What does an automated and "mobilized" work order system or service ticket dispatch and management system look like? Here is a scenario - A customer calls in to report a broken heating system. The office staff takes the phone call, enters the relevant information into the work order application on the desktop computer which then creates a unique work order and number.
The work order database application, with GIS integration, can compare the location of each service technician to determine which one is closest to the work location. The dispatch system can also look at the estimated availability of the nearby service technicians. In addition, the solution can quickly look up the qualifications of each service technician to see which ones are qualified for the job.
Once the appropriate service technician is identified, the work order is dispatched to the smartphone or handheld computer used by the service technician. Included in the electronic work order is driving directions from his/her current location to the next job location. In addition to the work order information, warranty, repair, users manual, maintenance history, customer support issues and product information on file can also be dispatched to the mobile device for reference and parts inventory management.
Once the service technician arrives at the location, he opens the work order on the mobile device. Opening the work order automatically captures the service technician's name, the date/time stamp and the GPS coordinates of the jobsite and enters them into the mobile application’s work order. In addition, the service technician can see where all other service technicians are currently located.
Next the service technician examines the broken heating system and determines which parts need replaced. He can pull out his mobile device and check whether he has the needed parts in his vehicle inventory, if not, it can automatically search for nearby service vehicles that may contain the part (GPS tracking enables this feature). If another nearby service vehicle is determined to have the required part, then driving directions can be provided.
When the service technician arrives at the service vehicle with the needed part, then the part is scanned using a bar code scanner in the handheld computer to log its removal from the vehicle's inventory and assigns it to the appropriate work order number.
Back at the work site, the service technician runs into a challenge. He has never worked on this model before and needs advice. He snaps a digital photo or activates his digital video and records a view of the equipment and problem. His supervisor reviews the images and quickly walks him through the repair.
Once the work is completed, the service technician signs his name on the mobile device screen, and has the customer sign the work order screen as well. The service technician prints an invoice on a mobile printer and collects the payment or swipes the customer’s credit or debit card. The collection is noted on the mobile work order and synchronized back to the office.
As soon as the work order is completed and synchronized, the mobile application reminds the service technician to promote a 2 year service contract. The service technician reviews the details with the customer and signs them up for a 2 year service contract. Next, the work order system reviews job locations and priorities and assigns the next optimized work order to the field service technician.
This is an example of the processes involved with a basic mobilized work order. There are many more powerful and sophisticated features available from field service automation experts like SAP mobility partner, ClickSoftware. I read recently about the "emergency response" capabilities of ClickSoftware that helps you understand the industry expertise that goes into an enterprise quality field services solution. You can read more about the "emergency response" capabilities on Gil Bouhnick's blog. Gil helps you understand the level of complexity involved in simply switching priorities and addressing emergencies while in the field.
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
Phone +1 208-991-4410
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.
Showing posts with label smartphone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smartphone. Show all posts
Completing Field Force Automation - Extending Intelligent Mobility
I recently wrote an article for The Enterprise Mobility Foundation, The Next Step in Business Process Optimization: Mobility. In this article I describe the enormous amount of work that has gone into designing and automating business processes and ERPs like SAP. The conclusion of the article is that as sophisticated as ERPs are today, there remains significant feature gaps, especially in extending business processes out to the mobile workforce.
In this article, I want to highlight some areas where there is still much work to be done in field services. In field services, a number of SAP mobility partners like Clicksoftware and Syclo have comprehensive field services and enterprise asset management solutions with mobile clients for use on smartphones and ruggedized handhelds. However, there are still feature gaps in the integration of real time data, M2M integration, geotags, business intelligence, augmented reality and multi-media support.
Let me give you a not so futuristic field services scenario to consider. A field services technician arrives at a customer's location. Recognizing the location (based on geospatial data and scheduling data), the service tech's smartphone begins to both display and read, using an audio feed, the customer highlights including recent support issues, account status, warranties, contracts and possible upsell sales opportunities. As the service technician unloads his/her tools and walks toward the worksite, they are getting educated on all the most recent events through their ear piece.
As the service technician passes near various pieces of equipment with a maintenance and repair history the information is both displayed and an audible voice reviews the history. As the service technician enters a building, the blueprint of the building and a map of the location of all equipment under service contracts appears on their screen.
Now let's pretend we are movie directors and insert a flashback - before the service technician was scheduled and dispatched, the field service automation system queried the maintenance and support status of all equipment on the customer's campus. Equipment needing repair or maintenance was identified, parts required were pulled from inventory or ordered for delivery. Required tools and equipment were pre-loaded into the service technician's vehicle and time was allocated to complete all the necessary work on the premises. Consolidating all the work possible during a visit reduces fuel, travel and labor costs.
As the service technician arrives at each piece of equipment, he immediately snaps a digital picture of it. A diagram, with step by step instructions overlays the digital photo and instructs the service technician on how to complete the service most efficiently. The service technician speaks to the mobile application confirming each step until it is completed. This audio file is immediately translated, interpreted and the work order is closed.
If any step in the process takes longer than expected, the mobile application will ask if a digital video file demonstrating the necessary steps would be useful. If the service technician affirms, then the file automatically plays.
If advice from another expert is required, the service technician can request it and the mobile application can initiate a knowledge management process (see solutions from SAP mobility partner's Leapfactor, Open Text's Open Text Everywhere, or SAP's Streamworks) that queries experts and connects with them automatically. If a connected expert requests a live video feed of the equipment or the work, the service technician simply aims the smartphone digital video camera at the equipment or activates the hat mounted video camera.
Before each peice of equipment is reached, an automatic M2M (machine-to-machine) communication is sent from the office asking the equipment to perform diagnostics on itself. The diagnostic is completed and wirelessly sent to the service technician's smartphone.
All of the technology in the scenario above exists today. It just has not been integrated all together into specific use cases like the one above. Perhaps SAP partners are waiting for customers to request it or for SAP to document it or for you to suggest it.
*Read the Mobility News Weekly at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html.
*Read the M2M News Weekly at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/m2m.html.
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
***************************************************
http://www.clicksoftware.com/e86e075b-4fca-44c9-bfeb-4efcc978f416/knowledge-center-white-papers-delivery.htm
In this article, I want to highlight some areas where there is still much work to be done in field services. In field services, a number of SAP mobility partners like Clicksoftware and Syclo have comprehensive field services and enterprise asset management solutions with mobile clients for use on smartphones and ruggedized handhelds. However, there are still feature gaps in the integration of real time data, M2M integration, geotags, business intelligence, augmented reality and multi-media support.
Let me give you a not so futuristic field services scenario to consider. A field services technician arrives at a customer's location. Recognizing the location (based on geospatial data and scheduling data), the service tech's smartphone begins to both display and read, using an audio feed, the customer highlights including recent support issues, account status, warranties, contracts and possible upsell sales opportunities. As the service technician unloads his/her tools and walks toward the worksite, they are getting educated on all the most recent events through their ear piece.
As the service technician passes near various pieces of equipment with a maintenance and repair history the information is both displayed and an audible voice reviews the history. As the service technician enters a building, the blueprint of the building and a map of the location of all equipment under service contracts appears on their screen.
Now let's pretend we are movie directors and insert a flashback - before the service technician was scheduled and dispatched, the field service automation system queried the maintenance and support status of all equipment on the customer's campus. Equipment needing repair or maintenance was identified, parts required were pulled from inventory or ordered for delivery. Required tools and equipment were pre-loaded into the service technician's vehicle and time was allocated to complete all the necessary work on the premises. Consolidating all the work possible during a visit reduces fuel, travel and labor costs.
As the service technician arrives at each piece of equipment, he immediately snaps a digital picture of it. A diagram, with step by step instructions overlays the digital photo and instructs the service technician on how to complete the service most efficiently. The service technician speaks to the mobile application confirming each step until it is completed. This audio file is immediately translated, interpreted and the work order is closed.
If any step in the process takes longer than expected, the mobile application will ask if a digital video file demonstrating the necessary steps would be useful. If the service technician affirms, then the file automatically plays.
If advice from another expert is required, the service technician can request it and the mobile application can initiate a knowledge management process (see solutions from SAP mobility partner's Leapfactor, Open Text's Open Text Everywhere, or SAP's Streamworks) that queries experts and connects with them automatically. If a connected expert requests a live video feed of the equipment or the work, the service technician simply aims the smartphone digital video camera at the equipment or activates the hat mounted video camera.
Before each peice of equipment is reached, an automatic M2M (machine-to-machine) communication is sent from the office asking the equipment to perform diagnostics on itself. The diagnostic is completed and wirelessly sent to the service technician's smartphone.
All of the technology in the scenario above exists today. It just has not been integrated all together into specific use cases like the one above. Perhaps SAP partners are waiting for customers to request it or for SAP to document it or for you to suggest it.
*Read the Mobility News Weekly at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html.
*Read the M2M News Weekly at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/m2m.html.
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
***************************************************
Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly – June 24, 2010
You are reading the second edition of "Kevin's Mobility News Weekly." This is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I aggregate the information, include the original links and add a synopsis of each article. I also search for the latest market numbers such as market size, growth and trends in and around enterprise mobility.
You can read archived newsletters here - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html
Please send me any interesting mobility news links, market numbers, events, case studies, analyst reports or whitepapers you think I should include in my newsletter. Enjoy!
********
A recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan, finds that the new mobile office market earned revenues of roughly $1.7 billion in 2009. This is predicted to reach $6.8 billion in 2015.
http://hosted-exchange.tmcnet.com/topics/mobility/articles/88847-mobile-office-market-reach-68-billion-2015-report.htm
********
Internet advertising will join television in 2014 as the only media with spending in excess of $100 billion. Internet access is a key driver of spending in most segments. Increased broadband penetration will boost wired access while growing smartphone penetration and wireless network upgrades will drive mobile access. Spending on wired and mobile Internet access will rise from $228 billion in 2009 to $351 billion in 2014. Globally, the online and wireless video game market will grow from $52.5 billion in 2009 to $86.8 billion in 2014, a compound growth rate of 10.6%. This will make it the second fastest-growing segment of E&M behind wired/mobile Internet advertising, yet ahead of TV subscriptions and license fees.
http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/06/pwc-outlook-entertainment-and-media-growth/
********
Sprint-Nextel reports they may open a center in the San Francisco area to foster the development of the M2M ecosystem. Meanwhile, AT&T recently reported that it had 5.8 million M2M connected devices on its network and added 1.1 million in the first quarter. Verizon said that it has 7.3 million M2M connected devices on its network. Sprint hasn't disclosed specific connected device numbers, but Bowman estimated that the company has "a couple million" devices on its network.
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-may-open-m2m-collaboration-center-san-fran/2010-06-17?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz0r8jFxDJ5
********
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/
********
BlackBerry App World launched in April 2009. A year later RIM said the store offers about 6,000 applications, far behind rivals like Apple's iTunes App store, which now boasts about 225,000 apps for iPhone and iPod touch devices. BlackBerry App World currently has roughly 25 million active users, with nearly 1 million app downloads per day, according to RIM.
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/blackberry-app-world-makeover-adds-carrier-billing/2010-06-17?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
********
Mobile ad network Millennial Media is reporting that iPad ad requests grew 160 percent from April to May. RIM’s BlackBerry remained the second largest OS on Millennial’s network for the tenth consecutive month. Android’s share rose by 5 percent to a 15 percent share of impressions for the month of May.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/18/millennial-media-apple-os-drops-by-33-percent-in-may-but-ipad-impressions-grow-160-percent/
********
In this 4 minute YouTube video from this week’s Video Comments, I discuss the value of mobile micro apps for businesses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwjaGDvThLg&feature=channel
********
Analytics firm Distimo reported that 80 percent of all iPad applications fall into the Paid Apps segment. By comparison, 73 percent of iPhone and iPod touch applications carry premium price tags, while the average iPad app costs $4.67, as opposed to $3.82 on iPhone. Medical apps for iPad lead the way at an average price of $42.11, followed by Finance apps at $18.48; on the iPhone, Medical apps average $10.74, and Finance apps average $5.74.
http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/apps-ipad-surpass-5-000-device-sales-top-2-million/2010-05-31#ixzz0rVZLbpmW
********
With the iPad, Apple has laid down yet another challenge to the wireless industry's incumbents. The book-sized gizmo, now past 2 million shipments in just two months, represents a new device category for consumers, a chance for additional data revenues for carriers and a slap in the face to handset makers already struggling to stanch the rise of the iPhone.
http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/temperature-tablets-how-mobile-industry-responding-ipad?utm_source=FWhomepage#ixzz0rVYdS700
********
The Global Mobile Applications Market (2010 – 2015) report published by Markets and Markets reveals that around 7 billion free and paid applications were downloaded in 2009 alone from native as well as third party stores. The downloaded applications were responsible for generating revenues worth $3.9 billion in the same year. Unsurprisingly, Apple dominated the market with 4 billion downloads to date grabbing 90% of the application market share in 2009. New players in the industry are fast catching up and with super growth in smartphones, the mobile application market is likely to expand exponentially. Estimates by the same firm reveal that the global mobile application market is likely to reach $24.4 billion in 2015 growing at 64 percent CAGR.
http://apps4mobile.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/most-preferred-mobile-applications/
********
In this video on YouTube I discuss mobile collaboration and knowledge management applications for businesses.
http://www.youtube.com/sapmentors#p/u/5/1OlokRKoOgE
********
Smartphone market estimates are increasing, and growth in the hand held industry should grow at approximately 45% in 2010 and 31% in 2011. RIM should maintain a global share of 20% in 2010 and 2011.
http://newsystocks.com/news/3557593
********
Munster is raising his estimate for iPads for 2010 and 2011. He originally estimated that Apple would sell 6.2 million iPads in 2010 and 8.2 million in 2011, giving Apple 14.4 million iPads by 2012. Munster now says Apple will sell 7.5 million in 2010 and 9 million in 2011 for a total of 16.5 million iPads by 2012.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20008462-37.html
********
According to Millennial Media, 90 percent of U.S. developers are focusing their efforts solely on one mobile platform, with just 10 percent pursuing multi-platform strategies. Among developers dedicated to a single platform, 56 percent are focusing on iPhone and 29 percent are targeting Android. Just 5 percent are building for Symbian, with 4 percent working on BlackBerry--the remaining 6 percent of developers are focused on "Other" platforms, and it speaks volumes about the sorry state of both Windows Mobile and webOS that the report doesn't even break them out into their own separate pie-chart slices.
http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/ios-4-arrives-bringing-changes-it/2010-06-21
********
"IBM, except for its professional services side, has lost its way in mobile," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J.Gold Associates. “IBM does not have a strong presence in mobility on a standardized product basis and must modernize to support multiple [mobile] platforms to gain share. It has to be seen as offering a compelling solution to the market at a reasonable cost.”
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178051/IBM_to_set_new_mobility_strategy_with_launch_of_software_development_lab
*******
Machine to machine or embedded mobile devices and applications are an area of wireless data usage with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 25% per year through 2014 and a projected need for up to 50 billion M2M devices by 2025.
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2010/06/m2m-growth-opportunities-for-mnos-in.html
*****
IBM announced new mobile software, services and research projects at the opening of their new software development lab in Massachusetts. Mail Triage, a research prototype was shown as an iPhone application that can help workers inundated with e-mails more quickly assess which ones need immediate action and which can be deleted or handled later.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178141/IBM_launches_software_lab_in_Massachusetts_announces_mobile_products?taxonomyId=16
********
Piper Jaffray reports that free apps account for about 4 billion total App Store downloads or 81% of all downloads. iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users presently download over 16.6 million applications each day, almost double the 8.9 million daily downloads via Apple's iTunes multimedia storefront. The average selling price among the top 50 premium App Store applications for iPhone and iPod touch is $1.49. Among the top 30 paid iPad apps, the average price jumps to $4.66.
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/study-free-applications-make-81-app-store-downloads/2010-06-23?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz0rh8nzN8L
********
Kevin’s Video Comments on mobile applications for collaboration, knowledge management and human progress.
http://www.youtube.com/sapmentors#p/u/5/1OlokRKoOgE
********
Research in Motion confirmed it will finally unveil its long-awaited BlackBerry OS 6.0 update during the third quarter. Specifics remain scarce but include an improved WebKit-based browser, a customizable homescreen, a revamped media player and a more intuitive user experience.
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/rim-launch-blackberry-os-6-0-q3/2010-04-27#ixzz0rh6A8Pgm
********
Robust earnings for Research in Motion, growth and solid sales of more than 11 million devices are unlikely to impress analysts. Both are expected, along with further declines in average selling prices, as overseas sales of lower-end devices grow. RIM's share of the more lucrative North American market, meanwhile, is expected to have eroded further as the iPhone and a slew of smartphones that use Google's Android operating system eat into the BlackBerry's market share.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65L3FG20100622
********
Barnes & Noble and Amazon cut the prices of their electronic-book reader tablets. Barnes & Noble dropped the price of its Nook device from $259 to $199 while introducing a WiFi-only model selling for $149. Amazon dropped the Kindle's price from $259 to $189.
http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/rss.jsp?rssid=597&item=+http%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2fwp-syndication%2farticle%2f2010%2f06%2f22%2fAR2010062201954_mobile.xml+&cid=4007073&spf=1
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Kevin’s Video Comments on different mobile application categories.
http://www.youtube.com/sapmentors#p/u/7/AMyOAo8YNUA
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Apple announced that it sold its three millionth iPad™ just 80 days after its introduction in the US.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/22ipad.html
********
The following links are interviews that I have conducted over the past few months with enterprise mobility experts and CEOs.
Mobile Expert Interview Series
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-interview-series.html
Mobile Expert Video Series
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-video-series.html
Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly archives can be found at:
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html
I would invite those interested in enterprise mobility to join the Linkedin Group SAP Enterprise Mobility, http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro.
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC www.netcentric-strategies.com www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict http://twitter.com/krbenedict ***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************
You can read archived newsletters here - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html
Please send me any interesting mobility news links, market numbers, events, case studies, analyst reports or whitepapers you think I should include in my newsletter. Enjoy!
********
A recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan, finds that the new mobile office market earned revenues of roughly $1.7 billion in 2009. This is predicted to reach $6.8 billion in 2015.
http://hosted-exchange.tmcnet.com/topics/mobility/articles/88847-mobile-office-market-reach-68-billion-2015-report.htm
********
Internet advertising will join television in 2014 as the only media with spending in excess of $100 billion. Internet access is a key driver of spending in most segments. Increased broadband penetration will boost wired access while growing smartphone penetration and wireless network upgrades will drive mobile access. Spending on wired and mobile Internet access will rise from $228 billion in 2009 to $351 billion in 2014. Globally, the online and wireless video game market will grow from $52.5 billion in 2009 to $86.8 billion in 2014, a compound growth rate of 10.6%. This will make it the second fastest-growing segment of E&M behind wired/mobile Internet advertising, yet ahead of TV subscriptions and license fees.
http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/06/pwc-outlook-entertainment-and-media-growth/
********
Sprint-Nextel reports they may open a center in the San Francisco area to foster the development of the M2M ecosystem. Meanwhile, AT&T recently reported that it had 5.8 million M2M connected devices on its network and added 1.1 million in the first quarter. Verizon said that it has 7.3 million M2M connected devices on its network. Sprint hasn't disclosed specific connected device numbers, but Bowman estimated that the company has "a couple million" devices on its network.
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-may-open-m2m-collaboration-center-san-fran/2010-06-17?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz0r8jFxDJ5
********
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/
********
BlackBerry App World launched in April 2009. A year later RIM said the store offers about 6,000 applications, far behind rivals like Apple's iTunes App store, which now boasts about 225,000 apps for iPhone and iPod touch devices. BlackBerry App World currently has roughly 25 million active users, with nearly 1 million app downloads per day, according to RIM.
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/blackberry-app-world-makeover-adds-carrier-billing/2010-06-17?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
********
Mobile ad network Millennial Media is reporting that iPad ad requests grew 160 percent from April to May. RIM’s BlackBerry remained the second largest OS on Millennial’s network for the tenth consecutive month. Android’s share rose by 5 percent to a 15 percent share of impressions for the month of May.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/18/millennial-media-apple-os-drops-by-33-percent-in-may-but-ipad-impressions-grow-160-percent/
********
In this 4 minute YouTube video from this week’s Video Comments, I discuss the value of mobile micro apps for businesses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwjaGDvThLg&feature=channel
********
Analytics firm Distimo reported that 80 percent of all iPad applications fall into the Paid Apps segment. By comparison, 73 percent of iPhone and iPod touch applications carry premium price tags, while the average iPad app costs $4.67, as opposed to $3.82 on iPhone. Medical apps for iPad lead the way at an average price of $42.11, followed by Finance apps at $18.48; on the iPhone, Medical apps average $10.74, and Finance apps average $5.74.
http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/apps-ipad-surpass-5-000-device-sales-top-2-million/2010-05-31#ixzz0rVZLbpmW
********
With the iPad, Apple has laid down yet another challenge to the wireless industry's incumbents. The book-sized gizmo, now past 2 million shipments in just two months, represents a new device category for consumers, a chance for additional data revenues for carriers and a slap in the face to handset makers already struggling to stanch the rise of the iPhone.
http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/temperature-tablets-how-mobile-industry-responding-ipad?utm_source=FWhomepage#ixzz0rVYdS700
********
The Global Mobile Applications Market (2010 – 2015) report published by Markets and Markets reveals that around 7 billion free and paid applications were downloaded in 2009 alone from native as well as third party stores. The downloaded applications were responsible for generating revenues worth $3.9 billion in the same year. Unsurprisingly, Apple dominated the market with 4 billion downloads to date grabbing 90% of the application market share in 2009. New players in the industry are fast catching up and with super growth in smartphones, the mobile application market is likely to expand exponentially. Estimates by the same firm reveal that the global mobile application market is likely to reach $24.4 billion in 2015 growing at 64 percent CAGR.
http://apps4mobile.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/most-preferred-mobile-applications/
********
In this video on YouTube I discuss mobile collaboration and knowledge management applications for businesses.
http://www.youtube.com/sapmentors#p/u/5/1OlokRKoOgE
********
Smartphone market estimates are increasing, and growth in the hand held industry should grow at approximately 45% in 2010 and 31% in 2011. RIM should maintain a global share of 20% in 2010 and 2011.
http://newsystocks.com/news/3557593
********
Munster is raising his estimate for iPads for 2010 and 2011. He originally estimated that Apple would sell 6.2 million iPads in 2010 and 8.2 million in 2011, giving Apple 14.4 million iPads by 2012. Munster now says Apple will sell 7.5 million in 2010 and 9 million in 2011 for a total of 16.5 million iPads by 2012.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20008462-37.html
********
According to Millennial Media, 90 percent of U.S. developers are focusing their efforts solely on one mobile platform, with just 10 percent pursuing multi-platform strategies. Among developers dedicated to a single platform, 56 percent are focusing on iPhone and 29 percent are targeting Android. Just 5 percent are building for Symbian, with 4 percent working on BlackBerry--the remaining 6 percent of developers are focused on "Other" platforms, and it speaks volumes about the sorry state of both Windows Mobile and webOS that the report doesn't even break them out into their own separate pie-chart slices.
http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/ios-4-arrives-bringing-changes-it/2010-06-21
********
"IBM, except for its professional services side, has lost its way in mobile," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J.Gold Associates. “IBM does not have a strong presence in mobility on a standardized product basis and must modernize to support multiple [mobile] platforms to gain share. It has to be seen as offering a compelling solution to the market at a reasonable cost.”
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178051/IBM_to_set_new_mobility_strategy_with_launch_of_software_development_lab
*******
Machine to machine or embedded mobile devices and applications are an area of wireless data usage with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 25% per year through 2014 and a projected need for up to 50 billion M2M devices by 2025.
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2010/06/m2m-growth-opportunities-for-mnos-in.html
*****
IBM announced new mobile software, services and research projects at the opening of their new software development lab in Massachusetts. Mail Triage, a research prototype was shown as an iPhone application that can help workers inundated with e-mails more quickly assess which ones need immediate action and which can be deleted or handled later.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178141/IBM_launches_software_lab_in_Massachusetts_announces_mobile_products?taxonomyId=16
********
Piper Jaffray reports that free apps account for about 4 billion total App Store downloads or 81% of all downloads. iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users presently download over 16.6 million applications each day, almost double the 8.9 million daily downloads via Apple's iTunes multimedia storefront. The average selling price among the top 50 premium App Store applications for iPhone and iPod touch is $1.49. Among the top 30 paid iPad apps, the average price jumps to $4.66.
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/study-free-applications-make-81-app-store-downloads/2010-06-23?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz0rh8nzN8L
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Kevin’s Video Comments on mobile applications for collaboration, knowledge management and human progress.
http://www.youtube.com/sapmentors#p/u/5/1OlokRKoOgE
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Research in Motion confirmed it will finally unveil its long-awaited BlackBerry OS 6.0 update during the third quarter. Specifics remain scarce but include an improved WebKit-based browser, a customizable homescreen, a revamped media player and a more intuitive user experience.
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/rim-launch-blackberry-os-6-0-q3/2010-04-27#ixzz0rh6A8Pgm
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Robust earnings for Research in Motion, growth and solid sales of more than 11 million devices are unlikely to impress analysts. Both are expected, along with further declines in average selling prices, as overseas sales of lower-end devices grow. RIM's share of the more lucrative North American market, meanwhile, is expected to have eroded further as the iPhone and a slew of smartphones that use Google's Android operating system eat into the BlackBerry's market share.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65L3FG20100622
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Barnes & Noble and Amazon cut the prices of their electronic-book reader tablets. Barnes & Noble dropped the price of its Nook device from $259 to $199 while introducing a WiFi-only model selling for $149. Amazon dropped the Kindle's price from $259 to $189.
http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/rss.jsp?rssid=597&item=+http%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2fwp-syndication%2farticle%2f2010%2f06%2f22%2fAR2010062201954_mobile.xml+&cid=4007073&spf=1
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Kevin’s Video Comments on different mobile application categories.
http://www.youtube.com/sapmentors#p/u/7/AMyOAo8YNUA
********
Apple announced that it sold its three millionth iPad™ just 80 days after its introduction in the US.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/22ipad.html
********
The following links are interviews that I have conducted over the past few months with enterprise mobility experts and CEOs.
Mobile Expert Interview Series
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-interview-series.html
Mobile Expert Video Series
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-video-series.html
Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly archives can be found at:
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html
I would invite those interested in enterprise mobility to join the Linkedin Group SAP Enterprise Mobility, http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro.
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC www.netcentric-strategies.com www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict http://twitter.com/krbenedict ***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************
Mobile Expert Interview Series: Pyxis Mobile's EVP Christopher Willis
Pyxis Mobile is one of those companies that accomplishes great things, but moves under the radar. Gartner recently highlighted Pyxis Mobile in their Magic Quadrant report so moving under the radar may be over. Pyxis Mobile has over 500,000 mobile clients in the field. Most of their traditional customers are in the financial services industry, but they have been rapidly expanding into higher education, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. I had the opportunity recently to interview Chris Willis, Pyxis Mobile's EVP of Marketing and Strategy.
Chris joined Pyxis in 1998. In 2001 the company became 100% focused on enterprise mobility.
Chris what mobile device do you carry?
I carry two mobile devices, the iPhone for personal use, and the BlackBerry Bold for professional use. I have always used BlackBerrys professionally and am just used to it. I know how to get what I need from it. I use the iPhone as a large iPod.
What is your favorite mobile application?
A CRM application built by Pyxis Mobile. It is connected to our expense management system and enables me to complete my expense reports while on the road. On the personal side I love MLB at Bat. When you see MLB at Bat on an iPad it is amazing. It is better than the programs you get at the game.
What industries do you see adopting mobility?
Financial services is big for us. Seventy percent of our business is still in financial services. We have developed complete trading systems on mobile devices for some customers. Higher education is big for us. We have developed all kinds of mobile applications for universities that show class schedules, grades, etc. Emerging markets for us are in manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
What business processes do you see companies mobilizing first?
Sales and field services to start, however, nowadays we are seeing a lot of B2C (business to consumer) application demand. Companies want to give mobile applications to their customers for product sales, branding, marketing and customer support.
What are some of the most surprising trends that you saw in mobility over the past 12 months?
B2C is the biggest trend - "There's an App for that!" Companies wanting to provide their customers with mobile applications.
What do you see happening in the near future, say 2010-2011?
Mobility vendors delivering on their promises and filling the missing "app gaps." Companies are now educated on mobility. They are now looking for complete solutions and mobility platforms to execute a full enterprise mobility strategy.
Tell me about some of the most interesting mobile applications you have seen in the market.
We have developed a mobile laundry application. It is a M2M (machine-to-machine) application. Laundry machines text students in the dorms when there is a machine available and when it is finished. Another application I love is from Concur Mobile. It helps you book travel, manage travel expenses, call taxis and have it all paid for by the credit card they have on file. No cash needed. You can also use it to photograph receipts and turn them in as well. Nice!
What are some of the most unusual mobile applications you have seen?
There is an application that consists of a website and a mobile application. The website shows a 2D barcode on the screen, and your iPhone captures the barcode and activates various games that use the accelerometer on the iPhone to control various objects in races. Very interesting!
When is a consumer oriented mobile device sufficient, and when do you need a ruggedized industrial grade device?
Consumer devices (smartphones) are capturing market share from industrial grade mobile handhelds. There is less interest in expensive rugged devices, because the service technician is carrying a smartphone anyway. If you buy expensive rugged devices, they will now have two devices to break. Many companies are simply buying rugged cases for smartphones.
What is the most complex mobile application that you have seen?
We developed entire mobile trading systems for use by companies in the financial services industry. Very complex! We developed a very sophisticated mobile application for Thomas Reuters that pulled data from dozens of different sources.
What are some of the biggest challenges you see in the mobile industry today?
Rapid changes to mobile operating systems and new mobile devices. Today Samsung announced a new mobile OS. Today enterprises use the same mobile OS as consumer devices so we need to stay on top of all of them.
What do you see from ERP vendors in mobility?
All ERPs have to mobilize their solutions. Pyxis Mobile is supporting all the majors, and we believe this is a competitive advantage.
What is still missing from MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms)?
I think MEAP vendors are simply taking different approaches. Some try to be ERP agnostic. Others focused on specific markets. I think the differences will be how effective you are with partners. Are you systems integrator friendly? Pyxis Mobile provides tools for SIs to develop and support new mobile applications. This is important!
How important is mobile device management to your customers?
It isn't. Our customers don't ask for it. Smartphones and online app stores seem to have resolved many of the earlier issues. Perhaps in the future our customers will ask for it.
How is Pyxis Mobile positioned?
We are the one mobility platform that enables all of a company's mobility needs including B2B and B2C. We cover mobile enterprise and consumer applications.
What are your thoughts on when thick/rich mobile clients are needed and when micro-apps or browser apps are needed?
We like rich native apps that optimize what you can do on each OS and mobile device.
Do your customers want to develop their own mobile applications using your Application Studio, or do they want you to develop it?
About 80% of our customers want us, or one of our systems integrator partners to develop the mobile application for them. They are not experienced, but we are.
Thanks for your time Chris!!!
To read more interviews in the Mobile Expert Interview series, visit:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-interview-series.html
To watch videos of mobile expert interviews, visit:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-video-series.html
For a weekly recap of mobility news, analysis and market numbers read:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
***************************************************
Chris joined Pyxis in 1998. In 2001 the company became 100% focused on enterprise mobility.
What are some of the most surprising trends that you saw in mobility over the past 12 months?
What are some of the most unusual mobile applications you have seen?
Thanks for your time Chris!!!
To read more interviews in the Mobile Expert Interview series, visit:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-interview-series.html
To watch videos of mobile expert interviews, visit:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-video-series.html
For a weekly recap of mobility news, analysis and market numbers read:
- http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
***************************************************
Mobile Solution Models, Part 1
It appears there are at least six unique mobile solution models. This is a dynamic list, a work in progress, so please help me understand other models that need to be added.
Many companies will be followers and simply want a "me too" mobile application that mobilizes common business processes, but others seek competitive advantages through mobile technologies. These will seek to utilize mobile technologies in unique ways where shrink wrap applications do not exist. These aggressive inventors and early adaptors want to control their own destinies and be able to develop mobilized business processes only they have conceived. These inventors don't want to be reinventing the wheel. They want to spend their time developing visionary applications with massive ROIs. They want a powerful MEAP to take care of all the mobile middleware infrastructure, integration, synchronization, security, and development infrastructure, but they want an SDK included that enables them to design, develop, test, deploy, and support a wide range of customized mobile applications and business processes.
Mobile "me-too" applications help you maintain the status quo. Putting the power of a comprehensive MEAP in the hands of your brightest minds can be game changers.
One of the key reasons SAP is following a partnership strategy for mobile applications, I believe, is that they realize they cannot develop all of the mobile applications that are being requested fast enough. A partnership strategy enables dozens of SAP partners to fulfill the demand and enables the SAP ecosystem to compete with each other to make the most powerful and innovative mobile solutions possible. However, just as SAP realizes they cannot solve all the mobility needs of the market themselves, neither can the mobility vendors.
Mobility vendors must target the largest and most common business processes for mobilizing, as this is where the quickest and easiest sales revenue is located. As a result, niche mobility applications that may provide a particular company with an enormous competitive advantage will be necessarily ignored. The only way a company will realize the value of that competitive advantage is to implement it themselves. That introduces another discussion which we will continue in Part 2.
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict
SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************
- Mobile middleware - often includes a mobile database, a server database, synchronization, and basic database integration tools and general guidelines for using the middleware with your software development projects. Typically, you develop in the programming environment of your choice (e.g. .NET, PowerBuilder, C++, Visual Basic) and integrate, the mobile middleware into your applications.
- Mobile browser applications - these are light weight browser based applications that often provide a mobile view into a back office business application or database. They do not provide access to the data collection tools and functionality available on many devices.
- SEAP Infrastructure (I made this up) - smartphone enterprise application platforms - supports the testing, deployment, integration, and operations of mobile micro-applications often in cloud computing environments (although on premises versions are also available). Mobile micro-applications may be developed for the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry devices, etc., and downloaded from online application stores, but integrated to back-end ERPs via the SEAP Infrastructure.
- SEAP Infrastructure Plus - see number 2 and then add an SDK for rapidly developing mobile micro-applications that work with the SEAP infrastructure.
- MBA - mobilized business applications (made it up again) - shrink wrapped or off-the-shelf mobile clients for existing business applications. The MBA can often be configured to match the basic customization of the integrated back-end business applications, but it is not designed for general purpose mobile applications.
- MEAPs - mobile enterprise application platforms - this is an enterprise class mobility platform used to support multiple mobile applications, disparate databases, different business processes, a wide range of mobile devices and operating systems, includes a comprehensive SDK for developing mobile applications and mobile device management. It should be able to support mobile micro-applications and thick client mobile architectures.
Many companies will be followers and simply want a "me too" mobile application that mobilizes common business processes, but others seek competitive advantages through mobile technologies. These will seek to utilize mobile technologies in unique ways where shrink wrap applications do not exist. These aggressive inventors and early adaptors want to control their own destinies and be able to develop mobilized business processes only they have conceived. These inventors don't want to be reinventing the wheel. They want to spend their time developing visionary applications with massive ROIs. They want a powerful MEAP to take care of all the mobile middleware infrastructure, integration, synchronization, security, and development infrastructure, but they want an SDK included that enables them to design, develop, test, deploy, and support a wide range of customized mobile applications and business processes.
Mobile "me-too" applications help you maintain the status quo. Putting the power of a comprehensive MEAP in the hands of your brightest minds can be game changers.
One of the key reasons SAP is following a partnership strategy for mobile applications, I believe, is that they realize they cannot develop all of the mobile applications that are being requested fast enough. A partnership strategy enables dozens of SAP partners to fulfill the demand and enables the SAP ecosystem to compete with each other to make the most powerful and innovative mobile solutions possible. However, just as SAP realizes they cannot solve all the mobility needs of the market themselves, neither can the mobility vendors.
Mobility vendors must target the largest and most common business processes for mobilizing, as this is where the quickest and easiest sales revenue is located. As a result, niche mobility applications that may provide a particular company with an enormous competitive advantage will be necessarily ignored. The only way a company will realize the value of that competitive advantage is to implement it themselves. That introduces another discussion which we will continue in Part 2.
***************************************************
Kevin Benedict
SAP Mentor, Mobile Industry Analyst, Founder/CEO Netcentric Strategies LLC
Author of the report Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant and Web 2.0 Marketing Services
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles. ***************************************************
In Remembrance of the PDA
How long has it been since you stopped using the term PDA? It occurred to me the other day that the PDA has played an important part in my career and I should not let it pass away without a ceremony of some sort.
The PDA has been replaced by iEverything and smartphones. However, it was an important gadget that paved the way for the mobile technology advances of today. It opened our minds to the possibilities of keeping on task, even with poor memories. It helped generations of soccer moms remember where each child was dropped off and when they needed to be recovered. It allowed us men to seem organized despite ourselves.
PDAs started the concepts of software applications, music and photos in our pockets. PDAs kicked-off companies like Palm and motivated people like me to begin blogging.
The PDA has been replaced by iEverything and smartphones. However, it was an important gadget that paved the way for the mobile technology advances of today. It opened our minds to the possibilities of keeping on task, even with poor memories. It helped generations of soccer moms remember where each child was dropped off and when they needed to be recovered. It allowed us men to seem organized despite ourselves.
PDAs started the concepts of software applications, music and photos in our pockets. PDAs kicked-off companies like Palm and motivated people like me to begin blogging.
Let us be silent for 30 seconds in rememberance of the PDA. We can quietly bow our heads and reach down into our pockets and try to remember the last place we used our stylus before it disappeared.
***********************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobility Consultant, Wireless Industry Analyst and Marketing Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: @krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***********************************************
***********************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobility Consultant, Wireless Industry Analyst and Marketing Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: @krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***********************************************
Mobile Applications for Fighting Crime, Reporting Potholes and Birdwatching
Several years ago I consulted with a company in The Netherlands on a city government project to enable all city workers to instantly become the eyes and ears of the police during emergencies. It worked like this - an alert would be sent to all city workers that had government issued phones and were located in a certain geographic area. This alert would ask them to look for a specific car, person or suspicious activity.
This project was clever, efficient but also a little creepy. If the police are chasing a bad guy through the city, then asking for all city workers within a certain area to keep their eyes and ears open is efficient, since it is in all of our best interests to stop bad guys, but in the wrong hands creepy. From a resource utilization, a great idea. This project was an early example of location based services (LBS). If your phone is in this particular zone, keep your eyes open for this bad guy.
This summer Microsoft acquired EveryBlock, a company that feeds local crime and health inspection information to news organizations. With GPS enabled phones, crimes can be reported that are instantly shown on maps and available for the public to see. Instead of just using city employees you are turning the entire populace, at least those with smartphones, into your eyes and ears.
Mobile technologies with integrated GPS are helping the public to be even more involved in the management and priorities of local government as this NPR article describes. The Citizens Connect iPhone app is part of the Boston Mayor's strategy for working closer with citizen's to help manage the city. The program is called Citizens Connect. The Citizens Connect iPhone app is targeted at enlisting Boston residents and visitors to gather information about the physical state of the city (See photo above about pothole reporting).
I am very impressed with these applications and their utility. I consulted on another project where a non-profit organization was taking inventory, using smartphones, of trash and abandoned vehicles in particular neighborhoods. This information was then synchronized into a database and clean-up efforts were organized based upon this information.
Another interesting application that I read about yesterday is called Birdseye. This is an iPhone application for birdwatchers, but it is not just a static reference application. It uses the integrated GPS features of the iPhone to identify the location of bird sightings. This information gets uploaded to Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology and its massive eBird database of bird sightings. This information is then distributed to all subscribed members of the eBird email distribution list. Beware of reporting a rare bird in your backyard. In minutes you may have hundreds of strange people in safari attire and binoculars elbowing their way onto your property.
From a mobile technology standpoint, many of these iPhone applications are similar. They involve mobile data collection with integrated GPS coordinates that are uploaded to a publicly available Internet based application that distributes this information to subscribed members and the collected data is shown on a map.
Have you seen other clever applications? Please share them by adding them to the comments below.
***********************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobility Consultant, Wireless Industry Analyst and Marketing Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***********************************************
This project was clever, efficient but also a little creepy. If the police are chasing a bad guy through the city, then asking for all city workers within a certain area to keep their eyes and ears open is efficient, since it is in all of our best interests to stop bad guys, but in the wrong hands creepy. From a resource utilization, a great idea. This project was an early example of location based services (LBS). If your phone is in this particular zone, keep your eyes open for this bad guy.
This summer Microsoft acquired EveryBlock, a company that feeds local crime and health inspection information to news organizations. With GPS enabled phones, crimes can be reported that are instantly shown on maps and available for the public to see. Instead of just using city employees you are turning the entire populace, at least those with smartphones, into your eyes and ears.
Mobile technologies with integrated GPS are helping the public to be even more involved in the management and priorities of local government as this NPR article describes. The Citizens Connect iPhone app is part of the Boston Mayor's strategy for working closer with citizen's to help manage the city. The program is called Citizens Connect. The Citizens Connect iPhone app is targeted at enlisting Boston residents and visitors to gather information about the physical state of the city (See photo above about pothole reporting).
I am very impressed with these applications and their utility. I consulted on another project where a non-profit organization was taking inventory, using smartphones, of trash and abandoned vehicles in particular neighborhoods. This information was then synchronized into a database and clean-up efforts were organized based upon this information.
Another interesting application that I read about yesterday is called Birdseye. This is an iPhone application for birdwatchers, but it is not just a static reference application. It uses the integrated GPS features of the iPhone to identify the location of bird sightings. This information gets uploaded to Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology and its massive eBird database of bird sightings. This information is then distributed to all subscribed members of the eBird email distribution list. Beware of reporting a rare bird in your backyard. In minutes you may have hundreds of strange people in safari attire and binoculars elbowing their way onto your property.
From a mobile technology standpoint, many of these iPhone applications are similar. They involve mobile data collection with integrated GPS coordinates that are uploaded to a publicly available Internet based application that distributes this information to subscribed members and the collected data is shown on a map.
Have you seen other clever applications? Please share them by adding them to the comments below.
***********************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobility Consultant, Wireless Industry Analyst and Marketing Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***********************************************
Smartphone Market Trends and Analysis
Lenovo, a PC maker for the Chinese market, is buying back their mobile handset unit, for twice the price that they sold it for in 2008. Why? Lenovo said the acquisition "signals that Lenovo is gearing up its efforts in the burgeoning mobile Internet market." Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing said they view the mobile Internet as a key growth area..."
Wall Street Journal reported in Monday's Edition (November 30, 2009) that Dell, Acer, Asustek Computer and HP have all launched handsets to diversify their product offerings.
What is my analysis? Lenovo sold their handset unit in 2008. Less than 2 years later they buy it back as they believe it represents a key growth area, and they buy it back just as the other large PC makers are launching their own new mobile handsets (smartphones) products to attack the growing mobile Internet market. This signals that PC manufacturers see smartphones as both a competitor to PCs and the future of mobile computing.
I believe that Internet enabled smartphones will be competing more and more with PC sales. As Google, Microsoft, Salesforce.com and other companies make more applications available on the Internet in hosted and SaaS (software as a service) models, there is less need to have a desktop PC loaded with large applications waiting for you back at the office. The notion that all things should be mobile has passed the tipping point.
This is also a wake up call for software companies. Smartphone access to back-office applications goes from being a novelty to a requirement. This means software vendors must quickly enable hosted and SaaS versions of their applications to be accessible via the Internet. It means there MUST be mobile application support for smartphones.
As I noted in an article yesterday, even mobile projectors can now be part of your smartphone. As these improve, they even may remove another reason to carry a laptop. Mobile broadband, high powered smartphones, social networking and SaaS models for software all work together to make the smartphone the preferred computing device of the present and the future.
What this trend should tell mobile software application developers is prepare yourself. There is going to be a huge and rapid transition from early adopters of mobile applications, to mainstream users. Everyone is going to want their ERPs and business applications available on smartphones and someone needs to be developing them.
MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) that can mobilize many different back-office applications will benefit if they can develop a successful business model that is appealing to software developers and their customers.
I look forward to your comments. If you would like to discuss any of these trends and my analysis please email.
***********************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobile Strategist, Sales, Marketing and Business Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***********************************************
Wall Street Journal reported in Monday's Edition (November 30, 2009) that Dell, Acer, Asustek Computer and HP have all launched handsets to diversify their product offerings.
What is my analysis? Lenovo sold their handset unit in 2008. Less than 2 years later they buy it back as they believe it represents a key growth area, and they buy it back just as the other large PC makers are launching their own new mobile handsets (smartphones) products to attack the growing mobile Internet market. This signals that PC manufacturers see smartphones as both a competitor to PCs and the future of mobile computing.
I believe that Internet enabled smartphones will be competing more and more with PC sales. As Google, Microsoft, Salesforce.com and other companies make more applications available on the Internet in hosted and SaaS (software as a service) models, there is less need to have a desktop PC loaded with large applications waiting for you back at the office. The notion that all things should be mobile has passed the tipping point.
This is also a wake up call for software companies. Smartphone access to back-office applications goes from being a novelty to a requirement. This means software vendors must quickly enable hosted and SaaS versions of their applications to be accessible via the Internet. It means there MUST be mobile application support for smartphones.
As I noted in an article yesterday, even mobile projectors can now be part of your smartphone. As these improve, they even may remove another reason to carry a laptop. Mobile broadband, high powered smartphones, social networking and SaaS models for software all work together to make the smartphone the preferred computing device of the present and the future.
What this trend should tell mobile software application developers is prepare yourself. There is going to be a huge and rapid transition from early adopters of mobile applications, to mainstream users. Everyone is going to want their ERPs and business applications available on smartphones and someone needs to be developing them.
MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) that can mobilize many different back-office applications will benefit if they can develop a successful business model that is appealing to software developers and their customers.
I look forward to your comments. If you would like to discuss any of these trends and my analysis please email.
***********************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobile Strategist, Sales, Marketing and Business Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
***********************************************
My Dream Come True - A Mobile Projector for the Smartphone
I don't think I am the only person that has craved a smartphone with a mobile projector in it. Obviously LG and AT&T believe there is a market. I have carried a laptop bag and a separate mobile projector bag many times. I have often dreamed of having a smartphone that could project my power point presentation so I could leave the heavy laptop and projector bags at home.
Several months ago, Omin Consulting Group reported that smartphones have now advanced to the point where business travellers can rely on them for roughly 80% of what they need for work. With a mobile projector, about 98% of a road warriors work can be done with their smartphone.
Read below:
AT&T AND LG MOBILE PHONES ANNOUNCE THE FIRST 1GHZ SMARTPHONE IN THE UNITED STATES, THE LG EXPO
7.2 HSPA-capable Smartphone from AT&T and LG Mobile Phones Packs a Powerful Punch, Features Optional Mobile Projector
DALLAS, November 30, 2009 -
AT&T* and LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc., today announced the LG eXpo will be available online beginning December 7. Featuring the first 1 GHz processor in the United States, the LG eXpo allows business professionals to meet their demanding data sharing needs while on the go. Available exclusively for AT&T customers, the handset will be compatible with AT&T's High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 Mbps technology, which provides a considerable speed boost to the nation's fastest 3G network. The LG eXpo is the first device in North America to support an optional integrated pico projector. The LG Mobile Projector snaps onto the back of the device and allows users to share presentations, slideshows and even online videos straight from their mobile phone. Weighing only 1.8 ounces and small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, the LG mobile projector provides users with powerful new technology in a compact design, featuring a projection distance as far as eight feet "LG eXpo adds to our growing portfolio of smartphones that operate on the latest upgrade to our 3G network and offer customers a great choice," said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "As we move to HSPA 7.2 technology, it is crucial to provide our customers innovative and future-proof smartphones." With the upgrade to HSPA 7.2 technology, AT&T continues its investments to deliver the nation's fastest 3G network.
***********************************************
Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobile Strategist, Sales, Marketing and Business Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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Several months ago, Omin Consulting Group reported that smartphones have now advanced to the point where business travellers can rely on them for roughly 80% of what they need for work. With a mobile projector, about 98% of a road warriors work can be done with their smartphone.
Read below:
AT&T AND LG MOBILE PHONES ANNOUNCE THE FIRST 1GHZ SMARTPHONE IN THE UNITED STATES, THE LG EXPO
7.2 HSPA-capable Smartphone from AT&T and LG Mobile Phones Packs a Powerful Punch, Features Optional Mobile Projector
DALLAS, November 30, 2009 -
AT&T* and LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc., today announced the LG eXpo will be available online beginning December 7. Featuring the first 1 GHz processor in the United States, the LG eXpo allows business professionals to meet their demanding data sharing needs while on the go. Available exclusively for AT&T customers, the handset will be compatible with AT&T's High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 Mbps technology, which provides a considerable speed boost to the nation's fastest 3G network. The LG eXpo is the first device in North America to support an optional integrated pico projector. The LG Mobile Projector snaps onto the back of the device and allows users to share presentations, slideshows and even online videos straight from their mobile phone. Weighing only 1.8 ounces and small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, the LG mobile projector provides users with powerful new technology in a compact design, featuring a projection distance as far as eight feet "LG eXpo adds to our growing portfolio of smartphones that operate on the latest upgrade to our 3G network and offer customers a great choice," said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "As we move to HSPA 7.2 technology, it is crucial to provide our customers innovative and future-proof smartphones." With the upgrade to HSPA 7.2 technology, AT&T continues its investments to deliver the nation's fastest 3G network.
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Author Kevin Benedict
Independent Mobile Strategist, Sales, Marketing and Business Consultant
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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Questions about the SAP and Sybase Partnership for Mobile Software Applications
SAP and Sybase this week announced a non-exclusive partnership to deliver mobile software applications for SAP on a wide variety of mobile handhelds, iPhones, Windows Mobile devices and Smartphones.
Bill McDermott, president of global field operations for SAP explained that the collaboration “will lay the foundation to further mobilize SAP’s great content and functionality -- and move that content and functionality into the hands of the mobile workforce."
What do they mean, "laying the foundation." Nobody can use a foundation on an iPhone, someone must build the application. I wonder how this will work?
"The mobile enterprise worker is now the most important worker, because that’s the worker that’s touching the customer, the partner, and the supplier,” McDermott said. “This worker relies on smart devices and uses the power of calendar and email -- in addition to, now, the enterprise application functionality of SAP...there will be 300 million smart devices in the hands of mobile workers by 2013 – that’s nearly 100 percent growth from where we are today – and there will be 1 billion mobile users in the nest few years.” He added that “seventy percent of companies are planning to mobilize [business] applications [and get thim] into the hands of their knowledge workers.”
I do believe this could be a smart move for Sybase, as SAP has millions of enterprise users, but I wonder why it is a non-exclusive relationship. Does SAP really think multiple companies can afford a broad based mobile SAP development effort in this economy? I wonder if this relationship is really only about the mobile synchronization and mobile database technology that Sybase has. I wonder if Sybase will simply integrate their syncing and database technology with SAP Netweaver and leave other software developers to build the actual mobile applications. Is this what they mean by "foundation?" This seems the most likely scenario to me.
At the same time, “we are in a new reality in this economy, and companies are looking to extend the value of their existing core IT investments,” McDermott said. As such, many companies are looking for highly integrated “out of the box” solutions that will save them on integration costs and ongoing maintenance of complex systems.
Who is paying who for the "out-of-the-box" solutions? Is Sybase investing in the development of mobile SAP applications, or is SAP paying the bill? The task they have announced is enormous. Of course the details are vague, so maybe it is just hype. I have worked on many mobile applications and the suite of products that SAP has is large. This would be a monumental task, and then how do you create user interfaces for so many mobile devices with different configurations.
Bill McDermott, president of global field operations for SAP explained that the collaboration “will lay the foundation to further mobilize SAP’s great content and functionality -- and move that content and functionality into the hands of the mobile workforce."
What do they mean, "laying the foundation." Nobody can use a foundation on an iPhone, someone must build the application. I wonder how this will work?
"The mobile enterprise worker is now the most important worker, because that’s the worker that’s touching the customer, the partner, and the supplier,” McDermott said. “This worker relies on smart devices and uses the power of calendar and email -- in addition to, now, the enterprise application functionality of SAP...there will be 300 million smart devices in the hands of mobile workers by 2013 – that’s nearly 100 percent growth from where we are today – and there will be 1 billion mobile users in the nest few years.” He added that “seventy percent of companies are planning to mobilize [business] applications [and get thim] into the hands of their knowledge workers.”
I do believe this could be a smart move for Sybase, as SAP has millions of enterprise users, but I wonder why it is a non-exclusive relationship. Does SAP really think multiple companies can afford a broad based mobile SAP development effort in this economy? I wonder if this relationship is really only about the mobile synchronization and mobile database technology that Sybase has. I wonder if Sybase will simply integrate their syncing and database technology with SAP Netweaver and leave other software developers to build the actual mobile applications. Is this what they mean by "foundation?" This seems the most likely scenario to me.
At the same time, “we are in a new reality in this economy, and companies are looking to extend the value of their existing core IT investments,” McDermott said. As such, many companies are looking for highly integrated “out of the box” solutions that will save them on integration costs and ongoing maintenance of complex systems.
Who is paying who for the "out-of-the-box" solutions? Is Sybase investing in the development of mobile SAP applications, or is SAP paying the bill? The task they have announced is enormous. Of course the details are vague, so maybe it is just hype. I have worked on many mobile applications and the suite of products that SAP has is large. This would be a monumental task, and then how do you create user interfaces for so many mobile devices with different configurations.
I am very interested in understanding how they will deliver the actual mobile software applications. Supporting all of the mobile devices with device specific features is too hard for Sybase or SAP to do on their own. Even Google said there are too many mobile devices and Smartphones with different configurations and features to support them all. There is a limit to what can be done by any 2 companies. I would guess that Sybase would begin selling a "mobile software tool kit" so that other systems integrators and partners could help build out SAP applications with device specific features that run on the Sybase mobile database and synchronization platform.
Here is another interesting observation. I did not see Sybase's mobile division, iAnywhere mentioned in any of the associated press releases or articles I read on this announcement. They did not role out their iAnywhere Management or the iAnywhere products. Hummm...what does this mean...?
Follow this link for the latest update on the SAP and Sybase partnership.
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http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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Microsoft's View of the Mobile World
The following 4 comments this week from Microsoft on where they see the mobile market going were very interesting and revealing:
Opinions and Comments:
It is interesting that Microsoft sees Google porting Android over to PCs soon. This will really stir things up. I am a big fan of Google applications already and can see how this could evolve quickly and change the market. Microsoft has a major challenge.
I also see a problem with the comments and positions of Microsoft - they seem to have given up on winning the consumer market, but believe they will continue to sell well to consumers in this tough market. If they are conceding defeat in the consumer market, I wouldn't be betting on increased sales for long. There better be a new strategy soon.
Microsoft says they do not plan to launch a Smartphone. Hummm...Apple and RIM both launched Smartphones and operating systems and they are winning. What part of this is Microsoft missing?
I find myself doing more and more work on my iPhone and Google applications. I can see how even in tough economic times the "personal computing devices" will become increasingly popular.
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http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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- Microsoft sees Linux being more competitive on the PC desktop going forward because the company believes that Google will port its Android mobile OS to the PC.
- Microsoft is strongly positioned in the business world and should remain a RIM contender (however, it seems to be giving up on the consumer market where iPhone and Symbian users are growing at a much faster rate than Windows Mobile users)
- Ballmer says that the smart phone market will continue to grow despite the economy and that the low price of some Windows Mobile phone offers will help.
- Microsoft does not plan to launch their own phone
Opinions and Comments:
It is interesting that Microsoft sees Google porting Android over to PCs soon. This will really stir things up. I am a big fan of Google applications already and can see how this could evolve quickly and change the market. Microsoft has a major challenge.
I also see a problem with the comments and positions of Microsoft - they seem to have given up on winning the consumer market, but believe they will continue to sell well to consumers in this tough market. If they are conceding defeat in the consumer market, I wouldn't be betting on increased sales for long. There better be a new strategy soon.
Microsoft says they do not plan to launch a Smartphone. Hummm...Apple and RIM both launched Smartphones and operating systems and they are winning. What part of this is Microsoft missing?
I find myself doing more and more work on my iPhone and Google applications. I can see how even in tough economic times the "personal computing devices" will become increasingly popular.
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http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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Questions to Ponder before Starting a Mobile Software Development Project for Handheld PDAs, iPhones and Smartphones
This article identifies some basic questions that should be asked and pondered by the business user and software development teams before starting on a mobile software development project:
- Do you anticipate needing one mobile software application, or many? Can you start with a mobile software development platform that supports all of your mobile application needs, or will each mobile application be a separate IT project and use different development technologies and infrastructures (e.g. Windows Mobile, Google Android, RIM Blackberry, Symbian, iPhone, etc.)?
- Do you know your exact solution and data requirements in advance? Do you anticipate needing to edit and adjust your mobile application as you learn from your field users and their experiences? Can it be hard coded, or does it need to be flexible and easily edited? The answers to these questions will impact both design and schedules.
- Do you have an in-house software development capability, budget and helpdesk infrastructure to enable you to develop and support your own mobile application(s)?
- Are you going to outsourcing the development of your mobile software application's design, development and deployment to an experienced mobility company, or build it internally?
- Will you be synchronizing your field data with one back-office database, or multiple database applications? How will you do this? Are you using a middleware solution in this process?
- Do you know how to integrate field data to your database applications? Do you have your own DBA that can do this? Are they involved in the data synchronization discussions. How can you ensure valid data is synchronized from the field?
- How secure does the mobile data synchronization need to be? The more security that is added and layered the slower the data synchronization. Does only a small part need to be secure or all of the data?
- Will the user always need and have internet connectivity, or will the application run equally well disconnected? Does you design take this issue into consideration?
- Mobile solutions are often used on laptops, Tablet PCs, Smartphones, PDAs, and rugged handhelds. Do you know your hardware requirements and user environmental requirements? Is the user environment hot, cold, dry, wet, dusty, flammable or frozen?
- Will you be supporting just one mobile device, or many different kinds and sizes? Is the screen size an issue? What size is the screen on your chosen devices? Is it sufficient for the work done in the field. Does the mobile worker need to read manuals, maps, images, blueprints and drawings, or just click on a few buttons?
- What mobile device operating system(s) will you be supporting?
- How will the mobile handhelds or mobile devices be carried and stored. Is the user wearing a suit, or wearing overalls in the rain. Does the environment require a rugged case, or a suit pocket? The answers to these questions impact your choice of mobile devices, operating systems and screen sizes.
- If your internal IT staff are developing your mobile solution, do they know how to do the following: integrate with and support GPS, Barcode scanners, RFID radios, Digital Signatures, digital cameras and synchronize data bi-directionally across multiple databases?
- What mobile database will you use? Does it have its own synchronization technology? If not, what mobile middleware are you going to use? Does the mobile database vendor support the operating systems you have chosen?
- Do you have an IT development team that is experienced in designing, developing and deploying mobile applications, or is this their very first mobility project. Can you afford the steep learning curve, time and money developing a mobile application in-house with no experience?
- Have you considered the implementation, training and support effort required to manage large mobile software deployments? Do you have project management and helpdesk software in place to manage it?
- Have you made sure that your mobile software application's database and screen design will include the data fields required by the office database application you will sync with?
- Does the mobile software application need to support a specific business process in SAP or other ERP? Have you designed the mobile software application to do so?
- One of the most challenging and complex parts of mobile application development is to create the right data model for your mobile application before you start development. Often an appropriate data model for a simple mobile application, is not the appropriate data model once you start adding features and additional modules in future versions. Is your database model designed to easily support additional components?
These are a few of the questions you will want to discuss with both the business and the technical team before you begin this effort. For more questions and possibly some answers you may want to visit this Google Knol called Mobile Software & Handheld PDA Business Strategies.
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http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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The Power of Digital Cameras on PDAs, Handhelds and Smartphones
In this morning's newspaper there was an article called, "With New Smartphones, Doctors Reinvent the House call." The article relates how a Doctor can use a smartphone, PDA or other handheld computers to quickly view x-rays and give advice remotely. Other applications mentioned were for perusing pharmaceutical libraries and for showing educating patients with anatomical drawings. Although each of these applications are useful, I believe the real power comes from the ability to remotely collaborate with other team members that can all look at the sames information, in high definition and exchange real time data and thoughts. It is amazing what can be accomplished with these new mobile devices.
Digital Cameras in handhelds, PDAs and smartphones are becoming very powerful tools. Today, Sony Ericcsson announced they have included a 12 mega pixel camera in one of their new smartphones called the Idou. In the context of the healthcare field you can image how useful 12 mega pixel photos can be to healthcare professionals where clarity of x-rays, ultra-sounds and other images are critical.
There are many other uses for powerful cameras, crystal clear images and high speed data connections. In the context of the military or field engineers, they ability to see clear satellite images of objects on the ground is very important.
Several years ago I worked on a mobile project for the state of Washington in the USA. They were doing erosion surveys around rivers and creeks. They could do in-depth studies on river erosion from satellite images, but in designated areas they wanted to look at particular events on the ground. Rugged handheld computers with excellent screens and clear photos allowed them to quickly identify objects and geological events on the ground that required a closer look. The GPS coordinates led them to the exact location and then clear photos helped them survey specific areas.
The ability to move data, in real time, from office computers and database applications to mobile devices is a complex task. The ability to quickly develop custom mobile applications that provide you with both data collection capabilities and the synchronization of data from the office takes special technology developed by companies such as MobileDataforce and others.
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http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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Digital Cameras in handhelds, PDAs and smartphones are becoming very powerful tools. Today, Sony Ericcsson announced they have included a 12 mega pixel camera in one of their new smartphones called the Idou. In the context of the healthcare field you can image how useful 12 mega pixel photos can be to healthcare professionals where clarity of x-rays, ultra-sounds and other images are critical.
There are many other uses for powerful cameras, crystal clear images and high speed data connections. In the context of the military or field engineers, they ability to see clear satellite images of objects on the ground is very important.
Several years ago I worked on a mobile project for the state of Washington in the USA. They were doing erosion surveys around rivers and creeks. They could do in-depth studies on river erosion from satellite images, but in designated areas they wanted to look at particular events on the ground. Rugged handheld computers with excellent screens and clear photos allowed them to quickly identify objects and geological events on the ground that required a closer look. The GPS coordinates led them to the exact location and then clear photos helped them survey specific areas.
The ability to move data, in real time, from office computers and database applications to mobile devices is a complex task. The ability to quickly develop custom mobile applications that provide you with both data collection capabilities and the synchronization of data from the office takes special technology developed by companies such as MobileDataforce and others.
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http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/
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Introducing the Psion Teklogix Ikon - Rugged Handheld PDA Smartphone
Here is an interesting experience. I am using blogging software that is provided by Google, and it detected that I was blogging from a location in the Netherlands today and it switched all the instructions to Dutch. Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained.
I was in Paris last week for the unveiling of Psion Teklogix's new rugged handheld PDA phone/scanner/gps data collector called the Ikon (sorry Psion I don't know how to make your special font characters). It is one of the few rugged phones with built in industrial strength scanners and batteries for real world working environments like the ones MobileDataforce works in on a daily basis.
Here is the text from Psion Teklogix's press release:
25 October 2007
Paris, France Signifying the dawn of a new era in the PDA marketplace, Psion Teklogix (LSE: PON), a global provider of solutions for mobile computing, wireless data collection, imaging and RFID, announced its return to the market it pioneered over 20 years ago, launching today its newest product, the rugged PDA – iKôn. A sleek, compact and powerful design with robust built-in functionality, iKôn is an ideal mobile computing device, delivering increased productivity and efficiency by enabling advanced mobile applications across the enterprise. "We’re extremely proud to be launching iKôn today, a day when we’re also celebrating our 40th year of existence in a very exciting marketplace," said Psion Teklogix CEO Jacky Lecuivre. "iKôn is the most advanced handheld computer our company has ever brought to market. It is a very synergistic addition to our portfolio as it enables us to truly address the needs of mobile workers, helping them do their jobs with the best possible mobile computing support." He added, "With the launch of this new rugged PDA, the company continues to evolve in the best Psion tradition. We are universally acknowledged with having created the PDA, with the introduction of the original Psion Organiser in 1984, and today we’re proving how our past is indeed the way to our future." Customers and partners worldwide were solicited for input and feedback on the types of capabilities they expect in a rugged PDA. "We listened to our customers, to the point where they became an integral part of the design and features definition process. Consequently, initial market reaction to our prototypes has been immensely positive and we are extremely optimistic about the prospects for iKôn," said Lecuivre. iKôn packs incredible functionality into a compact form factor with class-leading ergonomics, aesthetics, and ease of use. Whether reading barcodes with the integrated imager or scanner, or using the camera to take a colour picture, iKôn is a category-leading data capture device ideal for mobile workers in dynamic applications. With a choice of three operating systems, including Microsoft Windows CE 5.0, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Classic and Professional, iKôn offers customers an industry standard, yet leading edge platform for their applications. The capability of iKôn to fully integrate voice and data communication options onto a single device eliminates the need for multiple devices - effectively reducing capital expenditures as well as support costs. iKôn delivers true anytime, anywhere, wireless voice and data communications, GPS positioning, with simultaneous WiFi, Cellular (GSM/GPRS/UMTS) and Bluetooth connectivity options. These features enable real-time information management, improved efficiencies and increased asset visibility across a customer’s operations. With a full VGA display, iKôn is more suitable for complex applications with sophisticated graphics than many competing devices with one-quarter VGA displays. Finally, the highest battery capacity of the market ensures full-day productivity for mobile workers. International consulting firm Capgemini is already seeing the benefits of iKôn as the company is planning to work with its client, Hydro One Networks, in Ontario, Canada, to pilot the new device on a large Smart Meter project. Hydro One Networks owns and operates one of the ten largest electricity transmission and distribution systems in North America. iKôn will be used by Hydro One installers, alongside other Psion Teklogix rugged PDAs already being used, to support the smart meter installations – part of the provincial government initiative to have electricity distribution companies install smart meters in all homes and small business by 2010. "We’re excited to be among the early adaptors of this great new device. With its rugged design and multi-mode capabilities, iKôn will help in our efforts to create a culture of energy conservation across the province of Ontario," said Gord Reynolds, the Capgemini Program Manager of Field Services for the Smart Meter Project at Hydro One. Capgemini, one of the world's foremost providers of Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing services, enables its clients to transform and perform through technologies. iKôn will be available to customers through Psion Teklogix' global sales offices and value-added resellers in December 2007.
I was in Paris last week for the unveiling of Psion Teklogix's new rugged handheld PDA phone/scanner/gps data collector called the Ikon (sorry Psion I don't know how to make your special font characters). It is one of the few rugged phones with built in industrial strength scanners and batteries for real world working environments like the ones MobileDataforce works in on a daily basis.
Here is the text from Psion Teklogix's press release:
25 October 2007
Paris, France Signifying the dawn of a new era in the PDA marketplace, Psion Teklogix (LSE: PON), a global provider of solutions for mobile computing, wireless data collection, imaging and RFID, announced its return to the market it pioneered over 20 years ago, launching today its newest product, the rugged PDA – iKôn. A sleek, compact and powerful design with robust built-in functionality, iKôn is an ideal mobile computing device, delivering increased productivity and efficiency by enabling advanced mobile applications across the enterprise. "We’re extremely proud to be launching iKôn today, a day when we’re also celebrating our 40th year of existence in a very exciting marketplace," said Psion Teklogix CEO Jacky Lecuivre. "iKôn is the most advanced handheld computer our company has ever brought to market. It is a very synergistic addition to our portfolio as it enables us to truly address the needs of mobile workers, helping them do their jobs with the best possible mobile computing support." He added, "With the launch of this new rugged PDA, the company continues to evolve in the best Psion tradition. We are universally acknowledged with having created the PDA, with the introduction of the original Psion Organiser in 1984, and today we’re proving how our past is indeed the way to our future." Customers and partners worldwide were solicited for input and feedback on the types of capabilities they expect in a rugged PDA. "We listened to our customers, to the point where they became an integral part of the design and features definition process. Consequently, initial market reaction to our prototypes has been immensely positive and we are extremely optimistic about the prospects for iKôn," said Lecuivre. iKôn packs incredible functionality into a compact form factor with class-leading ergonomics, aesthetics, and ease of use. Whether reading barcodes with the integrated imager or scanner, or using the camera to take a colour picture, iKôn is a category-leading data capture device ideal for mobile workers in dynamic applications. With a choice of three operating systems, including Microsoft Windows CE 5.0, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Classic and Professional, iKôn offers customers an industry standard, yet leading edge platform for their applications. The capability of iKôn to fully integrate voice and data communication options onto a single device eliminates the need for multiple devices - effectively reducing capital expenditures as well as support costs. iKôn delivers true anytime, anywhere, wireless voice and data communications, GPS positioning, with simultaneous WiFi, Cellular (GSM/GPRS/UMTS) and Bluetooth connectivity options. These features enable real-time information management, improved efficiencies and increased asset visibility across a customer’s operations. With a full VGA display, iKôn is more suitable for complex applications with sophisticated graphics than many competing devices with one-quarter VGA displays. Finally, the highest battery capacity of the market ensures full-day productivity for mobile workers. International consulting firm Capgemini is already seeing the benefits of iKôn as the company is planning to work with its client, Hydro One Networks, in Ontario, Canada, to pilot the new device on a large Smart Meter project. Hydro One Networks owns and operates one of the ten largest electricity transmission and distribution systems in North America. iKôn will be used by Hydro One installers, alongside other Psion Teklogix rugged PDAs already being used, to support the smart meter installations – part of the provincial government initiative to have electricity distribution companies install smart meters in all homes and small business by 2010. "We’re excited to be among the early adaptors of this great new device. With its rugged design and multi-mode capabilities, iKôn will help in our efforts to create a culture of energy conservation across the province of Ontario," said Gord Reynolds, the Capgemini Program Manager of Field Services for the Smart Meter Project at Hydro One. Capgemini, one of the world's foremost providers of Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing services, enables its clients to transform and perform through technologies. iKôn will be available to customers through Psion Teklogix' global sales offices and value-added resellers in December 2007.
Microsoft's Mobile Software Industry Growth Projections
Microsoft and Palm talk about the latest trends in the mobile software, smartphone and handheld PDA industry in this webinar.
30-day free Trial of an Unlocked Palm Treo 750 Smartphone
If you are a field services company (anyone working out of the office and receiving service requests, job tickets or work orders) you may find this offer interesting. The details are on both Palm's and Microsoft's websites.
http://www.palm.com/us/business/solutions/mdf.html
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/enterprise/default.mspx
In summary - qualified field services companies can receive a free 30 day trial of a Palm Treo 750, the PointSync Mobility Platform, 4 sample mobile software applications and up to 4 hours of free mobile solution consulting by registering.
http://www.palm.com/us/business/solutions/mdf.html
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/enterprise/default.mspx
In summary - qualified field services companies can receive a free 30 day trial of a Palm Treo 750, the PointSync Mobility Platform, 4 sample mobile software applications and up to 4 hours of free mobile solution consulting by registering.
Enterprise Mobile Software Solutions for Handheld PDAs and Smartphone Report
Aberdeen Group reports that 80% of survey respondents are planning for increases in handheld PDAs and smartphones with wireless access and more complex devices with data applications and network connectivity. These new devices require management of the full life cycle from sourcing, procurement, connectivity assistance, applications support, security, data back-up, device replacement, through retirement.
In an earlier blog article I wrote in detail about the support requirements of enterprise mobile software solutions. Companies simply need to understand that mobile handheld PDAs and smartphones and wireless networks often come with a new and fresh set of support considerations.
iAnywhere / Sybase has invested heavily into developing enterprise solutions for managing mobile devices called Afaria.
In an earlier blog article I wrote in detail about the support requirements of enterprise mobile software solutions. Companies simply need to understand that mobile handheld PDAs and smartphones and wireless networks often come with a new and fresh set of support considerations.
iAnywhere / Sybase has invested heavily into developing enterprise solutions for managing mobile devices called Afaria.
Mobile Software and Handheld PDA Technology Innovations for 2007
The two following innovations for mobile handheld PDAs and Smartphones are the most innovative I have read about in a long time.
MobileDataforce has many customers that find it necessary to buy two different mobile handhleds, one a ruggedized handheld computer, and another a ruggedized laptop to view maps. If a flexible screen could be plugged into the ruggedized handheld, so full sized maps and CAD drawings could be viewed, then this would remove much of the need for the additional and expensive ruggedized laptop.
Now on the subject of the flash memory boot-up. Have you ever wished your laptop would boot up instantly like your mobile phone? If so, there might be a solution for you. In the next few months new laptops are supposed to be available that boot-up from flash memory, so they don't have to wait for the hard drive to start spinning in order to boot up the laptop. This should enable laptop users to boot-up in seconds and save us mobile road warriors a lot of time.
- Flexible flat screens
- Flash memory in laptops to improve boot-up speed
MobileDataforce has many customers that find it necessary to buy two different mobile handhleds, one a ruggedized handheld computer, and another a ruggedized laptop to view maps. If a flexible screen could be plugged into the ruggedized handheld, so full sized maps and CAD drawings could be viewed, then this would remove much of the need for the additional and expensive ruggedized laptop.
Now on the subject of the flash memory boot-up. Have you ever wished your laptop would boot up instantly like your mobile phone? If so, there might be a solution for you. In the next few months new laptops are supposed to be available that boot-up from flash memory, so they don't have to wait for the hard drive to start spinning in order to boot up the laptop. This should enable laptop users to boot-up in seconds and save us mobile road warriors a lot of time.
MobileDataforce Announces a Reseller Agreement with Abox for Mobile Software
MobileDataforce announces today a reseller partnership with Abox. In this agreement Abox will resell MobileDataforce's mobile software, the PointSync Mobility Platform in Spain, Portugal, France and many areas of Africa. We are very excited about this relationship. This will help us provide our customers and sales prospects with localized sales and technical support across a significant geographical area for our mobile software solutions used on handheld PDAs and Smartphones.
MobileDataforce's market for handheld PDA and smartphone software has been growing rapidly around the world with offices in North America, Sydney, Australia and Den Bosch, The Netherlands.
Our channel partners are the key to our success. They provide localized business knowledge as well as vertical expertise.
MobileDataforce's market for handheld PDA and smartphone software has been growing rapidly around the world with offices in North America, Sydney, Australia and Den Bosch, The Netherlands.
Our channel partners are the key to our success. They provide localized business knowledge as well as vertical expertise.
Palm Treo & Otterbox for Ruggedized on the Cheap
The Palm Treo is one of the most popular smartphones now days. Palm's Windows Mobile 5.0 version enables enterprises that have standardized on Windows OS to extend that support out to their mobile workforce.Otterbox builds ruggedized cases for the Palm Treo. We have one in-house that we are very impressed with. I think the list price for one of these cases is around $139. Many of my sales teams are using the Palm Treo 700 W these days, and the case seals it up very nicely and will provide adequate protection from most casual accidents such as dropping it on the floor and using it in the rain and protecting it from blowing sand and dust.
Nearly all of MobileDataforce's customers use handheld computers, laptops or Tablet PCs for field data collection, GPS, RFID, barcode scanning, etc. In all cases protecting the hardware investment is a critical issue. Otterbox has created some very useful cases for protecting Smartphones and PDAs that are not ruggedized on their own.
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