Two of the hottest trends in technology these days are mobile apps and cloud services, with both driving us into what is already being dubbed the "Post-PC Era".    Our center of the computing universe is quickly moving from the desktop with local apps to a mobile, always connected, distributed framework.   To accomplish this, mobile devices need the support of cloud services.

An interesting report is jointly published quarterly by IDC and Appcelerator called the Mobile Developer Report.  Unlike surveys focused on end users, this specifically targets developers working on mobile apps to assess trends.   Over 2500 developers worldwide are surveyed each quarter.   

As you might guess, developer focus is on iOS (Apple) and Android platforms, both phones and tablets.  A little bit of shimmer was lost towards Android tablets the past quarter due to disappointment with the available devices and lackluster performance of the Honeycomb release.   Interest is dropping in developing for Blackberry and Windows Phone 7.

The highlight of the this quarter's survey was the importance of the mobile cloud with 84% of developers indicate they are using some form of cloud service today.     The graphic below illustrates the interest levels in different cloud services both public and private over the next 12-18 months.  

There are two areas that jump out for me:

• 70% of developers expect to offer some form of mobile commerce and 42% expect to use mobile advertising.  We're quickly moving from a free, brand-building focus in apps to one about monetizing mobile access.  

• 70% of developers are connecting to enterprise solutions.  The report indicated these are connections to servers behind-the-firewall, and thus are not technically "in the cloud",  but it's noteworthy that businesses are embracing the mobile devices for extensions of business applications.   

Another interesting stat was that 80% of the developers were expecting to also provide mobile websites, in addition to apps.   While the apps are highly favored for better user experience, enhanced capabilities like location and camera, and generating revenue, the mobile websites provide easy cross-platform compatibility and are complementary as another channel for reaching target segments.  

If your world hasn't yet been rocked by the increasing trend toward mobile and cloud services, chances are you're going to feel some tremors by the end of this year.   Hold onto your hats.