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Wide open.
That is how Nathan Keating of BuildFire describes the opportunity for creating smartphone apps.
"Let me say it this way: the landscape is very open," said Keating, a 27-year-old resident of Ramona and a San Diego County native.
Keating joined forces with Ian Blair, 22, in 2012 to create BuildFire. It's a Newport Beach company that offers an innovative service to build apps for businesses whose core competency isn't necessarily code. Think karate studios, coffee shops, schools, nonprofit organizations and all variety of small or medium-sized concerns in the B-to-B or B-to-C space.
BuildFire produces native apps for smartphones, tablets and the Web - including but not limited to mobile commerce apps.
Special Features
The company is an innovator, not only because it works in a relatively new space, but in the features it builds into its apps. One proprietary service of BuildFire, Keating said, is selective push notifications.
"We let users subscribe to different channels, to which the app administrator can send targeted notifications," he said. Having someone opt-in for notifications is a...