IMAGE: Ireland suffered horrendous weather patterns in 2009 and 2010 [Credit: Four Courts Press]  The Question Is? Software applications, or 'apps' for smartphones, such as the iPhone, are experiencing an explosion of interest. What is likely to happen in the mobile phone apps market in the next few years? We ask Barry Downes, a research leader in this field, with the Waterford IT-based TSSG research institute.  Writer's Room A mountain of words have described our recent economic woes. The other major talking point of Ireland's miserable last few years has been the awful weather. This unprecedented period of snow, ice and floods is described by geographer Kieran Hickey, and put into a historical context, in Deluge Ireland's Weather Disasters, 2009-2010.