Sy Danberg, president of SYWARE Inc., has a similar take. He is a longtime developer of database and forms tools, including Visual CE, a 12-year-old database and forms builder for Windows Mobile devices. The exploding popularity of smart phones as data-collecting devices is an opportunity to releverage earlier work, he says. Danberg waited until the Android "stabilized a little bit" before jumping in, he says.

SYWARE's new product, DroidDB, is a tool for building databases and forms for smart phones and tablets that run Android 2.1 and higher. It lets users with no programming skills build mobile applications to collect, organize, synchronize and share data. With the increasing use of tablets, Danberg expects demand for data-collection apps to soar.

The first-version release has a basic interface, but Danberg says it will gain more features quickly. It sells for $29. At $125, a business edition has the ability to build apps to synchronize with desktops or servers.

"People have been talking about paperless offices for a long time, but it's going to happen with the tablet," Danberg predicts. "It's a technology that's going to significantly change the way people interact with computers."