Apps are the hottest trend in mobile technology, but does your business really need one? | Crain's Chicago Business

In some ways, Elmhurst manufacturer Lava Lite LLC resembles its signature product, the Lava Lamp: well-established but maybe a little out of date. Lava Lamps are sold by traditional retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Menards, but company President Dale Zalusky acknowledges that mobile and social-media marketing are "a new world for me."

Still, Lava Lite and Mr. Zalusky are attempting to rally: The company is preparing to debut a Lava Lamp application for the iPhone and Android mobile platforms, and he is "going crazy downloading apps" in an effort to get up to speed.

Businesses such as Lava Lite are going mobile because more of their customers are using their phones to shop. As of the end of 2009, Seventeen percent of American cell phone users had smartphones, up from 11% at the beginning of last year, according to Virginia-based market research firm ComScore Inc.

It costs about $5,000 to establish a simple, mobile-optimized Web site, according to several local developers. Doing at least that much is a worthwhile investment, says Eric Lefkofsky, co-founder of the daily discount Web site Groupon Inc. and of Lightbank, a Chicago firm that invests in tech startups.

"I don't draw a huge distinction anymore between business models for the Web vs. mobile. Fundamentally, you have to design for both because there are so many people interacting with the Web via cell phone that you can't afford any longer not to take mobile computing into consideration when designing any kind of Internet site," Mr. Lefkofsky says. "I can't imagine people who are serious about transacting on the Internet asking, 'Should I have a mobile strategy?' If you don't have one, you're just lost."

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