iOS Conquers the Enterprise

In a new report published by Appcelerator/IDC yesterday titled 2Q 2012 Mobile Report (download here), iOS appears to have conquered the enterprise mobility market.  Here is an excerpt from the report, "iOS has opened a dramatic 16% lead over Android in the mobile enterprise apps space.  Developers now think iOS will win over Android in the enterprise 53%-37%; in 3Q 2011 iOS and Android were tied at 44%."

It will be interesting to now watch how both iOS and Windows 8 will impact Android in the enterprise.  This report seems to suggest that Google's Android could be in for some stiff competition, "Developers are cautiously optimistic about Windows 8 tablets, and find Microsoft’s Metro UI especially compelling. Therefore a key dynamic to watch going forward will be Microsoft’s opportunity to eclipse Android as the number two operating system priority for mobile enterprise app developers, especially given Microsoft’s strengths in the enterprise market through Office and Windows."

This is an interesting development since the ruggedized handheld manufacturers are just starting to introduce their Android based rugged devices.  Read more on this...

I must share that in conversations and interviews with mobility vendors, especially those focused on the services industry that have a lot of ruggedized mobile handhelds that still run on Microsoft operating systems, there is a great anticipation and hope for Windows 8.  In recent discussions with large utility companies, they also expressed a great hope that Windows 8 would deliver for tablets and other mobile devices.

It is my impression, that many large enterprises would love to support a good Microsoft operating system for mobile devices.  They are just waiting to see one.

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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.

Mobile Marketing News Weekly – Week of July 22, 2012

The Mobile Marketing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile marketing that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

A new report predicts tablets will emerge as the primary platform for mobile ad revenue in the next two years. A Yankee Group study forecasts tablets will account for 53 percent of mobile ad dollars in 2014 compared to 47 percent for mobile handsets. By 2016, tablets’ share of mobile ad sales will rise to 60 percent. Read Original Content

Target is putting mobile at the core of its back-to-school campaign and encouraging consumers to use its mobile application to find helpful resources, promotions and design inspirations. Read Original Content

The truth about smartphones is that although penetration in the UK is now above 50 percent and traffic is constantly rising, people don’t generally use their phone to buy things. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

AdParlor, an Adknowledge company and a leading advertising platform on Facebook, has released their completed study on Facebook mobile advertising.  A few of their findings are: mobile ads yield a CVR that is 16 percent lower than non-mobile ads; and Android has a 62 percent higher CTR than the iPhone & BlackBerry. Read Original Content

Apple's iOS continued to deliver more revenue per advertising impression to content publishers than any other mobile operating system in the quarter that ended in June, according to an Opera Software report. Read Original Content

Facebook's first earnings report since going public will be crucial. After its highly anticipated IPO flopped, Wall Street is hoping the social networking giant will deliver something to be optimistic about. Read Original Content

Finally the Tide of Rugged Android Devices Begins

In my opinion, Microsoft blew it when they left the rugged mobile device manufacturers hanging for years with no meaningful upgrades or upgrade path to the Windows Mobile 6.5x operating system.  They sentenced the ruggedized device industry to compete against the iPhone, iPad and Android consumer devices.  This meant service organizations worldwide started considering the merits of switching to consumer devices, with new operating systems that had many more features rather than upgrading to new ruggedized mobile devices.

Otterbox and other rugged case manufacturers were definitely the winners of this Microsoft orchestrated industry trend.  They produced many great ruggedized cases that added device protection and gave buyers confidence that using consumer devices in rugged environments was worth the risk.

Today, however, the tide of rugged Android devices is starting to enter the market as demonstrated by this marketing piece from Honeywell that I received in the mail today announcing the new rugged Dolphin 7800 EDA running on Android.  Here is how they describe it, "Honeywell’s new Dolphin® 7800 Android™ rugged EDA pairs the intuitive Google® Android™ operating system with remote device management capabilities and invaluable security features, making the device enterprise ready."

For a time the Android operating system was difficult to secure, since every device and device manufacturer seemed to have their own version of it, but the MDM (mobile device management) or MAM (mobile application management) vendors have seemed to resolve much of that challenge now as this piece from the MDM/MAM vendor Soti suggests, "SOTI, a leader in cross-platform mobile device management, is announcing that its unique MDM solution provides advanced and consistent management for all Android devices, regardless of the device manufacturer."

I have spoken with and interviewed many rugged handheld manufacturers over the past few months and most if not all have rugged Android devices in development.  I believe that going forward service organizations will soon be able to get the latest Android operating system features in the rugged device of their choosing.

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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.

Powell's Book Store, Confessions, and Mobile Strategies

Powell's City of Books

I am grateful that Powell's City of Books is located in the same general direction as my parent's home, or I must admit that my parents would not see me or my family as often.  I also confess to having returned with 16 additional books, when half of the books I got there on my last visit remain unread and stacked next to my bed.  Here is a sampling of the new titles:

• Community Geography
• The Future of War
• Maphead
• The Principles of War for the Information Age
• The Art of Maneuver
• The Army After Next

The book titled Community Geography is full of stories about how communities use GIS (geographical information systems) to improve their communities by doing things like crime fighting, identifying pollution sources, locating noxious weeds, tracking water quality and getting kids to school.  Much of this involves geo-tagging events and objects and then presenting geo-tags on a map to help visualize the environment so better decisions can be made.  Service organizations would be will served to understand these concepts and apply them in their mobile strategies and business plans.

The military themed books, The Future of War, The Principles of War for the Information Age, The Art of Maneuver and The Army After Next all provide insights into how to manage large numbers of people (mobile workforce), resources, assets, schedules and supplies using mobile technologies, real-time analytics, dashboards, GIS solutions and secure communications systems in the fog of war.

The aggregate of these books, if they deliver on their cover's promises, will provide additional insights as to how the commercial sector can better apply mobile technologies to their business strategies.

The remaining books are mostly on how to make better videos and how to use videos in business and educational environments.  I have a lot that needs to be improved in this area, but hopefully the nuggets of wisdom can still be gathered when you watch them.  If you missed any of my video interviews or video comments, you can view the archives here.

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst, Mobile Strategy Consultant and SAP Mentor Alumnus

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

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.

Mobile Commerce News Weekly – Week of July 22, 2012

The Mobile Commerce News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile payments, mobile money, e-wallets, mobile banking and mobile security that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

Kenya has more cell-phone subscriptions than adult citizens and more than 80 percent of those with a cell phone also use “mobile money”. Read Original Content

In 2012, developers using Google Play have pulled in more revenue from in-app purchases than from the sales of the apps themselves, a validation of the "freemium" model and digital purchases. Read Original Content

Revel Systems, the company that is selling iPad checkout services to retailers around the country, is coming out with a new version of their app for food trucks. The app includes features like employee tracking and employee scheduling and also Twitter integration Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software. Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

A new report from Juniper Research says NFC payments will evolve into a massive $180 billion global market by 2017. The growth represents a seven fold increase over 2012. Read Original Content

ABI Research predicts that globally $119 billion in goods and services will be purchased via a mobile phone in 2015, representing about 8 percent of the total e-commerce market. Read Original Content

Mobile commerce through mobile phones will represent 6.8 percent of all online sales across Europe by 2017, reaching €19.25 billion, a new Forrester study affirms. Read Original Content

Sage Pay has formed a partnership with leading mobile commerce provider, The MoBank Group, which will enable Sage Pay’s 40,000+ merchants to easily integrate onto the mobile channel via MoPowered, The Mobank Group’s secure Software-as-a-Service mCommerce solution. Read Original Content