CES: Companies Must Have An iPhone App or They “Don’t Exist”
A panel at CES on the future of iPhone apps. Newsgator's Walker Fenton is second from left.
LAS VEGAS — Businesses must have a mobile app. That was the message from a CES panel discussion of iPhone apps and their impact on culture, technology, advertising and entertainment.
At the session — iPhone Apps-Change Agents-App Breakthroughs, Video, Games, Mobile Engagement and Advertising — panelists urged companies to get working on mobile apps. Not just for the iPhone, but Android and Palm as well.
“It’s like 10 years ago when the debate was: ‘do I have to get a website or not?’” said Walker Fenton, GM of NewsGator’s Media & Consumer Products. “People were unsure, but these days, the answer is obvious: if you’re not on the Web, it’s like you don’t exist.”
Fenton added that companies must be on the iPhone.
“It’s almost a requirement,” he said. “You’ve got to be on the iPhone; same as you’ve got to be on the Web.”
He concluded: “If you are wondering about whether or not to get on the mobile, the answer is ‘yes’.’ Get on the mobile now.”
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: ![Read "From Your iPhone, With Love: Thank You Pen Does What Cards App Can’t [Feature]"](http://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif "Read \"From Your iPhone, With Love: Thank You Pen Does What Cards App Can’t [Feature]\"")
