Keeping the App Market Booming

By Brad

At The Hill, Jennifer Martinez reports on a hearing today in the House focused on keeping the growing mobile app market booming:

At the Wednesday hearing, subcommittee chairwoman Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) noted that the booming mobile app marketplace has helped spur the launch of several new small businesses. She said that roughly one-third of apps are developed by entrepreneurs or businesses with fewer than five employees.

“Through American innovation and ingenuity, we’re rapidly becoming a world where there’s literally an app for everything,” she said.

During the hearing, industry reps highlighted some challenges the industry already faces. Among them: trouble finding employees due to a lack of a relatively small pool of trained workers, and an issue we’ve often talked about:

Another challenge facing app companies is the looming spectrum crunch and lack of broadband Internet in rural regions of the U.S., the industry representatives said. 

Ramsey argued that there needs to be right infrastructure in place to handle the rising population of mobile apps. That includes ensuring there is enough spectrum, or airwaves, for mobile apps to run on and reach consumers.

He called the spectrum crunch “a big issue.”