Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - October 7, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

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According to Microsoft's annual proxy statement, CEO Steve Ballmer received $670,000 in bonus for the last financial year, half what he could have earned in rewards.

http://m.gizmodo.com/5652833/steve-ballmers-bonus-was-halved-because-of-kin-phone-screw+ups

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Apple is making a version of its iPhone that Verizon Wireless will sell early next year, ending an exclusive deal with AT&T and sharpening the competition with Google Inc.-based phones.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536191649347572.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

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App developers want approvals by the big mobile players who manage app stores to happen much faster and more transparently.

http://venturebeat.com/2010/09/27/app-developers-app-approval-open-first/

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Native data applications, such as those installed on smartphones like the iPhone and devices running Android, now account for 50 percent of all mobile data volume according to a new report.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2010/09/native-apps-account-for-half-of-mobile-internet-traffic.php

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The mobile apps market has moved its center of gravity from business apps to consumer apps in the past couple of years.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/The-Good-Bad-and-Ugly-of-Custom-Built-Mobile-Apps-70855.html?wlc=1286333068

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Applications have evolved as a low cost way for entrepreneurs to experiment and test the startup waters with their own company. In an age where an app developed by two or three people can turn into a $10 million exit, there’s a significant amount of interest in both standalone and derivative app development.

http://venturebeat.com/2010/09/30/the-flood-of-new-apps-wont-let-up-any-time-soon-say-silicon-valley-investors/

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By 2014 the number of mobile internet users will surpass the number of users browsing the internet via a desktop computer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/sep/30/mobile-internet-overtake-desktop

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Only 13 percent of iPad owners bought an iPad instead of a PC, while 24 percent replaced a planned e-reader purchase with an iPad.

http://www.ipadnewstracker.com/2010/10/nearly-90-percent-of-initial-ipad-sales-are-incremental-and-not-cannibalizing-the-pc-market/?goback=%2Egde_2823585_member_31203796

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Libraries across the United States are tweeting, texting, and launching smartphone apps as they try to keep up with the biblio-techs, a computer savvy class of people who consider card catalogs as vintage as typewriters. And they seem to be pulling it off.

http://iphone.usatoday.com/Tech/2078717/

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There are no indications that Google is killing the iPhone, but there is no doubt that the iPhone has a serious fight on its hands. Phones powered by Google’s Android operating system are now the most popular among smartphones in the United States.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/the-iphone-has-a-real-fight-on-its-hands/

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The Association of American Publishers recently reported that e-book sales for the first half of the year were up more than 200 percent. Far from being the end of the publishing industry, this number is a sign of a new beginning.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-10-06-column06_ST_N.htm?csp=usat.me

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Microsoft's introduction of Windows Phone 7, set to be formally introduced next week, will barely move the needle on the company's dismal share of the smartphone OS market.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/reviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227700245

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The Motorola Droid Pro resembles a BlackBerry in that it is a candy bar style device with a 3.1-inch touch screen and full QWERTY keyboard.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227700239&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_ALL

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ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business. This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

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Palm division of Hewlett-Packard plans to release the first smartphones based on webOS 2.0 operating system in early 2011.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20101006105336_HP_Plans_to_Update_Lineup_of_Palm_Smartphones_in_Early_2011.html

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Nearly six months after the iPad’s debut, we’re finally starting to see the first Android tablets sneak out, but where are the showcase Windows 7 tablets?

http://www.geek.com/articles/news/steve-ballmer-says-windows-8-will-be-built-with-tablets-in-mind-2010106/

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Visibility Corporation announced the availability of VISIBILITY.net ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) on the iPad. VISIBILITY.net is a comprehensive, fully integrated ERP software solution designed to meet the needs of complex manufacturers.

http://www.dashboardinsight.com/news/news-posts/visibility-brings-erp-to-the-apple-ipad.aspx

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SAP and Sybase, an SAP company, announced the creation of a new Mobile Business Unit, designed to deliver innovation more rapidly across the SAP and Sybase portfolios.

http://www.sap.com/about/newsroom/press.epx?PressID=14101

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Google's Android has surpassed Apple's iOS and Research In Motion's BlackBerry OS to become the most popular smartphone operating system in the United States, a research firm says.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227700170&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_ALL

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Microsoft is expected to formally debut its retooled mobile operating system on a gaggle of new smartphones on October 11, 2010. The software giant is teaming up in an exclusive deal with AT&T, which is expected to carry the phones beginning November 8.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/microsoft-atandt-Windows-Phone-7/19656999/

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Research In Motion recently announced another development to its enterprise mobility offerings, with the new BlackBerry enterprise application middleware to allow enterprise IT departments to develop their own business critical apps.

http://www.spetnik.com/a/news-story/id:800092963,story:rims_new_middleware_app_allows_custom_enterprise_app_creation

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Developers are now adding more than 17,000 new apps into the Android Market every month. Google has expanded the number of countries where people can sell paid applications, tacking 20 new nations onto the list.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/17081/android_apps

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Recent articles from Kevin Benedict

What Are Machines Talking About?
Do SAP and Sybase Recognize What’s Happening?
Mobile Expert Interview Series: WorkLight's COO Kurt Daniels
Virtual Utility Summit – Optimize Your Mobile Workforce
Santa Claus Smartphones and Online Shopping
iPhone Owners First in Online Shopping and BlackBerry Owners are Last
Watch SAP CIO Oliver Bussman Interview at TechEd 2010
Mobile Expert Series: Syclo’s Rich Padula
New Trend – Carry More Devices Till You Can’t Walk No More

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Archived editions of Kevin's Mobility News Weekly are available here.

You can follow me on Twitter @krbenedict and read my blog, Enterprise Mobility Strategies for SAP and Others.

Also available are Kevin’s M2M News Weekly and Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.