Research house Gartner said that enterprise IT leaders need to address three key implications of the “post-PC era,” due to the increasing use of mobile apps and content by consumers and employees.

“With phones and tablets becoming a platform for the delivery of applications and information, and not simply a communications tool, the era of running applications solely on desktop and notebook PCs is rapidly being superseded by a fast-moving, diverse era of ecosystems that span consumer electronics, business computing, fixed-location clients and mobile clients,” said David Mitchell Smith, research vice president at Gartner.

The company suggested that corporates and their development teams need to take a “multichannel approach” to applications across business-to-business, business-to-employee, and business-to-consumer channels. It recommends “performing a mobile-only, mobile first or legacy assessment during application development.”

It also said that app developers need to “retool,” as mobile-centric design replaces a desktop-centric approach for user interfaces. This includes monitoring advances in new UI techniques, such as touch, audio, video, gestures, search, social and context, and creating a roadmap of short term, medium term and long term potential.

Smith noted: “the exploding interest in, and use of, mobile devices across consumer and business markets means that mobile interfaces are setting expectations for the usability, appearance and behaviour of future systems and applications.”

Finally, the analyst firm said that organisations need to reallocate resources as mobile advertising projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber PC projects four-to-one by 2015. It suggests making “tactical” investments in mobile app development tools, and using HTML5 as the “lowest common denominator” – “though you should not expect HTML to address all needs.”