabilities of any smartphone. Instead of being limited to the data storage and processing power contained in a mobile device, cloud apps have all the power of a server-based computing infrastructure accessible through an app’s mobile interface. This not only allows owners of low-cost “feature phones” (non-smartphones) the ability to access the same mobile applications used on more advanced platforms, it also allows the apps themselves to become more powerful and capable of more. Cloud Apps in Relation to the Mobile Marketplace What’s interesting about the dollar amount assigned to this trend – $9.5 billion by 2014 – is how that number compares to other analyst estimates for the mobile application store business as a whole. At the beginning of this year, Gartner researchers estimated that the app store businesses would generate nearly $7 billion this year and would reach $29.5 billion by 2013 . Assumingly, it will grow even more by 2014 when the mobile cloud-based application market is expected to near $9.5 billion. In light of that comparison, the mobile cloud-based application trend seems impactful but perhaps less disruptive to the market as whole as is being purported. It appears there will still be plenty of room for both traditional, device-based apps and mobile cloud-based apps in the near future.

Worldbike designs and distributes low-cost bicycles for programs that increase economic opportunity, improve health outcomes and boost enrollment and gender equity in secondary school among the rural poor. Our bikes withstand large loads, rough terrain and inclement weather and are configured to be not only affordable, but also maintained and repaired locally. Through partnership with international and local agencies, private companies, foundations and NGOs, Worldbike helps arrange microcredit financing for bike purchases and supplement sales with support from funders and private donors.

Overweight is far from a mere aesthetic issue. It is a genuine hazard to your health, and any measure that you could take in order to slim down is a measure that you should take without thinking twice. And if you depend on your computer to do most anything, then this app falls into the category of tools that you can use to achieve your dietary aims. Read more Learn more about ShrinkingApp.com in Dataopedia.com Find out how much ShrinkingApp.com is worth with Stimator.com

There’s a fine line between what is considered a knowledge database and an invasion of privacy, and that line is likely to be determined by marketing. This week we wrote an article about Please Rob Me – a service that identifies Foursquare and Gowalla check-ins on Twitter and lets others know that a person is not home. While location-based services are often touted for their social and recommendation-based benefits, the realization that they can be used negatively have many questioning the responsibility of those groups that collect the data. Sponsor In mid January Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stated that the age of privacy had come to an end and we responded that evolving preferences were not a valid justification of the elimination of privacy preferences . Nevertheless, between cookie tracking and browser identifiers like those shown in the EFF’s Panopticlick and the fact that it only takes your zip code, gender and birthdate to identify you, it’s hard to ensure total privacy in the first place. If a startup were to put up a page simply to capture the information of your friends, all of of your daily habits, your location and your purchases, few would opt in. But as Last.fm’s Felix Miller pointed out more than 4 years ago , you might do it for “myware”. While spyware is undeniably a dubious thing, myware is the practice of spying on yourself for benefit. Last.fm’s AudioScrobbler collects data on a user’s listening habits, songs, tags, preferences and friends. That information is then used to update a database and an algorithm then calculates song recommendations. Across the Web that same system of opting into myware is used to target advertising, make shopping recommendations, deliver relevant news and provide customized services. But because this is marketed as a service, rather than a personal data grab, few mainstream users weigh the disadvantages to opting in until it’s too late. Google Voice’s transcription feature is a great way to take notes on your calls, but isn’t it akin to opting into a wiretap? As startup entrepreneurs, what responsibility do we have to educate our users on the perils of opting in? And how can we do this without disrupting the virality of the service? Photo Credit: Rob Pongsajapan Discuss

It is never easy to tell what will draw customers in, and that is one of the few “universal truths” of marketing. It applies to everything, from storefronts to the landing page of a website. Fortunately, we are never short of tools for analyzing what the public wants at any given time. Read more Learn more about VisualWebsiteOptimizer.com in Dataopedia.com Find out how much VisualWebsiteOptimizer.com is worth with Stimator.com