Currently just 25 percent of laboratories in the United States have implemented mobile devices for their daily operations but interest is growing, especially for tablets.  There are just a few laboratory specific apps available today and 60 percent of the custom apps for labs are developed internally. 

At Forum, STARLIMS gave its customers an opportunity to preview possible mobile apps for STARLIMS LIMS and ELN products displayed in an interactive kiosk.  Attendees also participated in a hands-on workshop conducted by Design Concepts, Inc., in which they were able to design their own mobile app concepts.  STARLIMS, in effect, took full advantage of the Forum conference to generate feedback from customers regarding a full range of mobile apps possibilities.  

Itschak Friedman said that designing software applications for one device and one operating system is no longer enough, however, mobile apps are not the answer for everything.  "You can't do everything on an i-Phone.  Desktop apps are great for intensive data processing and creation while mobile apps are great for data consumption," Friedman explained.  "For LIMS products, mobile apps need to focus on specific tasks which are performed at locations without desktops, thus eliminating the need to record data on paper and then transcribe to a desktop.  The decisions for designing mobile apps involve determining which screen - PC, tablet or smart phone -- is right for the specific job," he added.  

At Forum, STARLIMS showed early versions of its Next Gen designer which allows users to develop, deploy and maintain HTML5 apps for both iOS and Android platforms.  The pre-release Windows 8 / Metro crime scene mobile app to help investigators gather and inventory evidence was demonstrated in theatric, ketchup-stained crime scene. Friedman said STARLIMS will start rolling out these capabilities with technology builds slated for the fourth quarter 2012.

For further information visit www.starlims.com