M2M News Weekly - Week of July 4, 2011

Welcome to M2M News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to M2M (machine to machine) and embedded mobile devices.  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 the M2M market.

Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

SAP continues to participate in the smart meter market by recently announcing new software for utility companies that helps to monitor individual energy usage.  Read Original Content

Early in 2012 Best Buy will begin selling GE smart appliances, which can be controlled by a communication and data storage device that manages electricity usage.  Read Original Content

According to the network provider Cisco, by 2020 there will be 50 billion devices connected to the Internet.  CapGemini estimates that the world M2M market will be worth $39.3 billion by 2013. Read Original Content

Berg Insight forecasts that global revenues from shipments of home automation systems will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 33 percent from $2.3 billion in 2010 to nearly $9.5 billion in 2015.  Read Original Content

TeliaSonera has joined the M2M alliance created by France Telecom's Orange and Deutsche Telekom earlier this year.  This alliance hopes to streamline the M2M industry and create common features throughout the market.  Read Original Content

Discussions About Sybase's Embedded Mobile Database Business, Part 2

In Part 1 of this article I shared a conversation I had with Sybase's Tom Slee on mobile embedded databases and Sybase's SQL Anywhere.  One of the questions I asked him was where SQL Anywhere fits in the SUP (Sybase Unwired Platform) picture.  Tom said SQL Anywhere databases, syncing and integration technologies are all in SUP, but they are only a small subset of what SUP offers.

SQL Anywhere is often embedded in other ISV mobile solutions.  The end customer often does not even realize that Sybase technology is embedded in their mobile solution.   ISV partners will often develop all kinds of complex business rules, logic and code that accesses the SQL Anywhere database and utilizes the syncing technology, but it is buried in the application.  That is how my team used it.

SUP in turn is meant to be a complete end-to-end mobile middleware solution that connects back office databases to mobile applications.  Is is far more than just SQL Anywhere.  SUP includes all kinds of additional features to bring it all together in a manner that can be used by an IT organization, not just C++ programmers.

I also asked Tom how mobile application developers synchronize mobile applications that are developed in HTML5 and that use the SQL Lite database with back office systems.  He said simple mobile applications with limited syncing requirements could use web services, custom scripts or other custom developed syncing schemes.  He added that some mobile applications may store data, but have no need to sync with back office systems.  An examples could be a note taking application.  You may want to write notes and save them, but perhaps there is no need to sync the notes with an enterprise system.

When would a developer want to use HTML5, but use Sybase's SQL Anywhere database and syncing technologies rather than the free SQL Lite?  Tom said many enterprise class mobile applications need to synchronize data all day long in near real-time, with multiple databases, web services and ERPs.  Some of the data sources are dynamic and must be synchronized in near real time, others are static and need to be updated only weekly.  All of these different synchronization needs must happen seamlessly in the background and the mobile application must run smoothly whether online or offline.  This situation begs for a mature mobile middleware layer like SQL Anywhere.

To develop your own custom synchronization engine and middleware from scratch to efficiently and accurately manage complex synchronization scenarios is a huge and expensive task.  These are the kinds of situations that motivated me to become an ISV/OEM partner of Sybase and to use their SQL Anywhere technology years ago.  Those same kinds of motivations exist today.

The way I understand it is that software companies that want to develop mobile applications with embedded databases and syncing technology may prefer SQL Anywhere, but an IT organization looking to support all of their enterprise's mobility solutions and needs would look to SUP as their comprehensive mobile middleware solution.

Do you agree or disagree?  Is my understanding correct?  Please comment below if my understanding in incorrect.  THANKS!

Upcoming Events

ClickConnect APAC 2011, July 11 – 13, 2011
Syclo Mobile Conference 2011, July 13 – 15, 2011
Mobile Case Study: Healthrageous Accelerates Time to Market through Mobile Development Strategy, July 13, 2011
Critical Requirements for Mobile App Development:  Agility and Speed Strategy, Process, and Tools to Accelerate Mobile Development, July 21, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
The Future of Enterprise Mobility
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise:  The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Mobility Charts Weekly - Week of July 4, 2011

In the course of my daily research on subjects related to enterprise mobility I find charts that depict the current and future status of the market.  It occurred to me that these charts may also be useful to others, so I am going to collect these charts, include links to the original source, and then publish them in a new weekly blog article called Mobile Charts Weekly.  I hope you find this useful.

Click to Enlarge

The worldwide number of smartphones with near field communication (NFC) capability is set to increase steadily over the next few years.  This growth is largely due to the participation in mobile payments development by Nokia and Google.  By 2014 there will be 220.1 million smartphones shipped with NFC capability, representing 14 percent of the total cell phone shipments.  View Original Content

Click to Enlarge

Mobile banking activity is expected to increase dramatically over the next few years, resulting from increased emphasis on bank survival.  Since the beginning of the recent economic downturn, banks have shifted their focus from growth to survival that has led bankers to invest more in technology and remote banking access . This FSOkx forecast predicts there to be 900 million mobile banking users by 2014.  View Original Content

Click to Enlarge

A comScore study focusing on the first three months of 2011 has shown that Google is steadily increasing its market share over Apple.  As of March, 2011 Google, with its vast range of Androids, controlled 34 percent of the smartphone market while Apple controls 25.5 percent. During the first three months Google gained 5 percent while Apple was only able to manage a 0.5 percent growth.  View Original Content

Upcoming Events

ClickConnect APAC 2011, July 11 – 13, 2011
Syclo Mobile Conference 2011, July 13 – 15, 2011
Mobile Case Study: Healthrageous Accelerates Time to Market through Mobile Development Strategy, July 13, 2011
Critical Requirements for Mobile App Development:  Agility and Speed Strategy, Process, and Tools to Accelerate Mobile Development, July 21, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
The Future of Enterprise Mobility
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise:  The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform

*************************************************************

Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility Group

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Mobility News Weekly - Week of July 4, 2011

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

Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly

Apple is turning more aggressive in placing orders for its iPad 2 and is set to ship 12 to 14 million units this quarter, up from 7 to 9 million units in the second quarter.  Read Original Content

According to The Nielson Company, Android continues to be the most popular smartphone operating system, with 38 percent of smartphone consumers owning Android devices.  However, the Apple iPhone has shown the most growth in recent months.  Read Original Content

According to reports released this month by comScore, if you factor in all of the devices that use iOS including iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch, Apple reached 37.9 million people.  Android reached 23.8 million on phones and tablets.  That’s a 59 percent lead for iOS over Android.  Read Original Content

Research firm IDC forecasts the number of annual mobile app downloads will increase from 10.7 billion in 2010 to nearly 183 billion by 2015.  This is notably more than the 44 billion mobile app downloads by 2016 forecasted by its competitor ABI Research.  Read Original Content

Carriers are now activating more than 500,000 new Android devices every day, according to Google Vice President of Engineering Andy Rubin.  Read Original Content

Discussions About Sybase's Embedded Mobile Database Business, Part 1

SQL Anywhere

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tom Slee at Sybase.  Tom works out of the Sybase office in Waterloo, Ontario.  We have known of each other professionally for many years, as I was the CEO of a mobile application company that partnered with Sybase.  Yesterday we discussed many different subjects including, HTML5, SQL Anywhere, SQL Lite, SUP, mobile application development strategies, data synchronization and the most interesting developments in the embedded mobile database areas at Sybase. 

Tom had commented on an article I wrote several weeks back questioning the role of embedded mobile databases in a future with HTML5 and SQL Lite.  He had corrected me by saying SQL Lite is very often used with HTML5, but that it was not an "official" part of the HTML5 standard.  I stand corrected.  However, yesterday he added that SQL Lite is an unofficial part of HTML5 for many developers.

My questions several weeks ago were directed at learning if developers would continue to need and to purchase Sybase's SQL Anywhere embedded mobile databases (RDBMS) if there was a free option that works with HTML5 called SQL Lite.  Tom provided me with a much greater understanding of this issue which I will share to the best of my abilities.

SQL Lite working with HTML5 enables developers to store data on mobile devices.  This is very useful when developers want to save data entered into a mobile application, record the state of a mobile application, or record where the user is in an application.  Developers can also store product catalogs and all kinds of other data in this database.  It is a very good solution when there is no need, or limited need to synchronize the mobile application data back to an enteprise database.