Top Mobile Applications 2008

Top Mobile Applications Awards 2008

With consumers tightening their belts and hunkering down in the face of an imminent recession, the mobile industry finds itself at a crossroads. On the one hand, devices, multimedia services and user interfaces continue to improve--but on the other hand, wireless subscribers find themselves with little disposable income to allocate on luxuries such as mobile TV and music.

Growing evidence suggests that users desire a mobile experience that transcends passive entertainment, preferring instead practical, utility-based applications like mobile-optimized banking and travel planning. A recent usage and attitudes study conducted by mobile web domain registry dotMobi and digital agency AKQA cites growing consumer trust in the security of the mobile web, noting the volume of consumers demanding access to mobile banking and related m-commerce services. According to the dotMobi study, roughly 90 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to select an airline with mobile check-in over one that did not offer mobile services, while almost two-thirds of participants said they would consider purchasing theater tickets, take-out food and travel tickets on mobile.

FierceMobileContent's third annual Top Mobile Applications Awards reflect the changes sweeping across the industry they honor, heralding a new wave of practical, prosumer-oriented mobile services and tools that simplify and improve the day-to-day lives of a consumer segment in perpetual motion. The spotlight this time around falls on applications that exploit the possibilities implicit in a catch-all term like "smartphone"--these are intelligent applications for intelligent subscribers, with an emphasis on m-commerce, mobile social networking and location-based services.

What remains the same year in and year out is the process for determining the finalists: After evaluating hundreds of apps according to guidelines including technological innovation, revenue potential and competitive edge, we've come up with a diverse roster linked by their originality, practicality and personality. They are mobile applications that will survive and even thrive regardless of the economic turmoil ahead--necessities, not luxuries. -Jason [1]

And the winners are...

• Cellfire
  [2]
• CellSpin
  [3]
• CTA Bus Tracker
  [4]
• E*Trade Mobile Pro
  [5]
• MightyBackup
  [6]
• Movial Social Communicator
  [7]
• Remember the Milk
  [8]
• Skyfire
  [9]
• sniff
  [10]
• VZ Navigator [11]