In-house marketplace is best option for mobile application management

Now seems like an appropriate time for companies to take a greater interest in mobile application management given the news last week that Google's Android Market had surpassed 500,000 mobile application submissions. The app store now stands at just fewer than 320,000 available apps, according to research2guidance.

With Apple's App Store, the gold standard for mobile app marketplaces, now closing in on 460,000 offerings, as reported by the research firm, there have never before been more apps available to mobile end-users. That can serve as both a gift and a curse for companies practicing enterprise mobility.

On the one hand, there are plenty of applications that mobile professionals can leverage during the daily routine to complete their many tasks. At the same time, however, many of the applications available in public marketplaces, Google's especially, may be suspect.

For reasons ranging from data security concerns to unfixed bugs, thousands of apps are removed from both the Android Market and the App Store on a daily basis. According to research2guidance, 37 percent of Android submissions are removed, and the figure stands at 24 percent for the App Store and 13 percent for Microsoft's fledgling WP7 Marketplace.

To protect its data, end-users and mobile devices, the time has come for a company to take a closer look at mobile application management strategies, according to a recent IT Business Edge report. The best way to do so, contributor Carl Weinschenk wrote, is to develop an in-house marketplace.

Companies simply have too much at stake - investment, work hours and competition - to ignore the risks of utilizing suspect mobile apps.

"The bottom line is that not too much has to happen for the still relatively safe world of smartphones and their downloadable apps to devolve into an unsavory landscape reminiscent of the desktop circa 2000 or so," Weinschenk wrote.

With an in-house store, a company can push only the apps it wants mobile professionals to utilize. That will allow the IT department to regain some of the control it has lost with bring-your-own-device mobility models, experts say.

In an interview with TMCnet last month, mobility expert Sam Liu said it can be expected that more companies will utilize their own app storefronts in the near future. With their mobility management practices, he said, most companies have chosen to focus on governing devices and apps.