Webalo is bringing its mobile service to a new market: Hollywood movie studios. Webalo, which makes it easier to navigate spreadsheets and other business data on mobile devices, just announced a partnership with Lionsgate that gives the studio's executives access to the most up-to-date box office numbers on their smartphones.
Apparently, Lionsgate stores these numbers as internal SAP system reports, so there was no way to see the data on a phone, which would be the most accessible device for someone on-set or on location. Chief executive Peter Price says he's already in talks with other movie studios about signing up, while Warner Bros.' television division also uses Webalo to access real-time television ratings.
This news helps illustrate two broader trends: the fact that more business activity is moving to smartphones, and that a lot of traditional software solutions aren't adapting quickly enough to this new reality, creating opportunities for Webalo. Price didn't share specific revenue numbers with me, but he says the company has been getting more inquiries after September's financial crash than before.
Webalo, which has raised $6.5 million in venture backing, does seem to have one big hole in its service -- iPhone compatibility. Granted, the iPhone is seen as more of a consumer phone compared to, say, the BlackBerry (which is one of the most popular devices among Webalo customers), but there are some cool business applications already available, like the iPhone version of web conference service WebEx. Price says Webalo is planning to release an iPhone application sometime in the next quarter (i.e., between April and June).