There is no question that among the lucky segments of mobility, apps stores could be one of the most lucrative. Public app stores have gone wild, becoming money-making outlets for developers, and changing the way people find, download and update their software. This streak gives IT departments the idea of adopting the same model, this time using private apps stores and executing parallel principles to better manage access to corporate resources used by employees like the iPhone, Blackberry and iPad. This has lead to some interesting developments with the BYOD initiative.

Dan Croft, CEO of Mission Critical Wireless, predicted how private apps emergence will be in the near future.

“One thing we don’t see a lot today that will be commonplace within the next three years is just about every company… predicts, which helps businesses manage mobile deployments. Croft likens the emergence of private app stores today to intranets in the 1990s.”

The BYOD model that most companies are employing and planning to implement poses advantages and security risks at the same time. Bigger corporations like IBM have already explored this idea, and created their in-house app store to cater to their employees needs: enter WhirlWind.

IBM’s CTO for mobility, Bill Bodin, agrees on having private apps store, saying, “It’s really been a great melting pot for internal applications. We have dozens of applications that have been submitted by developers and our brands [vendors] alike. It’s not just a grass-roots effort anymore.”

Benefits & impact of private app stores

Having one’s own private apps maybe an additional expense for your organization, but the return of investment is quite promising. Three benefits for IT include: better tracking system of apps being purchased by employees, imposing restrictions aligned with company guidelines, and business analytics.

NASA recently launched its own mobile app store where their personnel and authorized contractors may access information in their internal systems via their mobile devices. Protocol Deal is also set to develop a suite of mobile apps that will be compatible with Microsoft products. The next generation mobility enterprise solution will enable users and IT staff to manage diversity in devices and apps.

The mobile impact on economy is simply startling, and nowhere is that more evident than in the workplace.  It’s here that consumerism is really forcing a change in the way IT departments manage networks and devices, driving demand for private app stores that seek a level of control in this new user-driven era.