Pub. 1 2011 Issue 3

15 A ccordingly, the use of mobile apps is also increas- ing exponentially. In the last three years alone, 300,000 mobile apps were developed, and just last year were downloaded 10.9 billion times worldwide. Annual downloads are expected to continue to grow to nearly 80 billion by 2014. Mobile apps are not just for fun and games; they are now changing the way companies do business. “Mobile app developers will ‘appify’ just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds,” said Scott Ellison, Vice President of Mobile and Wire- less Research at IDC. “The extension of mobile apps to every aspect of our personal and business lives will be one of the hallmarks of the new decade with enormous opportunities for virtually every business sector.” The auto industry is no exception. There are mobile applications on the market for consumers, salespeople, dealerships, dealership wholesale buyers, and used car The growth of the smar tphone market in the last year has been staggering. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), from 2009 to 2010 the year-to-year growth was 74.4 percent with 302.6 million smartphones sold worldwide. In the fourth quarter of 2010, smartphones even outsold personal computers by almost 10 million units (100.9 smartphones vs 92.1 million computers). Q smartphone apps — continued on page 16 Smartphone Apps Bring Information Straight to Dealers’ Fingertips BY JEFF GRANDSTAFF , GENERAL MANAGER