Sex & Violence – News Syndication

posted by AndrewW on Feb 22

SAN FRANCISCO Feb 21 (Reuters) – Josh Buckley, chief
executive of an online gaming start-up, is looking forward to
next month’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco,
particularly for the parties and the accompanying schmoozing
with industry A-listers.

There’s one problem: Buckley, who will turn 20 this week on
Feb. 22, may be turned away from many of the parties because he
is not old enough to drink. His fake ID was recently
confiscated, and the two new ones he ordered from a company in
China have not yet arrived.

Such are the dilemmas facing the ever-younger entrepreneurs
that Silicon Valley investors are backing these days. While
little data on the phenomenon exists, venture capitalists say
they are funding more chief executives under age 21 than ever
before.

“At a certain point, they can’t get much younger or we’re
going to be invested in preschool,” quipped Marc Andreessen,
whose venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is one of several
that backs Buckley’s company, MinoMonsters.

Andreessen and other venture capitalists say the
entrepreneurs they fund at 18 or 19 typically have been prepping
for years — learning computer code, taking on ambitious
freelance projects and educating themselves on the Internet.

Some are self-consciously molding themselves in the image of
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 27, who created computer games
as a child and took a graduate-level computer course by his
early teens.

Internet businesses that target consumers is a sweet spot
for the baby-faced, because online companies often require
relatively little capital. A semiconductor start-up might
require $10 milion to $20 million in the early stages, noted Joe
Kraus of Google Ventures, and that would be tough even for the
most talented youngster.

“If I’m going to write that big a check, I’m going to invest
in people who’ve done it before,” he said. “But if you look at
it as, ‘Hey, I’m going to raise $500,000,’ there’s a lot of ways
to raise that.”

Kraus helped back Airy Labs, an educational social-gaming
company run by 20-year-old Andrew Hsu that raised $1.5 million.
Hsu is now learning the same hard lessons as many of his elders:
the company recently laid off staff and is looking to rent out
some of its office space in Palo Alto, California. Hsu said the
company is taking a different direction and focusing on a line
of new products in math, language arts and science.

Kraus said his biggest hiccups with young entrepreneurs are
the business references they don’t understand because they are
too young to be aware of them .

Andreessen says more than one young entrepreneur
has asked him: “What did Netscape do again?” Andreessen
co-founded Netscape, which developed the first commercial Web
browser and helped launch the Internet era, shortly after
graduating from college in 1993.

“I was 9 years old” during the first Internet boom, says
Brian Wong, 20, who runs reward-network Kiip. He has had his
fill of stories about companies that tanked amid the dot-com
bust of 2000. The first time he heard the name Webvan, a
legendary dot-com failure, “I had to look it up,” he recalled.

Wong has raised over $4 million from Hummer Winblad Venture
Partners and others.

He believes his age helps him and other youthful
entrepreneurs. “You’re expected to be limitless,” he said. “Kind
of destructive.”

While the freewheeling ways of youth may be a positive for
venture capitalists, they are less appreciated by landlords. Tim
Chae, the 20-year-old chief executive and co-founder of
social-media marketing company PostRocket, said his age and lack
of credit created problems when he moved to San Francisco last
year and needed an apartment. Finally, his father had to drive
the 88 miles from Sacramento to co-sign a lease.

Chae, a Babson College dropout, now lives in nearby Mountain
View and attends 500 Startups, a crash course for young
companies run by a venture firm of the same name. He has raised
a small amount of capital and hopes the upcoming Facebook IPO
will help investors look more kindly on young entrepreneurs.
“Thank God for Zuckerberg,” he says.

Zuckerberg, who left Harvard after two years, is helping
recast the notion of dropping out of college. Peter Thiel, an
early investor in Facebook and a co-founder of PayPal, is
encouraging others to try that path through two-year fellowships
for students who take a break from school, move to San Francisco
and pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations.

That’s what 17-year-old Laura Deming did when she won a
fellowship based on her goal of finding anti-aging technologies
and left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Because she
is not yet 18, she finds herself faxing documents such as
non-disclosure agreements to her dad back in Boston to co-sign.

Other young entrepreneurs have trouble negotiating the
highways and byways of Silicon Valley quite literally. Sahil
Lavingia, 19, recalls a day last summer when he had several
meetings scheduled on Sand Hill Road — home to many of the
nation’s leading venture-capital firms — and no car to get
there. The journey of just a few miles took hours by the time
Lavingia rode a local train a couple of stops, caught a bus to
Stanford University and then hopped a shuttle bus to the
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, which is on Sand Hill Road.

Another time, dreading the combination of a hot day and a
sweaty walk around Palo Alto, he pulled on a pair of shorts,
even though he was heading to a meeting with blue-chip VC Accel
Partners. The outfit — casual even by laid-back Silicon Valley
standards — didn’t stop Accel from investing. Lavingia, an
alumnus of hot online bulletin-board company Pinterest, raised
$1.1 million for his payments start-up, Gumroad.

Buckley also ran into problems getting himself to Sand Hill
Road. One night he stayed up until 3 a.m. and slept too late to
get to a scheduled meeting with a venture-capital firm. “It
didn’t go down too well,” he said, adding that his profuse
apologies and requests to reschedule were met with a curt “no
thank you.”

Not to worry. Buckley, who had already sold a company while
in high school for a sum he says was in the low six figures,
raised more than $1 million from Andreessen Horowitz and others.

At the time of the missed meeting, he was attending Y
Combinator, a three-month program for start-ups. In a nod to the
boy wizard of book and movie fame, Y Combinator co-founder Paul
Graham has called Buckley “the Harry Potter of startups,” but
said he was not the youngest to win admission to the program.

That honor goes to John Collison, now co-founder of payment
company Stripe, who was admitted at age 16, but did not go
through the program, Graham says. Instead, he and his
then-19-year-old brother merged their company with another,
Auctomatic, and sold it to a Canadian company for $5 million in
cash and stock.

Most of the young entrepreneurs say their interest lies in
building rather than selling their companies. Buckley had to say
as much in response to inquiries he said received recently from
Facebook about a possible sale. His determination not to sell
stems from advice he received from a successful executive he met
last year at Y Combinator: Mark Zuckerberg.

posted by AndrewW on Feb 22

posted by AndrewW on Feb 21

Story By: All Things Considered

The Treasury Department recently proposed new regulations to make it easier to transfer money from 401Ks into an annuity. Robert Siegel talks with Andrea Coombes, personal finance editor for MarketWatch, about annuities and who they’re right for.

posted by AndrewW on Feb 20

Deals worth millions of dollars were struck as more than 2,300 trade visitors attended the fifth Gulf Industry Fair, which was inaugurated by HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre.

The event has been hailed as a major success by exhibitors who are now looking forward to the next edition which will run from January 15 to 17 next year. “Given the challenging times industry is facing, this has been an extremely solid turnout with participants announcing a lot of deals and signalling future business in the pipeline from contacts they have made over the past three days,” said organiser Hilal Conferences and Exhibitions managing director Jubran Abdulrahman. “We had strong support for the energy, port and logistics and aluminium zones.

“A lot of people have already expressed their desire to sign up for next year’s event which should be an even stronger one as the Gulf Industry Fair is now firmly established as the premier industry trade show in the region,” he added. The show got off to a flying start with Bahrain-based Hull Diving Services Company and TE SubCom of the US signing a deal worth $1 million on the opening day itself.

Bahrain’s Al Ghassan Trading struck 15 deals while Ali Ahmed Al Kuwaiti finalised a deal worth $2 million while Bahrain Logistics Zone signed a memorandum of understanding with SAMEL, a joint venture between Schmidt Heilbronn and Agility, a global specialist for bulk business, which makes Bahrain its base to hub out its logistics operations.

posted by AndrewW on Feb 20

BEIJING (Reuters) – China is intensifying its cat-and-mouse pursuit of the 4 trillion yuan ($635 billion) investment trust industry, with credit risks on the rise as economic growth slows.

The watchdog of the country’s 60-strong trust investment firms, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), has made clear its disdain for the risks that off-balance sheet lending pose to the financial system, banning trust programs focused on bank-accepted commercial paper.

But Beijing’s bans are a way of life for financiers constantly looking for the loopholes in China’s tightly-controlled credit markets.

“Trust firms really know how to live with harsh regulation — when one thing is banned, they can quickly find a new thing and make it big before regulators notice it,” Li Yang, the chief analyst for Use Trust, a trust-focused consultancy in Chinese city of Nanchang, told Reuters.

Trust firms raise private capital fund vehicles, typically from high net worth individuals, working hand-in-hand with banks to find investors and distribute products.

Their emergence has been particularly appealing to China’s big state-backed lenders who can use trust products to put deposits to work off-balance sheet, bending rather than breaking the rules on strict lending limits laid down by Beijing.

The seemingly-permanent shortage of official bank loans for the small firms that generate around 80 percent of the jobs in China, as well as negative real interest rates on bank deposits, has generated soaring demand for trust products.

Annual yields of 9 percent versus bank deposit rates of 3.5 percent and inflation that averaged 5.4 percent in 2011 have tempted a wide range of investors, even those who struggle to meet minimum investment rules of millions of yuan, designed to keep the general public out of the often risky enterprises.

“Sales are possibly the easiest part of managing a trust investment firm. You just print out the brochure and clients will knock at the door,” Li said.

“The real tough job is to find right investment project that offers good returns.”

FEAR OF FRENZY

Regulators fear a return to the experience of the late 1980s, when at the industry’s peak China had more than 1,000 trust firms and a host of investment-fed asset bubbles, moral hazards and systemic risks that ultimately led to, at the time, the biggest bankruptcy in Chinese history.

The People’s Bank of China, and later CBRC, clamped down aggressively. New rules from the CBRC since, such as no deposit-taking and no direct investment in property, have calmed the most unruly sector in China’s financial world.

Still, trusts have boomed under the new rules.

Investment trust assets were worth 4.1 trillion yuan as the end of September 2011, up from 350 billion yuan at the end of 2006, according to figures from the China Trustee Association.

Analysts believe as much as 2 trillion yuan of credit has been extended by trusts, fuelling a shadow banking system that lends outside the scope of CBRC bank credit rules.

“Regulators can’t tolerate banks which run under their radar,” said a trust industry official in Shanghai who declined to be identified.

Patience has been stretched to the breaking point, as January’s ban on trust programs focused on bank-accepted commercial paper demonstrated.

“Default risks in bank accepted commercial paper are almost zero, but regulators just can’t tolerate the bank practices of taking credit off their balance sheet,” Li with Use Trust said.

On the other hand, the CBRC will be acutely sensitive to the risk of cutting off regulated alternatives to bank credit as the economy slows and small firms struggle for cash.

“Trust companies have a lot of smart business plans and are always one step ahead of spotting the next money making market. I don’t think the CBRC is very willing to tell them what they can or can’t do, but feels it has to because of the current economic environment,” Hao Wang, a partner at Beijing law firm Rayyin & Partners.

ESCHEWING SCANDAL

The last thing China’s top leadership will want in the run-up to a political handover later in 2012 is another Wenzhou-style scandal, where a flurry of local entrepreneurs fled into hiding last year to escape the loan sharks they’d been forced to borrow from in the face of falling credit from big banks.

Premier Wen Jiabao was ultimately forced to step in and pledge to improve credit conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

“The regulators know how important the shadow banking sector is in providing much needed non-bank capital funding for China’s entrepreneurial SME market,” said David Olsson, head of law firm Malleson’s banking and finance practice in Beijing.

But there are big risks to manage, particularly in the property sector which has been a lucrative area for trusts as bank credit for property ventures has evaporated.

China International Capital Corp reckons Chinese property firms need to pay back 250 billion yuan in 2012 of an estimated 310 billion yuan owed to trust investors — a daunting task for developers who had turned to the trusts because they were already struggling for cash.

Risks are imminent, CICC warns.

It’s a delicate balance, Olsson said, and one likely to lead to more innovation.

“On one hand you’re seeing these measures against trust companies which seem quite strict, but on the other hand you’re starting to see much more commentary about the need to have a more considered plan for the development of the financial markets,” he said.

“The trust companies are all looking a lot more actively at new ways to generate business. There are a lot of foreign financial institutions now working with the trust companies and there are quite a lot of discussions going on about how to bring in more international know-how to help them undertake different forms of businesses that they hadn’t previously thought about.”

($1 = 6.3120 Chinese yuan)

(Additional reporting by Rachel Armstrong in Singapore; Editing by Kim Coghill)

posted by AndrewW on Feb 20

The Japanese cabinet has passed a plan to double sales taxes in an attempt to control the soaring costs of public debts.

The plan, which needs parliament's approval, will see taxes raised from the current 5% to 8% in April 2014, and then up to 10% by October 2015.

Japan has revealed its social security costs will rise by 1tn yen ($12.6bn; £8bn) a year as its population ages.

It estimates 40% of the population will be of retirement age by 2060.

However, the plan is unpopular with both the opposition parties and politicians within the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.

The country has struggled to rebuild its economy after the financial impact of the earthquake and tsunami last March.

The Japanese Cabinet office estimated that the disaster could cost the country between $198bn and $309bn.

Japan's current debts run at 228% of GDP, at $10.5tn.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, in an online message after the cabinet's vote, said Japan had "no time to spare" in reducing its debts.

He said: "If you pile up one trillion yen in 10,000-yen bills, it reaches the height of 10,000 metres, which is taller than Mount Everest."

He added: "Some of you may think you are an unlucky generation which needs to support many elderly people – but those who built the current affluent society are the senior generation – your parents' generation."

The new legislation will be put before the parliament for approval in March.

posted by AndrewW on Feb 19

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Encana Corp (ECA.TO) will sell a 40 percent stake in British Columbia gas assets to Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T) in a C$2.9 billion ($2.9 billion) deal that will help the Canadian company shore up a balance sheet battered by weak gas prices.

The agreement to sell Mitsubishi a stake in the massive Cutbank Ridge field in the Western Canadian province, coming as Encana announced an 8 percent drop in fourth quarter operating profit, is the latest in a string of asset sales by the Calgary-based energy producer.

For Encana, Mitsubishi effectively replaces PetroChina (601857.SS) as the deep-pocketed Asian partner it has long sought. A more ambitious C$5.4 billlion joint-venture agreement between Canada’s No. 1 gas producer and the state-controlled Chinese company collapsed last June when the two sides broke off talks over final terms.

“(The Mitsubishi deal) provides them some wiggle room for 2012 and into 2013,” said Chris Feltin, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Markets. “It shores up the balance sheet and provides some visibility on the sustainability of the dividend… I wouldn’t mind seeing more asset sales or (joint ventures) but overall now Encana is in much better shape.”

Encana also said it is looking for deep-pocketed partners for some other holdings, and wants to plow money into developing high-value liquids-rich assets such its undeveloped Tuscaloosa Marine shale deposit in Louisiana. In addition, it said it will cut its output of low-value dry gas by about 15 percent this year as it holds out for higher natural gas prices.

Encana and its rivals are struggling to cope with weak gas prices, which are hovering near decade lows, as a mild winter throughout North America cuts into demand, while production rises. The weakness in gas prices is driving oil and gas companies to focus on liquids-rich deposits.

Mitsubishi has agreed to pay C$1.45 billion for the stake in Cutbank Ridge in a deal that will close later this month. The Japanese trading house will also invest a further C$1.45 billion in the project over five years, in addition to its 40 percent share of the project’s future capital investment.

“The investment by Mitsubishi reflects the value of a well-delineated world class resource play that is being developed in a highly efficient manner,” Randy Eresman, Encana’s chief executive, said on a conference call. “This partnership provides an excellent analog for what we expect to achieve in several other plays throughout our portfolio.”

The assets in the partnership will include 409,000 net acres of undeveloped Montney lands in British Columbia, in addition to development potential in the Cadomin and Doig formations. Encana will serve as managing partner and operator of the partnership.

The deal does not include any of Encana’s current Cutbank Ridge production of about 600 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, processing plants, gathering systems or any of Encana’s Alberta landholdings.

The Cutbank Ridge partnership lands have proved undeveloped reserves of roughly around 900 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent, the company said.

After the close of the Cutbank Ridge deal, the company expects to have more than $3 billion in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet.

Encana announced roughly $3.5 billion worth of asset sales in 2011, mostly involving gas-processing plants in Canada and the United States.

Encana shares rose as much as 4 percent to C$21.14 in early action on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday, but later fell back to trading almost unchanged at C$20.13.

ENCANA RESULTS

The company reported a fourth-quarter operating profit of $46 million, or 6 cents a share, down from $50 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier.

Encana’s net earnings were hurt by an after-tax noncash asset impairment charge of $854 million triggered by lower natural gas prices and a change in future development plans. That compared with a similar charge of $371 million in the same quarter in 2010

The results in the latest quarter benefited from a large unrealized hedging gains and gains from divestitures.

On a net basis, Encana reported a loss of $246 million, down from a year-earlier loss of $469 million, when hedging losses and losses from divestitures weighed.

Cash flow, a key indicator of its ability to pay for new projects and drilling, rose 6.4 percent to $976 million.

Quarterly natural gas production rose 7 percent in the fourth quarter to 3,459 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcf/d), while liquids production rose 17 percent to 23,938 barrels of liquids per day.

Encana’s 2012 capital investment plan of $2.9 billion represents a decrease of about 37 percent from 2011 levels.

($1=$1.00 Canadian)

(Reporting by Scott Haggett, Euan Rocha in Toronto and Aftab Ahmed in Bangalore; Editing by Peter Galloway)

posted by AndrewW on Feb 18

Everyone, it seems, is talking about the cloud. This white paper is one of a series that aims to move beyond the hype that currently surrounds the cloud. This paper looks at the role the cloud plays in making networked IT more efficient.

It will help CIOs make decisions about their use of the cloud by first looking back at the past.

It draws together a brief history of the cloud, focusing on its ability to make operations more efficient.

It uses this historical perspective look at the hype that has surrounded the cloud in recent years, and takes a clear look at what efficiencies the cloud can actually deliver for an enterprise.

The paper explores virtualisation, as the virtualised data centre is a central plank in the enterprise cloud services model. Critically, it takes a step by step look at the decision-making process a CIO must use when considering how their enterprise can harness the efficiency benefits the cloud has to offer.

This BT white paper includes:

• From ‘the grid’ to ‘the cloud’

• Cloud services

• Virtualisation for the date centre

posted by AndrewW on Feb 18

The holidays are here and everything important is done, right?

Well, maybe not everything. Some will find themselves racing next week to meet year-end tax deadlines to make charitable gifts, plan taxes on investments and make annual gifts to others.

Keith Negley

If you are one of them, don’t overlook important details. The Internal Revenue Service certainly won’t. And remember the underlying principle behind whether a tax move counts for 2011: It can’t be undone.

Here, then, are some last-minute tips.

Charitable donations. Gifts of cash via check must be mailed to qualified nonprofits by year-end, although the checks needn’t be cashed this year. What matters is the 2011 postmark.

A spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service says post offices will be open on New Year’s Eve, although many will close at noon; check local schedules.

If you really want to ensure a donation counts for 2011, use certified U.S. mail and request a return receipt, says charitable-giving expert Conrad Teitell, an attorney at Cummings & Lockwood in Stamford, Conn. A postage-meter mark isn’t proof, and if you use a private courier such as FedEx, the charity must receive the gift in 2011 for you to take a deduction for this year.

This standard is different from the one for mailing tax returns, which puts several private couriers, including FedEx, on a par with the U.S. Postal Service, Mr. Teitell says.

If you charge a donation on a credit or debit card, the charge must be posted in 2011, although you don’t have to have paid the bill this year.

Charitable gifts of appreciated securities, often a tax-wise move, can be tricky. For those held over a year, the deduction is the average of the high and low price on the date it is electronically transferred to the charity—or, in those rare cases where the security is mailed, the date of mailing.

Charitable-donation specialist Laura Peebles of Deloitte Tax in Washington recommends checking with your broker to find out the lag time between your instruction and the transfer, especially if the gift is large or the price is volatile.

Taxpayers up against a deadline may want to give securities to a donor-advised fund, which many brokerages offer. These are charitable funds that serve as holding pens for future gifts. Donors can make a gift before year-end, take a 2011 deduction and choose recipients later. Payouts from the fund aren’t deductible, but the donation may grow tax-free until then.

Individual retirement accounts owners at least 70½ years old may donate up to $100,000 of account assets to qualified charities in 2011. Such gifts aren’t deductible, but neither do they raise income in a way that might trigger income tax on Social Security payments or raise Medicare premiums. The gifts also count as part of the owner’s required payout if he or she hasn’t already taken one.

IRA proceeds must be transferred directly to the charity by the account administrator, and the charity should receive it in 2011. Use extreme caution here, Mr. Teitell says: A misstep could cause the donor to miss out on this year’s benefit, and the provision expires Dec. 31.

Then there are gifts of personal property, such as clothing or furniture to a thrift shop. In general, the items must be in good used condition to be deductible.

Single items not in good condition worth $500 or more may be deductible with an appraisal. An appraisal is also needed for an item or group of items totaling $5,000 or more, regardless of condition, even if the items go to different charities. Gifts of artwork and non-traded securities are subject to different rules that may require expert help. For more information, see IRS Publications 526 and 561.

Investments. If you are making year-end trades, such as for tax-loss harvesting, note that the IRS looks to the trade date, not the settlement date, to determine when a transaction occurred.

With Congress in deadlock, some investors may want to start the clock ticking for long-term capital gains next year. In 2013 the current 15% top rate on long-term gains—a historic low—is scheduled to rise to 20%, and a new 3.8% tax on investment income takes effect for most joint filers with adjusted gross income above $250,000 ($200,000 single).

The upshot: Investors hoping to realize long-term gains by the end of 2012 should own the asset by Dec. 30 of this year, says Andy Mattson, a CPA with Mohler, Nixon & Williams in Campbell, Calif. Long-term gains and losses are those held longer than a year.

“Given current market values and higher taxes on the way, investors with stock options may also want to consider an exercise,” he says.

Noncharitable gifts. Details also matter for taxpayers hurrying to make annual exclusion gifts—those up to $13,000 a year that a person may make to an unlimited number of recipients.

Be careful with checks. Either the recipient should deposit the check in 2011 or it should be certified. Gifts of securities are final once they are transferred electronically. Paper transfers of assets may require expert help.

The same holds true if Grandma wants to give her granddaughter heirlooms before year-end. The recipient must take possession of the items. “It helps to have Grandma write a letter describing the gift,” Mr. Teitell says.

—Email: taxreport@wsj.com

posted by AndrewW on Feb 18

By RIVA RICHMOND

Barbara Heinrich says she isn’t computer-savvy, but last month the owner of Local Motion, a clothing boutique in Minneapolis, went online and built her own mobile-phone application.

It was worth a try, she figured, considering how cheap and easy it was to do and how addicted to iPhone apps young people like her daughter were. It also dovetailed with other online marketing efforts —her Web site and e-mail blasts—aimed at bringing regular customers, collected over 25 years, back to the shop. So she built a free app to display her hours, location and pictures of new arrivals using BuildAnApp, a Web site from Mobile On Services Inc., of Minneapolis, and submitted it to Apple for inclusion in its App Store.

Glockner Honda Toyota’s iPhone app

“I kind of jumped in and did it, and now I just need to figure everything out. But I think it will be great,” she said. “I think that everybody’s going to be doing it.”

A number of services including MobileAppLoader LLC, SwebApps, Mobile Roadie LLC and Kanchoo LLC have cropped up recently to help even the smallest and most local of businesses make apps, and they are pitching the programs as the next must-have marketing tool. With easy-to-use online templates, much like those used to make low-cost Web sites, a basic iPhone app can take 15 or 20 minutes to make and cost as little as $15 a month in hosting charges.

Yet while there’s not much to lose, creating an app that actually brings in business isn’t quite so simple. Entrepreneurs, already overwhelmed by a slew of trendy marketing initiatives, need to consider whether they have the hours or the staff needed to maintain apps and keep content fresh. Those who lack technical skills, or want to pay a consultant to develop a custom app, need to consider whether it’s worth investing hundreds or thousands of dollars into having one built.

In general, businesses that rely on repeat customers, like restaurants and retailers, or have intense interaction clients for some period of time, like real-estate brokers and car dealers, are the most likely to benefit from an app, said Greg Sterling, a senior analyst at Opus Research Inc.

“For ongoing, regular contact with customers that are on the go, it makes sense as a promotional or loyalty tool,” Mr. Sterling says, since apps enable businesses to send out coupons and event details, including by text message, and customers can easily place orders or contact you for information.

But businesses that are looking primarily to attract new customers, such as doctors, lawyers and contractors, may find an app is a bit of a waste.

Randy Walden, president of HeartWarming Care LLC, an elder-care firm in Tacoma, Wash., got his iPhone app in May. The simple program is meant to help adult children of potential clients call to make appointments to discuss care for their parents, get directions to its offices and click to visit to the company’s Web site.

“I’m not sure it’s useful,” he said of the app. Most new clients hear about HeartWarming Care through word of mouth or community partners, or find it doing a local Google search. He doubts many of his client’s children have iPhones, or that they would think to look for and use his app.

Others have been pleasantly surprised.

Founding Farmers, a Washington, D.C., restaurant owned by a collective of family farmers, got its app into the App Store in June. Dan Simons, a principal at restaurant management company Vucurevich Simons Advisory Group that oversees the restaurant, jumped at the chance to put Founding Farmers’ logo on iPhone screens, which he calls “a modern day fridge magnet.” He put a sign in the window and encouraged staff to mention the app to diners.

“It’s turned out to be way better than I thought,” he says. More than 1,000 people have downloaded the app, three-quarters of whom submitted their email address. In the last 30 days, 94 people used it to book reservations and 34 to book larger parties, a nice number albeit small compared to more than 2,800 reservations made via its Web site.

Mr. Simons paid SwebApps, a unit of Sweb Development, of San Antonio, about $3,000, to create a customized tool. The restaurant’s app features a VIP reservation line; a feature that lets diners spin the wine list by literally shaking their phones; and, to entertain kids of all sizes, another with farm animals that make sounds when you tap them – sometimes rude ones if you tap enough times.

In Portsmouth, Ohio, Tim Glocker of Glockner Honda Toyota says ten customers a day, on average, download his iPhone application, which is less than three months old. The app, built using the online service MobileAppLoader LLC, of Cupertino, Calif., lets car buyers view pictures and videos of every new and used car in stock, and calculate monthly payments. Customers can also find out about specials and schedule service appointments.

“This is one of the best ideas we’ve come up with this year,” he says.