Kevin Benedict's What's New in HTML5 - Week of October 21, 2012

I gave a presentation on SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) at a large high tech conference this week in Scottsdale, AZ.  During my presentation I surveyed the audience by a show of hands and asked how many were planning to pre-dominantly develop using HTML5 (or HTML5 hybrid apps), and how many were planning to use native.  About two thirds were planning to use HTML5 for their app development projects.

Also last week, I interviewed Tony Kueh, SAP's Head of Mobile Platform Solutions and Strategies about HTML5 vendors and SAP's open strategy for working with them in this video interview.  It is interesting who SAP picked to work with around HTML5 development.

Now for the news...

HTML5 is an option publishers should consider for delivering content to mobile devices.  Giles Phillips of Brightcove believes that HTML5 has “definitely created more flexibility for publishers and has helped make responsive web design a viable option for publishers with a blended content mix”.  Read Original Content

Microsoft and developers of the physics puzzle game Contre Jour have teamed up to utilize HTML5 to create the game for the Web in what Microsoft calls one of the most ambitious uses of HTML5 to date.  Read Original Content

Quark has launched an upgrade to its AppStudio program for creating and publishing mobile apps.  The new version is HTML5-based, providing features including searchable, selectable text, tagging, bookmarking, commenting, and multifaceted social media interaction.  Read Original Content

AOL’s new HTML5-based version of Games.com is cross-platform, available on PC’s, smartphones and tablets and provides access to more than 5000 titles.  Read OriginalContent

The selection of mobile development tools has never been richer and more affordable as it is today.  Mel Beckman provides information and advice for developers not sure whether to go with native apps, HTML5 web apps, or a hybrid approach in this article in PC Advisor.  Read Original Content

HTML5 has the potential for growth in areas such as graphics rendering and Web services protocol and it ultimately helps developers and content providers remove the "chains" from being tied to native platform owners.  Read Original Content

Dolphin has launched a new companion app for its Android browser and the company claims that “Dolphin Jetpack” brings 5-10 times faster HTML5 rendering performance than the stock Android browser.  Read Original Content

With the growing popularity of mobile websites, HTML5 rich media banners have become an excellent way for advertisers to communicate with their target audiences. “With the increased demand for rich media, HTML5 is transforming the landscape of mobile advertising and advertisers are starting to see the successes.”  Read OriginalContent

Sony’s newly redesigned PlayStation Store was built in HTML5 to provide flexibility for the company to seamlessly add new features and capabilities.  Read Original Content

Opera Software has launched Opera Mobile 12.1 for Android with additional HTML5 features including HTML5 Drag and Drop and the HTML5 Clipboard API.  Read Original Content

Software FX has announced the release and availability of jChartFX, a free collection of charts and graphs for business data visualization and analysis for HTML5, jQuery and JavaScript developers.  Read Original Content

SAP’s mobile HTML5 apps program for developers has produced a number of apps which are “clearly focused on what the biggest enterprises and businesses need to get work done on a mobile scale”.  Read Original Content

Phone Arena conducted an iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S3 comparison test to see which device performs better with HTML5.  Read Original Content

Lori MacVittie of F5 explores the question “Is HTML5 the Answer to Mobile's VDI Challenge?”  ReadOriginal Content

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC, Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mastering Enterprise Mobility with SAP - In Australia and New Zealand

Sydney Harbor 2011

I am so excited to be able to meet up with old friends, and meet new friends in New Zealand and Australia over the next two week!  I will be speaking at the Mastering Enterprise Mobility with SAP series of conferences.  Here are the locations:

1 November - Hilton Auckland

5 November - Hilton Brisbane

7 November - Swissôtel Sydney

9 November - Crown Promenade, Melbourne

There is so much happening now days to discuss - SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) are just some of the interesting and compelling trends.  Mobile strategies is still the big challenge and we have plenty to cover there as well.

I would love to meet up and record some video blogs of lessons learned and stories of implementations if you are willing!

See you there and "Good Day Mate!"

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC (Social, MOBILE, Analytics and Cloud), Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Strategic Enterprise Mobility Linkedin Group

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Health News Weekly – Week of October 21, 2012

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

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

Seventy-five million U.S. adults used mobile phones for health-related activities in 2012, up from 61 million in 2011, according to a recent report by Manhattan Research. Read Original Content

Researchers are studying the use of mobile phones to document the spread of malaria. The study is part of an effort to stop or control the disease. The World Health Organization says malaria mortality rates have fallen by twenty-five percent since the year 2000. Read Original Content

Small and remote hospitals increasingly are adopting telehealth technology to improve patient care and reduce costs, the New York Times reports. Read Original Content

Antenna Software provides a complete cloud-based enterprise mobility suite that enables both IT pros and business executives alike to create and manage mobile apps, websites and content across the entire business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Antenna Software.

A new mobile phone app helps concussion patients track their activities and symptoms, and share that information with their healthcare team. The app from the University of Michigan, is called Return2Play. Read Original Content

More than 13,600 health and fitness apps are available from the iTunes store, according to a recent MobileHealthNews report. Apps range in content from exercise and diet logs to instructional training videos for workouts. Read Original Content

Technology firm, Avallain Africa has unveiled a second version of its mobile and web health application, iAfya Health Information. The launch of iAfya version two comes with a Kiswahili module breaking the language barrier for millions of Kenyans for whom Swahili is a more natural language to interact and communicate in. Read Original Content

The West Health Institute has developed an application that uses Microsoft's Kinect for Windows motion tracking technology in at-home physical therapy. The Naval Medical Center of San Diego is about to start clinical trials of the program, known as the Reflexion Rehabilitation Measurement Tool. Read Original Content

Mobility News Weekly – Week of October 21, 2012

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

Scientists tested 13,500 Android apps and found almost 8 percent failed to protect bank account and social media logins.  Read Original Content

Gartner believes mobile device manufacturers, led by Apple and devices running Google’s Android operating system, will increasingly fight for market share in 2013, while Microsoft’s Windows 8 devices placed a distant third.  Read Original Content

According to a new PriceGrabber survey, 31 percent of consumers already have shopping-related apps on their smartphone, and 82 percent of those consumers plan to use those apps to help save money when purchasing holidays gifts.  Read Original Content

Founded in 1979, DSI is a global provider of Enterprise Mobility Solutions®, helping companies worldwide increase productivity and profitability regardless of data source, device type, operating system or network connectivity.  DSI serves clients globally through its offices in Australia, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by DSI.

A Dell executive at the Mobile Shopping Fall Summit has revealed that the company will launch an application for Windows 8 tablets this week, showing how important it is for marketers to have a presence on every platform.  Read Original Content

South Korean consumer electronics maker LG Electronics Inc. reported a third straight quarterly profit on Wednesday as sales of smartphones designed for faster wireless networks helped end losses at its mobile phone business.  Read Original Content

Samsung Electronics has announced its plan to push smartphone penetration in Africa and to further expand its share of the smart phone/devices market across Africa as this is in line with its strategy to bridge the continent’s digital divide.  Read Original Content

The revenues from mobile application testing tools will exceed $200 million in 2012, finds a new study from ABI Research.  Read Original Content

Apple has finally officially unveiled its iPad Mini and it is, indeed, extremely light. The iPad Mini sports a 7.9-inch screen and it feels as airy as the iPhone 5, though maybe a tad wide for some jacket pockets.  Read Original Content

The Military, Mobile Strategies and Mobile Apps

My son, a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, was reviewing the list of speakers at an upcoming Enterprise Mobility for Defense conference where I will be speaking and said, "You are the only non-General on the agenda.  Why would they ask you to speak?"  Our kids humble us don't they?  The bottom line though is the military desperately wants to use commercially available mobile apps and mobile technologies whenever they can.  They are very keen to learn all they can about mobility and how it can be used to the advantage of our military forces.

In advance of the conference, I participated in an interview with the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement.  Here is the interview transcript.

Welcome Kevin.

Thank you for having me, Chris.

Let’s talk mobility—highlight for us the main benefits of being mobile for the military.

There are a many, but they really have to do with situational awareness in the field. The ability for both commanders and their soldiers in the field to be able to know where they are located, where their opponents are located, where their supplies and assets are located and their numbers and availabilities, and what areas are safe or unsafe.  They need to know where there are imminent threats.  They need to be able to collect data and access data from any kind of sensors, whether they are drones in the sky or data collected through other sources, and then overlay that information on a map on a mobile device.  These capabilities enable them to have an awareness of what’s going on around them.

Historically in the military, 95% of the challenge a commander faced was finding the opponent, and then finding their own resources so they could develop a successful plan or mission.

Mobility and wireless sensors are what allow data to be collected in real time, fed back to intelligence analysts, and then on to the soldiers in the field.   Again, it is all about situational awareness made possible through a connected or network-centric environment.

What is your advice for the consultants working with defense on mobile enterprise solutions? What are the keys to remember?

Well, the key is always going to be security and understanding the connectivity issues that the real world presents to soldiers.  In many cases the landscape is not conducive to certain kinds of communication. So any time you have consultants working in the defense industry, they need to always be thinking of those two points, because no matter how clever or innovative a mobile app or solution works in an optimal environment, it must continue to work in bad environments as well.  That means a lot of testing in rough and deadly environments.

Explain for us how consultants can bridge the gap between commerical solutions aand defense with enterprise mobility.

The military today is ahead of the commercial sector on mobile strategy.  However, the commercial sector is ahead on mobile devices and mobile apps.  So consultants that have a foot in both the commercial sector and the defense side have an advantage.  They need to understand the latest mobile technologies available in the commercial space, and the communication, connectivity and security requirements of defense, the military strategies in use, and then offer an appropriate solution.

I’ve been reading recently that the U.S. Marines are actually testing the concept of having Android developers assigned to particular units in the field, so they can quickly develop mission specific apps in just a few hours.  That’s a concept that’s way ahead of what most companies are doing in the commercial sector.  What makes it possible is having a library of widgets and pre-developed apps that are small and simple but can be quickly aggregated together for a mission.  I think these strategies are really demonstrating the power of combining the military's strategies with commercial app store concepts.

Talk to us a little bit more about how mobility can truly be transformative.

There are concepts like activity based intelligence and patterns of life in the military that are being evolved right now. These concepts are really focused on the use of persistent surveillance and analytics that are looking for patterns.  Patterns of activities and behaviors in a particular region can tell analysts a lot about the risk involved in a region.  That information can make all the difference in how a mission is planned and executed. To be able to overlay patterns of activity and behavior from a particular region on a map and then view it on your mobile device is powerful.  These kinds of capabilities require good security and connectivity in the field.  You need the ability to query for information and to be able to see real time data on what’s over the hill and around the corner.  These kinds of technologies and strategies are saving American and allied forces' lives every day and completely changing how missions are executed.

Real time data helps our soldiers avoid walking into areas blind.  Real time visibility on a mobile device, connected to a network-centric environment, can help soldiers by providing information on neighborhoods, buildings, roads, cultural environments and event history in their area.   We can then add things like live video feeds and social sentiment analysis where data on attitudes and opinions of people living in the region can be analyzed to better understand an area. All of these capabilities combined can completely change the way a mission is planned and executed – that is transformative innovation that can save the lives of our soldiers.

Lastly, I want to ask if you’re witnessing any trends with regard to mobile apps and mobile adoption - it’s something you write about quite a bit on your blog www.mobileenterprisestrategies.com

I noticed the other day that the NSA has approved a unique variation of Android for use by soldiers.  They wrote a document that says how you can secure an Android device to the security levels required for military use.  This is likely just a hypothetical scenario now but an interesting development. 

I also read where a military commander was saying he uses an iPhone, he knows his soldiers use iPhones, and his goal is to make sure that those iPhones in the pockets of his soldiers are more useful.  There is a lot of information the military needs to share with their forces and their families, and these devices can be useful for that purpose.  In order to save money, rather than buying purpose built military grade devices and apps where there is likely a premium on the cost, the military wants to use commercially available technology whenever possible. 

It is my observation that the military is ahead of the commercial side on mobile strategy, but not on the latest mobile technologies and apps.  There is a lot these two sectors can learn from each other.

Thank you for your time today Kevin, we look forward to meeting you when you present at the Enterprise Mobility for Defense Summit.

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC (Social, MOBILE, Analytics and Cloud), Cognizant

Read The Future of Work

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Strategic Enterprise Mobility Linkedin Group

Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.