Application Development Has An Application

There is a word "application" in the "application development" but the application means a lot of applications. When people talk about iPhone applications it indicates the application of iPhone abilities (hardware as well as OS APIs on iPhone); when people talk about web applications, it indicates the application of the application of technologies which are used to build the world wide web (as the name). As well as when people talk about financial applications, it means the application of financial methods.

So where should be my focuses of application development? Maybe financial information management software application development? Financial being the industry sector; Information Management means not the transaction or trading as focus; Software means not hardware.