Financial professionals have historically relied on relied on devices like BlackBerries and boxy Bloomberg terminals to stay informed. In the last three years, however, more of them, Bloomberg has found, are turning to iPhones and iPads to stay in touch and keep up with crucial market information.

This shift in behavior helps explain Bloomberg's decision to update its iPad app this week to include deeper research layers and the company's messaging system, which is popular at elite financial firms like Goldman Sachs.

Bloomberg users pay about $20,000/year for an annual license, and 2/3 now opt for Bloomberg Anywhere which lets them log into various devices through a portable fingerprint reader.

App store launched
The store has been launched with 45+ Apps, including Angry Bonds, on the Bloomberg App Portal. Solutions on the portal include Apps for:

• data analysis
• news and research
• portfolio management and risk analysis
• valuation and pricing
• visualization and technical analysis.

No prices are available yet, but it surely not going to be 99 cents.

This move by Bloomberg is really significant because it is the first time that they have opened up their vast pool financial data to outside developers who can then craft new products to help traders and analysts.