Lost Blackberry? Yep, there’s an app for that.

Last weekend I was in downtown San Diego for a girlfriend’s birthday and my life ended…well that’s a tad over dramatic but it certainly felt that way. There I was in the party bus when I realized my beloved Blackberry curve had gone missing.

Anyone who has ever lost their cell phone before knows the utter distress and disconnect that I was feeling. No texting, no updating my facebook status, no mapquest to help get me home; basically no way of surviving the next 4 days until Verizon shipped me my new phone.

Losing my Blackberry really got me thinking; how did people survive before the invention of mobile phones and the hundreds of applications making my life a million times easier? The only logical answer to that question has to be “they didn’t”!

Today there seems to be an application for almost everything; mobile banking, up to the minute news updates, finding a local hotspot for dinner and dancing, and of course my personal favorite, shopping!

In July of 2007, EBay first launched their iPhone application giving users the opportunity to bid and browse products via their mobile phone. Since the launch of the app, EBay has generated about $400 million dollars in business, with mobile sales amplifying in the double digits each month. (Full story HERE on Mobile Marketer.) One user even bought a $350,000 dollar Lamborghini over their iPhone. A recent forecast suggests that in about two years, 40 percent of Internet access will happen through a mobile device.

EBay President/CEO John Donahoe said “mobile is one of the key areas that the company is focusing on since devices will surely impact the way that consumers shop.”

Donahoe suggests, “The iPhone and BlackBerry devices are already changing consumers’ shopping habits and recommended that retailers change and evolve if they want to compete.”

With more than 3 billion handsets worldwide and over $200 million dollars worth of applications, it’s no wonder I am so dependent on my Blackberry. It will be interesting to see the growth of mobile applications over the next few years, a growth that I anticipate to be phenomenal.

By the way, five days, and a newly purchased Blackberry later, I received a Facebook message from a very nice gentleman, whom I now refer to as my savior, saying he found my Blackberry. If only there was an application for locating your lost mobile phone…oh wait, there is.