Monday, August 27, 2007

Apple seeds area application wave with iPhone

By Christopher Calnan

In addition to generating interest from consumers, Apple Inc.'s iPhone is generating business for New England technology companies capitalizing on the device's new format.

And industry analysts expect that more applications for functions such as online gaming will be released in the months ahead.

Next week, Norfolk-based 1st Works Corp. plans to launch software that enables users to view files housed on their personal computers via their iPhone screen. The on-demand software, called Files2Phones, is an updated version of an application developed by 1st Works last year for conventional cell phones, said co-founder and COO Nigel Spicer.

Unlike the larger iPhone screens, which allow for horizontal viewing, the screens on conventional phones proved inadequate for reading files, he said. But Apple solved the problem, and 1st Works is ready to capitalize on it with a $100-per-year subscription rate, Spicer said.

Activated at the desktop computer, users can drop any open file (including Word documents, PowerPoint decks and PDFs) into a password-protected folder that can be accessed with the Files2Phone software.

The software is creating a "potential major market" and a base of recurring revenue for the 7-year-old 1st Works, which already posts annual revenue between $1 million and $2 million, Spicer said.

Spicer, former president of Fast Engines Inc., a Cambridge software maker bought in 2000 by Adero Inc. for an undisclosed amount, said he expects the largest group of customers to be businesspeople in need of mobile access to documents.

"It's essentially a browser that allows you to display an image anywhere you can get a signal," he said.

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst for Hampton, N.H.-based Technology Business Research Inc., said the iPhone provides an ideal platform for software that solves problems related to business, gaming and social interaction content.

"The web browser is the main solution," Gottheil said. "It's a device for consuming content."

Dana Gardner, president of Gilford, N.H.-based research firm Interarbor Solutions LLC, expects software developers to "create a new class of applications" for the iPhone and similar devices that Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. are likely to produce in the future.

Last month, Somerville's Ecamm Network LLC developed an application designed to transfer files between personal computers via the iPhone. The application essentially enables the iPhone to become a storage device.

ECamm co-founder Glen Aspeslagh declined to disclose how many of the applications, which cost $9.95 each, the company has sold. He said he expects customers to use the application to transfer files between home and the office.

In Southborough, Texterity Inc. moved up the release date of a new version of its software designed to allow users to retrieve and read content from a choice of 23 national magazines, said Carl Scholz, vice president of technology for Texterity.

The iPhone's high-resolution, 3.5-inch screen made it possible to easily integrate Texterity's technology.

"It just worked," Scholz said.