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Apr. 5, 2010

Expect to see a whole slew of mobile apps developers and providers that are busy pumping out press releases by the dozen to make sure everyone knows that their apps are going to work on Apple's new iPad device.

Apparently, the iPad can run nearly all existing iPhone apps as well as specially designed iPad apps, of which Apple expects to have at least over 1,000 in the next few days.

For now, Netflix is just one of the apps available for free on the App Store, allowing Netflix members to watch an unlimited number of TV episodes and movies streamed from Netflix to the iPad.

Streaming to iPad devices can be done at no additional cost to Netflix members on plans starting at $8.99 a month. Here's a brief rundown of some of the other apps.

1) The free Yahoo Entertainment for the iPad allows wireless users to explore entertainment content, TV listings, videos, news and a lot more. Yahoo says it is leveraging the features of the iPad to create "one of the most interactive and personal experiences possible." The app takes advantage of iPad's geo-location functionality to pinpoint consumers' locations to deliver relevant, local television listings and content.

2) Warner Brothers is bringing games and movies to the iPad, including a game based on the newly released "Sherlock Holmes" in Blu-Ray and DVD. Then, Sherlock Holmes: Mysteries is an immersive game that leverages the iPad's 1024x768 screen resolution.

3) EA Mobile offers five game titles at launch for the iPad, including Need For Speed SHIFT and Tetris. EA Mobile had four of the five top selling games in the App Store last year.

4) MTV Networks announced four new apps for the iPad, at various prices from Nickelodeon and VH-1 Classic. The new offerings include MTV's "Beavis and Butt-Head", Nickeodeon's "Dora the Explorer Coloring Adventures", "Daily Jigsaw" and "VH-1 Classic Presents: Intellivision for the iPad."

5) Nuance Communications says its Dragon Dictation for iPad will be on the App Store for free for a limited time. With the newest addition to the Dragon Dictation family, iPad users can speak to their e-mail messages. The app also includes a new Dragon Dictation Notes feature that lets users speak and save drafts of documents, e-mails, to-do lists, social media status updates and a lot more.

6) Shazam's app for the iPad lets users identify new music and get a music discovery experience that uses some of the unique features of the iPad, such as its multi-touch display. The company says it has accumulated more than 15 million users on iPhone and the iPod since the summer of 2008.

7) And then also available is Smule, the creators of Ocarina, Leaf Trombone and I Am T-Pain, designed Magic Piano specifically for the iPad. The limited sale of the app for $2.99 expires on Mozart's birthday.

There are now over 140,000 apps developed for the iPhone alone. Some are saying that most apps running on the iPhone can run as well on the iPad.

Lately, the app data deluge has made network bandwidth a really serious problem for carriers, forcing mobile operators to significantly reduce so-called "all-you-can-eat" data plans and even incentivize their customers to use less data.

However, some observers now agree that operators will most likely solve these bandwidth issues, as they have in the past.

And once they’ve done so, the next step will be to develop revenue models that enable them to leverage the burgeoning data market in the way that makes them the most essential to their wireless subscribers.

Enabling cross-platform application sharing is a service that the carriers can really provide, and something that needs to happen sooner rather than later.

Some feel that this should be implemented at the handset level, but not everybody agrees. But it sure is one way that wireless carriers can make themselves essential to their subscribers in a way that keeps them relevant in the app store world.

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Source: WBG.