Who Is In Charge of Mobile Application Development?

Brainstorming with the key leaders of our mobile application development team this morning, trying to determine the best ways to get the word out about our capabilities in developing applications for the major mobile platforms - iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and the up-and-coming Windows Phone 7.  We looked at our portfolio - all of the apps we've developed so far for clients - and we determined that the major uses for the mobile apps have been in sales and marketing.  In fact, in a strange coincidence, the vast majority of apps that we've done have been specifically driven around trade shows.  While we've typically been hired by IT, the Sales and Marketing groups have been driving the requirements and the apps.

We were thinking that integration to legacy systems and extending them to the mobile devices is the primary need for mobile application development, but our experience to date does not bear that out.  While we've done it, only about 20% of our projects to date have been in that area. 

So, we are wondering... who really owns mobile application development in organizations?  Where are the lines being drawn between IT and the business groups?  Is IT being a thought leader in the organization, a "did you know you could do this" agent of opportunity to the business groups?  Or is IT being told by the business group, "We need this; make it happen," and responding accordingly? 

What's happening in your organization?  You can let us know via email to mjohnson at oakwoodsys.com, or comment on this post.  We'd love to hear your thoughts.