Product World

Bloomberg reported that American phone giant (and the only iPhone carrier in the USA) AT&T Inc. is ramping up mobile- software development at new offices. The company is set to open offices in the U.S. and Israel to capitalize on the growing market for programs for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android.

The carrier announced on October 4th that it plans to open facilities in Palo Alto, California, Tel Aviv and Plano, Texas, where it’ll advise software firms on mobile-application development in a project costing “tens of millions of dollars,” Chief Technology Officer John Donovan said in an interview.

“The three centers provide us with a near-20 hour work day, so it lends itself very well to agile kinds of development,” Donovan said.

“Why would we do it? Because we’re going to end up with something to market faster than our competitors,” Donovan said. He said AT&T expects to introduce about 30 apps annually through collaboration at the new facilities, where the Dallas-based company will employ as many as 36 people combined.

Bloomberg went on to state that "AT&T, the second-largest U.S. mobile carrier, plans to tap the market for mobile software by offering business and consumer apps faster than rivals Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. Consumers will spend $6.2 billion on apps worldwide this year, up from about $4.2 billion in 2009, according to Gartner Inc."

John, if you are listening, ProductWorld can create 30 apps in 3 weeks. As they say in the ad for glasses, should have gone to ProductWorld.

Full article: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-01/at-t-speed-dating-with-app-firms-to-gain-edge.html