Enterprise Apps Slideshow: Mobile Application Development: A Top CIO Priority

Providers of application development (AD) solutions are in a global race to aid CIOs and other IT leaders who are looking to create enterprise-friendly apps accessible on a host of devices, including smartphones and tablets. A recent Gartner study, "Market Trends: Application Development Software Worldwide, 2012-2016," indicates that companies will be spending more than ever on AD software that enables their teams to quickly and easily develop new apps in a rapidly changing environment. Gartner predicts that mobile AD projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber native PC projects by a ratio of 4:1 by 2015. Cloud is also a big influencer. According to a statement from Gartner, "Cloud is changing the way applications are designed, tested and deployed, resulting in a significant shift in AD priorities. Cost is a major driver, but also agility, flexibility and speed to deploy new applications." Gartner goes on to predict that, by 2015, 90 percent of large, mainstream enterprises and government agencies will use some aspect of cloud computing. Here are eight good reasons why CIOs should pay attention to global application development trends.