Tasmania seeks to bolster mobile app industry

Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett has met with Apple Australia's managing director to showcase the state's "small but growing" mobile applications developer community.

Ten local IT companies attended the roundtable meeting in Hobart last Friday, including Insight4, Geometry, Eclipse Computing, Healthcare Software, The Learning Edge and Autech.

Bartlett hoped the meeting with Apple Australia MD Tony King would help Tasmania exploit opportunities in the mobile application market.

He said the meeting was a "direct benefit" of his nine-day trip to the US in mid-July, where he spoke about Tasmanian broadband at the Australian American Leadership Dialogue.

The Tasmanian towns of Smithton, Scottsdale and Midway Point were the first to connect to the Labor Government's 1Gbps National Broadband Network, which was put on hold following the August 21 Federal Election.

Bartlett, who was also the state's Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, boasted that Tasmanian IT companies have "featured prominently" on both national and international stages.

He said the mobile application sector fit with Tasmania's target of innovative, sustainable markets, with "its best and most productive years ahead of it".

"The mobile applications market is clearly growing rapidly," he told iTnews.

"Tasmania has small but growing community of mobile applications developers ... I was keen to show [King], just how innovative and creative our local developers are."

"Together, we've made it clear - Tasmania is ready and open for business."

Bartlett said the State Government was "working on a range of mobile applications" to support its Government 2.0 commitments.