PROFIT HOT 50: Hotlines

The market for mobile apps is white-hot; Juniper Research Ltd., a U.K.-based mobile telecom research firm, forecasts it will triple globally by 2015 to US$32 billion. So, it should come as no surprise that three of the PROFIT HOT 50 deal in creating smartphone-friendly tools: Simply Good Technologies Inc. (No. 5), Appnovation Technologies Inc. (No. 16) and Xtreme Labs Inc. (No. 22).

For Simply Good, a turning point came when Scotiabank and the City of Toronto hired the firm to create a GPS-enabled interactive guide for the 2009 edition of Nuit Blanche, an all-night festival of contemporary art. Local website BlogTO gave the Nuit Blanche Night Navigator (pictured) a glowing recommendation that sparked viral buzz, and the app proved to be such a hit that Scotiabank has lined up Simply Good to develop mobile enablers for all its sponsored events. With other big-name clients such as Visa and Tim Hortons also on board, Simply Good appears set to ride the app growth curve.

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