What sort of mobile services might IBM develop? The firm, which has a long-running relationship with British tennis event Wimbledon, recently said it had created three apps, one for Twitter, one for the iPhone, and one for Android, to give fans real-time news, scores and commentary of the matches. Their Android app built for T-Mobile’s G1, Seer, uses GPRS and the phone’s internal compass to pinpoint the user’s location and what the user is looking at. The phone can be pointed to the court, for example, and a window will appear on the screen giving details of the match.

The company can also use sensors in smartphones to analyze traffic flow, for example, and h as also discussed developing mobile banking services with banks and carriers. The plan, said Bloom, was to eventually offer products to a variety of industries, including health care, retails and transportation. Edward Jones analyst Andy Miedler said this was the right move for the company, noting that as more services shift to smartphones from computer, “this is where IBM needs to be a leader.”

Meanwhile, don’t expect an IBM smartphone anytime soon. IBM’s VP of research Mark Dean said there are no plans to make its own phone, and he himself uses a Blackberry.