My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 2

In part 1 of this series I focused on the topics of sales channel development and marketing for mobile application vendors.  In part 2 I will focus on sales and sales strategies.

1. Organize all of your custom mobile application development projects into categories and business processes so the finished mobile applications can be demonstrated and used to show prospects your expertise.  When I was CEO of a mobile application company, we took inventory of all of our code and mobile applications and found we had dozens and dozens of different mobile applications that we had delivered to customers but had never leveraged with other prospects.  There were a lot of very cool apps on our shelves.
2. Recognize that each custom mobile application may have many different features.  Individual features may be of interest to different prospects.  It would be good to catalog specific features so you can demonstrate them quickly.
3. Use sales teams to find opportunities and qualify them, but close them with senior managers or executives.  You will save weeks or months in the sales process.
4. Once a qualified mobile opportunity is found, and the requirements are known, get your writers to write whitepapers specifically on the issues your prospects have.  Detail the issues and solutions available in a formal publicly available whitepaper.  The written word is very powerful and provides good documentation of your expertise.  The same can be done with webinars, videos or podcasts. Be a thought leader. 
5. Become experts in your field.  Don't permit your sales people to learn only 5 percent of their product or the industry they are targeting.  They don't deserve your prospects' time if they are not solution experts.  If it is not possible for your sales people to be experts, then make sure you bring experts to your customer meetings.  Time is precious and you need to trade time for knowledge.
6. Use a mobile application development tool (SDK - software development kit) to quickly provide screen shots and working proof of concepts for your prospects.  A picture or image is very powerful in helping your prospects envision a solution.  I have been very successful with this strategy over the years.  I would go to prospective customer meetings, gather requirements, and then have my team brand (put the client's logo on it) a mobile application that showed all of the screens and fields they would need and included screen navigation.  The sales prospects were very impressed and jumped straight into a deep dive discussion on how we could complete the application for them.

In interviews with companies like SAP Mobility partner Clicksoftware, I learned that many vendors use a template approach so they can quickly demonstrate mobile applications that are similar to the needs of their prospects and customers.  This is also a very effective approach.

Look for part 3 in this series later this week.

Contact me if you would like to discuss these in more detail. 

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

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

My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 1

Over the weekend I had a mobile start-up contact me and share their challenges in getting a working sales channel set up and rolling in the enterprise mobility market.  Since this is a challenge that is shared by many small mobile start-ups, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on this matter.

1. One thing that I learned years ago is that resellers and systems integrators like to jump on a bandwagon. If there is no bandwagon, they aren’t motivated to jump. What does that mean? You need a bandwagon that plays music and attracts a crowd before the resellers or systems integrators come.
2. The bigger the market you are targeting, the bigger the amplification system your bandwagon needs.  You need bigger and louder noise in order to be heard. 
3. Another lesson I learned is that resellers want to focus on a repeatable model in a market they can leverage. What does that mean? It means if they sell to an SAP customer, they can reuse the SAP integration and experience with other potential SAP customers, have an SAP reference case and demonstrate knowledge in SAP environments. They can build a good reputation in a specific and defined market.
4. Understand resellers and their business models. They don’t care as much about what is the very best technology. They want the best selling technology. The high tech world is littered with better technology that went nowhere. The best selling technology is the one with a bandwagon. This is a very important concept to understand.  They are out to make money.  They want to offer solid, reliable technology that works and will make them the most money with the lowest cost of sales.
5. Some companies focus on extending SAP and other ERPs to mobile devices.  These are large and defined market places.  While other markets, like the mobile field data collection market, are made up of thousands of small niche markets with thousands of small resellers. It is hard to leverage a mobile bridge inspection application with an EPA application assessment or clinical trials project. The audiences, markets and resellers do not overlap so it is difficult to leverage success in one niche market into other small markets. It seems you are always starting from scratch in the next market. This means you cannot gain momentum and selling does not get easier over time. The cost of sales continues to be far higher than it should.
6. The marketing investment in one niche market is difficult to leverage in another dissimilar market.  The result is a higher marketing budget requirement per customer.  It is easier and more cost effective to attend one ASUG Sapphire or TechEd conference and meet thousands of potential customers, than to attend many small conferences and meet dozens of prospects in different markets. 
7. It often takes the same sales and market investment to close a $50,000 deal as it does to close a $500,000 or $5 million deal.  The difference is you may lose money on the $50,000 deal when the cost of marketing and the cost of sales is factored in.
8. A rule - The sales process must get easier over time.  You need your marketing system, your reputation, brand, reference cases, industry expertise and referrals to help you gain momentum and speed.  If your sales process does not get easier over time it is broken.
9. Once you have worked with the big boys in the ERP space you can understand why this is a good market. Good reputations can be developed through an accumulation of successes and SAP customers are often large enough to buy thousands of software licenses.
10. SAP customers within certain industries like oil and gas or chemical all belong to the same special interest groups and they talk. Not only do they talk, they attend meetings together and have regular webinars. SAP has dedicated sales and industry experts that support these markets. Success with one large customer is quickly known around the industry. With each success the work is easier and the cost of sales goes down.
11. You can replace the name “SAP” with Oracle or IBM Maximo or any number of companies and ERPs. The idea is that big markets, with large customer bases, that belong to the same industries are very good areas to invest in. It takes big markets to gain leverage and economies of scale.

You can see these strategies being implemented by SAP mobility partners like Clicksoftware, Leapfactor and Syclo.  They are focused on supporting the needs of SAP customers and developing a great reputation mobilizing the business processes of SAP users.  As their customer bases grow, so does their expertise, brand recognition and reference list.

If you are interested in discussing this topic in greater detail please contact me. 

My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 2
My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 3
My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 4
My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 5
My Advice to Mobile Applications Vendors, Part 6

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

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

http://www.clicksoftware.com/e86e075b-4fca-44c9-bfeb-4efcc978f416/knowledge-center-white-papers-delivery.htm

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Smartsoft Mobile Solutions' CEO Dan Homrich, Part 2

This is part 2 of an interview that I did with Smartsoft Mobile Solutions' CEO Dan Homrich.  You can read part 1 here.

Kevin:  What are some of the most interesting mobile applications that you have seen recently?

Dan:  I have seen some very interesting mobile business intelligence applications that give the user very specific information based upon their GPS coordinates.  Where are my customers relative to my location? I love mobile applications that provide just the information I need, when I need it, Mobile Business Intelligence applications with dashboards that show exactly what the user needs.  I have also seen iPhone applications that utilize barcodes to do things that only industrial grade handheld computers could do in the past.  I am a big fan of mobile applications that take the mobile user's perspective, rather than an office out perspective.

Kevin:  What are some of the most unusual mobile applications you have seen?

Dan:  A construction level and measuring stick mobile application.  In the mobile applications I love category, I would add the Pandora music application and the CNBC real time application.

Kevin:  When is a consumer grade mobile application sufficient for a mobile worker, and when is a ruggedized or industrial grade mobile device needed?

Dan:  It is the working environment that determines it.  How much money does the company have available to invest in devices?  How much water and dust are in the working environment?  What is the working environment temperature?  What is the drop rating requirement?  What are the expectations of the users?  What does the user believe they need?  Do you need a high volume scanning device that has large batteries that can last all day?  All of these issues must be considered.

Kevin:  What is the most complex enterprise mobility application that you have seen?

Dan:  I have seen a DSD (direct store delivery) mobile application with 350 different screens.  It was used in an offline mode by 4,835 delivery people.  Since there was not a real time connection to SAP, it required a complete mobile version of the SAP pricing module.  Yikes!

Kevin:  What are some of the biggest challenges you see in enterprise mobility today?

Dan:  The need to make internet connectivity truely ubiquitous.  Educating the market and demystifying mobility.  Helping customers develop a mobile strategy.

Kevin:  What strategies do you see the big ERP vendors taking toward mobility?

Dan:  They are taking a self-serving view of mobility.  They are not taking into consideration that many companies have multiple ERPs and business applications.  ERP vendors are concerned only with mobilizing themselves, not their customers' enterprise.

Kevin:  What is missing from most MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) today?

Dan:  Missing today is a good understanding of the differences between the world of smartphones and the world of industrial mobile handheld computers. (SLAP MY FOREHEAD - I should have asked a follow-up question.  Obviously, I am no Larry King.)

Kevin:  Where does Smartsoft Mobile Solutions fit into the enterprise mobility ecosystem?

Dan:  Smartsoft Mobile Solutions has a very strong focus on supporting business to consumer (B2C) mobile applications.  We look for opportunities to provide very fast ROIs.  Often mobile micro-applications (light weight mobile applications) can provide big value quickly and be used by large numbers of people.  Companies are wanting to stay in close touch with their partners and with their customer base with mobile applications.

Kevin:  What can we expect to see from Smartsoft Mobile Solutions over the next few Quarters?

Dan:  A big focus on helping our customers communicate better with their customer bases.

I want to thank Dan for sharing his thoughts and insights with all of us!


***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

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

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Smartsoft Mobile Solutions' CEO Dan Homrich, Part 1

I was lucky enough to catch up with Dan Homrich, CEO of Smartsoft Mobile Solutions (SMS) recently for an interview.  I am particularly impressed with one data point about Smartsoft Mobile Solutions - they have over 400,000 mobile clients in the field.  That means something they are doing is being done very right!

Kevin:  Dan, how long have you been involved in the mobility industry?

Dan:  I have been using mobile devices since the 1980s.  I have a story about using a 300 baud audio coupler on a pay phone to submit orders, but I have been in the industry for over 15 years.  Fifteen years ago I was involved in implementing industrial grade handheld computers for use in warehouse management.

Kevin:  What was your first PDA, and what mobile device do you carry today?

Dan:  My first PDA was an iPaq using Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system.  I now carry an Apple iPhone 4 and love it!  The multi-tasking is a big improvement.

Kevin:  What is your favorite iPhone application?

Dan:  The Home Depot iPhone application.  It helps you find products, see the products, see the prices, locate the products, etc.

Kevin:  What is your role today and what does that role involve?

Dan:  I am the Chief Executive Officer, and my responsibility is strategic direction and customer satisfaction.

Kevin:  What industries do you see adopting mobility today?

Dan:  We see a big interest in mobile applications from retail companies.  We call this market the B2E (business to everyone) or B2C (business to consumer) market, retailers wanting mobile customer focused applications.  We also see a big interest for any kind of mobile application that can help companies sell more products.

Kevin:  What mobility trends do you see for the rest of 2010 and 2011?

Dan:  There are going to be an increasing number of mobile devices and mobile operating systems.  We do not see a market consolidation yet.  The market continues to grow and diversify.  That means enterprises are going to need a plan to support an increasing number of devices and mobile OSs.  I also believe that if Verizon sells the iPhone, there will be another huge explosion (increase) in interest around the iPhone.

Kevin:  What are you hearing in the market about mobile device management?  Is there an increasing need given your prediction of diversity in mobile devices and mobile operating systems?

Dan:  In the past I have worked on projects where we deployed 5,000 rugged and industrial grade mobile handheld computers.  At that time mobile device management seemed critical.  Today, I hear less interest in mobile device management.  It is a company culture thing.  When devices were specialized for niche markets and specific to a task, companies were concerned about keeping them up and functioning.  With today's smartphones, you can replace the device and be up and running in a few minutes.

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This is part 1 of the interview with Smartsoft Mobile Solutions CEO Dan Homrich.  Read part 2 here.

For more Mobile Expert Interviews read here.

For more Mobile Expert Videos watch here.

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

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

Kevin’s Mobile Retailing News Weekly – September 10, 2010

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

Additional weekly newsletters on the subjects of enterprise mobility and M2M from Kevin Benedict can be found here http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/.

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This week credit card giant MasterCard launched a version of its MoneySend mobile app for BlackBerry. Similar to the iPhone version, MasterCard MoneySend for Blackberry can settle peer to peer balances by sending money to friends and family and purchasing goods from an informal vendor.

http://mobile.cnet.com/site?t=OFwKYRJPIl1Vm2aMwLYjDw&sid=cnet

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Starwood Hotels & Resorts is letting guests book their travels and make reservations across 1,000 of its properties via a BlackBerry application. Consumers can access their accounts, check reservations and get directions. The application is available in BlackBerry App World.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/starwood-hotels-resorts-accommodates-guest-via-mobile-booking-app/

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Smartsoft Mobile empowers some of the world’s largest multi-national organizations to extend and improve business processes by providing mobile solutions to their employees and customers. Smartsoft has more than 700 experienced ERP/mobile consultants with over 5,000 man years of experience helping 400,000 plus mobile users achieve their business goals with powerful mobile B2B and B2C applications, designed and developed specifically for today’s popular consumer and industrial grade mobile devices. For more information please visit, http://www.smartsoftmobile.com/.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Smartsoft Mobile Solutions.

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Toys “R” Us has announced a new iPhone application that integrates QR codes and content such as videos and rewards into a daily retail shopping experience to enhance its marketing and loyalty initiatives. The application is a consumer engagement tool that blends audio, visuals and rewards with traditional media platforms via mobile bar codes.

See more in this YouTube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTu57Sx5VnI&feature=player_embedded#at=13

Read more - http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/toys-r-us-unveils-multichannel-mobile-crm-tactics/

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AAA has announced an Android counterpart to its popular iPhone app, which displays businesses which feature discounts for AAA members based on location. There are more than 110,000 such locations in the US, and the application, along with your phone’s GPS, will let you know which ones are directly in your area.

http://www.talkandroid.com/13836-aaa-app-now-available-for-android/

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Consumer appetite and enterprise adoption is fuelling the growth in volume, availability and sophistication of mobile services. According to the Sybase 365 Global Consumer Acceptance and Usage Report 2010, 70 percent of consumers were interested in additional mobile services. Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, is now processing more than 1.5 billion messages per day.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sybase-365-achieves-new-milestone-delivering-one-trillion-mobile-messages-2010-09-08?reflink=MW_news_stmp

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eBay has invested over $600 million into mobile apps over the past two years, and users have gained expanded mobility functionality as a result, most notably the ability to process payments for auctions using mobile apps.

http://www.benzinga.com/news/10/09/463375/ebay-mobile-division-planning-major-overhaul-ebay

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According to the Adobe Scene7 Mobile Commerce Survey, 55 percent of respondents cited full screen image zoom and videos as indispensable mobile viewing features for driving conversion, and 96 percent of respondents asserted the most effective visual merchandising features were catalogs and brochures, alternative images, and zoom and pan. Only 18 percent of respondents said they use rich visual merchandising features for mobile commerce today. However, 81 percent cited plans to deploy these features, thus implying richer mobile experiences will be created and offered during the next 12 months.

http://www.internetretailer.com/2010/09/08/rich-media-way-mobile-commerce-survey-says

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According to Forrester, 47 percent of consumers expect to wait no more than two seconds for a Web page to load; 58 percent of mobile phone users expect websites to load as quickly on their mobile phone as on their PC according to Gomez research.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/compuware-gomez-presents-webinar-on-the-top-e-commerce-strategies-for-turning-web-traffic-into-sales-2010-09-08?reflink=MW_news_stmp

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eBay will launch a "motors app" later this year that will let people use a built-in barcode reader feature to scan the Vehicle Identification Number of a car and do a Carfax lookup. The app will also let users enter the make and model of their own car and then filter searches for compatible parts and accessories. eBay also wants to build more "augmented reality" features into eBay's mobile applications. One example could be where a seller could take a video of an antique chair. An eBay application would turn that video into a 3D image that a potential buyer could overlay on a photograph of their room, letting them see how it would look.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/204970/ebay_bringing_mobile_apps_into_the_future.html

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The mobile web (web 3.0) is projected to grow at an annualized 500 percent over the next three years. How can your business benefit from this spectacular growth?

http://smartsoftmobile.com/wordpress/2010/09/02/why-is-it-valuable-to-have-a-mobile-enterprise-strategy/

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In a development with importance to e-commerce merchants and other marketers moving to mobile commerce, phones using Android accounted for one quarter of all North American mobile page views in August, up from 6.4 percent in August 2009, according to the latest numbers from Quantcast Corp. Google’s gain came mostly at the expense of iOS, the operating system used by the iPhone. That system lost 11.4 points of mobile Web share, to finish at 56 percent in August.

http://www.digitaltransactions.net/newsstory.cfm?newsid=2631

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AT&T appears to be in a position to offer the largest selection of Windows Phone 7 devices. We’ve heard rumors of HTC (T8788 or HD7?), Samsung (Cetus), and LG (C900 and GW910) devices headed to AT&T. Our count shows as many as four Windows Phone 7 devices hitting AT&T’s shelves this Fall. Unless something changes over the next two months, AT&T will be at the forefront of Windows Phone 7.

http://smartsoftmobile.com/wordpress/2010/09/07/windows-phone-7-what-are-the-carriers-going-to-do/

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You can read more about enterprise mobility at the blog site, http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/.

Mobile Expert Video Interview – Ed Krufka, http://www.youtube.com/sapmentors#p/u/10/NrF7LvLLlNE


***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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

Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly - September 9, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly 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 am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

You can read archived versions of the newsletter here - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html.

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India has widened its security crackdown, asking all companies that provide encrypted communications — not just BlackBerry maker Research In Motion — to install servers in the country to make it easier for the government to obtain users' data. That would likely affect digital giants like Google and Skype.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5it_73CxzMozqkSOODLh2r7aCIlLwD9HVV8CO1

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LG Electronics announced yesterday its intent to launch a new line of dual-core smartphones, dubbed "Optimus," by year's end. The Tegra 2 incorporates two 1 GHz chips, which, according to LG, will mean "up to 2x faster web browsing and up to 5x faster gaming performance over single core processors running at 1 GHz."

http://www.dailytech.com/LG+Well+Have+DualCore+Smartphones+By+Years+End/article19568.htm

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Syclo announced today that it's rolling out major enhancements to its Agentry mobile enterprise application platform. Agentry is the backbone of Syclo's mobile solution framework as it provides both the tooling and infrastructure that enterprises need to develop, test, deploy and manage high availability mobile applications.

http://www.fieldtechnologiesonline.com/article.mvc/Syclo-Announces-New-Version-Of-Its-Agentry-0001

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Apple confirmed the launch of its new Apple TV device for later this month. The media player with HDMI and Wi-Fi will allow users to stream online movies and TV series as well as content from their PCs to an HD TV.

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=754422

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Leapfactor, an SAP partner and start up, today announced a cloud-based system to support mobile applications, including back office custom applications for accounting and customer support.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9183898/SAP_partner_launches_cloud_based_mobile_app_service

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Google's Android Market has the largest share of free applications. App store analytics firm Distimo reports that 60 percent of Android apps are free, an increase of three percent from May. Windows Marketplace for Mobile has the lowest percentage of free apps with just 22 percent, while 26 percent of apps in both Apple's App Store for the iPad and BlackBerry App World are free.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/distimo-60-android-apps-are-free/2010-09-01?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

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You are tasked with managing a team you cannot see. You are accountable for the safety of your employees in locations you have never been. Your success is based upon your team’s ability to overcome all kinds of technical challenges in remote and distant jobsites. You are responsible for your team following company standards, processes and industry best practices without any supervision. You must expertly balance their schedules, qualifications and workloads to maximize customer satisfaction and profitability from a distance.

http://theemf.org/2010/09/01/managing-the-mobile-workforce/

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Consumers buying items via iPads spend an average of up to 20 percent more per purchase than other mobile shoppers.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/peter-session-1-2/

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

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Google is hoping to debut an Internet based digital music service that would launch later this year in conjunction with version 3 of its popular Android operating system for smartphones, according to various media reports.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/google-negotiating-android-music-service/2010-09-03?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

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Total Twitter mobile users has jumped 62 percent since mid April, and, remarkably, 16 percent of all new users to Twitter start on mobile now.

http://blog.twitter.com/2010/09/evolving-ecosystem.html

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Sony Ericsson estimates that China will be its largest handset market in the next three to four years as it looks to increase its share of the country. The Japanese-Swedish joint venture said that smartphone use in China would reach 50 percent of all mobile phone users in the country by 2015.

http://www.mobiledia.com/news/73510.html

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The mobile applications market is estimated to be worth around $25 billion by 2015. However, the economic meltdown has caused some big names within the applications and telecoms industry to shutdown recently and the fears of the aftermath of a recession are still on the clouds.

http://bharatbookseo.blogsome.com/2010/09/03/the-mobile-applications-market/

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SAP AG aims to make China “a second home” as local companies seeking management tools and real time business intelligence will provide “limitless growth” for the software maker, co-Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-03/sap-sees-limitless-potential-in-chinese-market-co-ceo-mcdermott-says.html

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I registered for SAP's TechEd 2010 Las Vegas! I am excited about it this year - the year of mobility! SAP's 2010 focus is - on premise, on demand and on device - MOBILE device that is. I will be teaching a session on The Future of Enterprise Mobility. I have seen the conference agenda and it is packed full of sessions on mobility. I hope to see all of you there!

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2010/08/kevin-benedict-on-teched-2010-in-las.html

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Samsung, the world’s second largest cell phone maker, has decided to use Google’s Android as a key software platform for its smartphones alongside its own new bada software.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6811FI20100902

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According to IDC's worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker, handset vendors shipped a total of 317.5 million units worldwide in the quarter, up 15 percent year-over-year and eight percent sequentially, driven by seasonal strength.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052970204812504575469674114253814.html?mod=googlenews_barrons

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Over the past year Apple has lost ground to Google, losing 11 percent of the mobile web consumption market, while Google picked up 17 percent more market share. iOS still maintains a significant lead with 56 percent of the market, more than twice that of Android, but current growth trends could cause problems for Apple in the near future.

http://www.worldtech24.com/phones/android-gaining-apple-ios-mobile-web-market-share

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Google Android and Windows Mobile will see their smartphone market share increase by 2014, while BlackBerry and Apple will experience declines, according to a new research note from IDC.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Android-Windows-Phone-Will-Lead-Smartphone-Market-Surge-IDC-197754/

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Toshiba Electronics Europe has expanded its family of mobile peripheral device ICs with the TC358751XBG, which provides the interface between a mobile device's host processor and embedded displays as well as external equipment, such as a TV set or projector. The buffer content can be rendered simultaneously on two displays (typically with different content) and external equipment.

http://www.eetimes.de/en/new-mobile-dual-screen-display-ic-offers-1080p.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=222903617&vID=8

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Automotive service organization AAA is driving foot traffic to the locations of its retail partners via a loyalty focused Android application. The AAA Discounts application lets consumers know about nearby discounts available to members of its Show Your Card & Save loyalty program.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/aaa-targets-android-users-via-loyalty-program-app/

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Amazon Kindle get’s new firmware and shows up on BestBuy.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Amazon-Kindle-Gets-New-Firmware-Shows-up-on-BestBuy-155779.shtml

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A new survey has revealed that 65 percent of adults sleep with their cell phones on or next to their beds. This latest sampling from the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows how cell phones continue to grow ever more vital in our livelihoods.

http://www.technewsdaily.com/two-thirds-of-adults-sleep-with-their-cell-phones-1189/

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Salesforce.com, a provider of software as a service to companies over the web, has introduced mobile application Chatter for social networking inside companies.

http://telecomyatra.afaqs.com/news/index.html?sid=1835_Salesforce.com+introduces+Chatter+networking+solution

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Recent articles from Kevin Benedict’s blog Enterprise Mobility Strategies for SAP and Others

Compliance Functions for Mobile Applications
What Percent of the U.S. Workforce is Mobile?

NEW Recommended newsletter – Kevin’s Mobile Retail News Weekly

Recommended Webinar

I participated in the webinar, 10 Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Selecting and Implementing a Mobility Solution this week. It can be viewed here, http://www.clicksoftware.com/96ec7ed7-023c-4260-a063-a7d5c320dd23/knowledge-center-on-demand-webinars-registration.htm?mgs1=06a52axCfU.

Recommended Whitepaper

Networked Field Services - http://www.clicksoftware.com/1c7060c0-1296-4c54-90d6-8f83c5c5ecf0/knowledge-center-white-papers-registration.htm

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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

What Percent of the U.S. Workforce is Mobile?

"The United States has the highest percentage of mobile workers in its workforce," says the IDC 2009-2013 forecast.  "With 72.2 percent of the workforce mobile in 2008.  The U.S. will remain the most highly concentrated market for mobile workers with 75.5 percent of the workforce, or 119.7 million workers, being mobile in 2013."

Those numbers represent enormous opportunities for enterprise mobility vendors.  The first question that came to my mind when I read that quote was, "What kind of mobile applications are they going to need?"  I think the answer is thousands of different kinds. 

I assume that others including SAP's co-Innovation partner Syclo also believe that.  Sylco has spent the last ten years investing in their Agentry Mobile Platform and Smart Mobile Suite to make them flexible enough to serve a broad market.  Here is how they describe themselves, "We offer fully configurable, rapidly deployed mobile applications that run on a variety of devices and support real time wireless and offline computing."  They don't know what mobile applications all of their customers will want, so they have invested years worth of effort developing capabilities that will enable it to be useful for a broad audience.  That is something I learned as CEO of a mobile application company.  The more flexible the platform, the more investment in time and money it took to develop.  Simple mobile micro-apps can be developed quickly that just connect point A to point B.  However, it you want point A to connect to point C, D, E and X then you have an expoentially larger task.

The point is that MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) that are flexible enough to handle a broad range of mobile applications are extremely challenging to develop.  However, they offer enormous value, and the price is likely going to reflect the investment.

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

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

Kevin’s M2M News Weekly – September 8, 2010

Welcome to Kevin's M2M News Weekly. This is an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to M2M (machine to machine) and embedded mobile devices that I read 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 the M2M market.

You can read archived editions of Kevin's M2M News Weekly at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/m2m.html.

Follow Kevin on Twitter @krbenedict.

Also available are Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly and Kevin’s Enterprise Mobility Blog.

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There's no question that many wireless operators consider the next growth opportunity to rest with embedded wireless devices. Some operators estimate that by embedding wireless connectivity into all types of devices -- from netbooks to e-readers to GPS devices -- the wireless industry could reach a penetration rate in the range of 300 to 500 percent. Indeed, in a recent ABI Research study, the firm predicts manufacturers will ship 54 million mobile broadband enabled consumer electronics devices by 2014.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/slideshow/what-devices-are-early-winners-embedded-and-m2m?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

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

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A team of investigators in Spain is currently developing remote sensing technology that could keep a virtual eye on pollution levels being generated by traffic jams.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Remote-Sensing-Technology-Analyzes-Pollution-155428.shtml

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OEM and aftermarket consumer telematics systems continue to gain momentum in both developed and developing regions due to growing popular awareness of their many benefits related to safety, security, maintenance, convenience, infotainment, and cost savings. These benefits will drive growth from 37 million telematics users in 2010 to more than 211 million in 2015, well over a five fold increase.

http://www.eetimes.de/en/consumer-telematics-users-to-reach-211-million-by-2015-says-abi-research.html?cmp_id=7&news_id=222903452&vID=391

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Christiana Care launched its tele-ICU program five years ago to better monitor patients at Christiana Hospital and Wilmington Hospital, but for the past 17 months it also has been working with rural and small hospitals in Maryland. Because the technology feeds real time patient data and live video from afar, the services of local intensivists can be used to monitor patients hundreds of miles away.

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100905/HEALTH/9050373/Giving-patients-hands-on-care-from-afar

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St. Jude Medical has paid $60 million to acquire a 19 percent stake in CardioMEMS, a firm that's developed a wireless patient monitoring technology.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2010/09/06/daily1.html

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While media coverage is certainly not a new concept at the race, at the 2010 Tour de France, fans had access to more information about their favorite riders than they had in previous years thanks to M2M technology. Fans were able to get real time statistics on cyclists such as their location, distance traveled, even heart rate, via the Web.

http://connectedworldmag.com/latestNews.aspx?id=NEWS100901093605933

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Location based Web services like FourSquare, Gowalla or Facebook’s Places feature may be all the rage in the tech news, but by and large, Americans aren’t buying into it, according to a recent article in the New York Times. Location based Web services generally allow people to “check in” via their Mobile devices -- actually registering their physical location with the Web site -- with the goal of playing a game, receiving a coupon or discount, or connecting with friends who may be nearby.

http://m2m.tmcnet.com/topics/m2mevolution/articles/98453-location-based-mobile-services-more-hype-than-hot.htm

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Recently, Peter Hartwell an engineer from computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. told the audience at the firm's Executive Energy Conference in Dubai he believed intelligent sensor technology deployed on oil rigs and other drilling equipment could have prevented the disaster had they been installed, and that certainly in the future, such measures should be taken to avoid a repeat of the disaster.

http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20100901/DEVICES/100909996/mobile-technology-seen-as-critical-in-disasters

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An ABI report indicates that renewed interest from mobile operators in the M2M space, coupled with the widespread deployment of 3G, has led it to predict the M2M market will be worth $3.8 billion by 2015.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/slideshow/what-devices-are-early-winners-embedded-and-m2m

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Juniper predicts that the number of mobile connected M2M and embedded devices will reach almost 412 million globally by 2014. The growth of these embedded devices will mainly come from an ever increasing number of utility meters, mobile connected buildings, consumer and commercial telematics and retail and banking connections.

http://telecomyatra.afaqs.com/news/?sid=1795_M2M:+The+future+of+technology

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As part of its ongoing commitment to improve driver safety for its commercial auto customers, Travelers today announced a potential discount of up to 15 percent on certain auto liability insurance premiums for qualifying businesses that effectively use telematics technology to monitor their commercial fleets and driver behavior. Similar to GPS, vehicle telematics go beyond navigation and positioning by storing and sending data on how a vehicle is operated.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/53997120/Travelers-Embraces-Fleet-Vehicle-Telematics-to-Improve-Roadway-Safety

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Technologies such as wireless sensor networks, real time distributed sensor networks, and FPGA-based reconfigurable I/O hardware are relatively new to the wind industry. But the reconfigurable hardware is central to many network applications.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/a-nervous-system-for-renewable-energy-projects/

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In the years ahead, the National Football League looks set to dial up some new tech blitzes that will make the game fairer and safer. Among the technologies most likely to make it onto the field soon are wireless sensors in the ball and in players' gear.

http://www.technewsdaily.com/going-deep-the-future-of-technology-in-the-national-football-league-1171/

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Putting chips into devices other than computers and mobile phones - a market known as embedded processors - represents a $10 billion opportunity, according to Intel's Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini. The market for PC processors is $34.5 billion.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/06/BUHI1F8BJF.DTL

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3M has agreed to acquire Tel Aviv based Attenti, a remote people-tracking technology provider for $230 million.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/48119/20100901/3m-attenti-cogent-google-facebook-location-based-services-geriatric-care-acquistion.htm

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410 twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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

Compliance Functions for Mobile Applications

In an article I published on The Enterprise Mobility Foundation earlier this week, I spoke of the challenges involved with managing a mobile workforce.  Here is an excerpt: 

"You are tasked with managing a team you cannot see. You are accountable for the safety of your employees in locations you have never been. Your success is based upon your team’s ability to overcome all kinds of technical challenges in remote and distant job sites. You are responsible for your team following company standards, processes and industry best practices without any supervision. You must expertly balance their schedules, qualifications and workloads to maximize customer satisfaction and profitability from a distance."

The management challenges listed above are magnified by distance, remote locations and the lack of management visibility.  Often these challenges are not just about managing.  They can also be about safety, liability, legality, quality and customer SLAs (service level agreements).

A few months back, Gil Bouhnick with Clicksoftware, told me about a mobile application he worked on that incorporated Union rules into a mobile application.  It included a complete set of rules, above and beyond, simple work order management.  This application would look at the tasks required of the service technician and review a database of Union rules to ensure the service technician was not doing anything counter to those rules.  This conversation got me thinking.

Perhaps mobile applications could have an application layer for the following:

• Safety compliance
• EPA compliance
• FDA compliance
• OSHA (occupational safety and health administration) compliance
• Legal compliance
• Union compliance
• Quality standards compliance
• Best Practices compliance
• Corporate standards compliance
• Sorbanes-Oxley Act compliance
• SEC compliance
• Customer Service Level agreement compliance

Of course this list could go on forever, but the point is mobile applications can integrate a "compliance" application layer that could associate different compliance issues with each piece of data and field.  Specific jobs could activate specific compliance rules.  Certain tasks and projects could flag specific safety procedures.  This "compliance" application layer could improve the documentation and implementation of the appropriate behavior in remote workers which in turn makes it easier to management them.

What are your thoughts?  Would this be a useful mobile application layer, or simply a pain for the mobile worker?

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

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

http://www.clicksoftware.com/e86e075b-4fca-44c9-bfeb-4efcc978f416/knowledge-center-white-papers-delivery.htm

Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly – September 2, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly 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 am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

You can read archived versions of the newsletter here - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html.

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The worldwide smartphone applications market grew more than $2.2 billion within the first quarter, according to a study by research2guidance. In 2009 the applications market had posted revenue of $1.7 billion. Mobile application download numbers reached a total of 3.8 billion in only six months, compared to 3.1 billion in 2009.

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=753129

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

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A new report from the Globe and Mail indicates that while Google’s rise in the smartphone world shook up the market, its Android operating system may have reached its peak.

http://www.visagemobile.com/news/news/understanding-mobility-management-news/5078/report-finds-growing-smartphone-options-for-businesses-may-lead-to-short-reign-for-android-devices-in-the-enterprise/

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Google unveiled a way for Web users in the U.S. to make calls through its Gmail email service, further pushing into the Internet-calling business and ratcheting up competition with similar services such as Skype.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703632304575451743621937792.html

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In May Dr. Neal Sikka began a six month study examining how accurately emergency doctors and physician assistants at GWU Hospital could diagnose wounds from patient-generated cellphone images. "Mobile health" does not mean a clinic on wheels. It is an emerging field within telemedicine that comprises all aspects of care generated from or available on a portable mobile device such as a cellphone.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/30/AR2010083003939.html

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Apple's iPad will account for an overwhelming 74.1 percent of global tablet shipments this year, with the remaining 25.9 percent consisting of a mix of older PC-type tablet products and competitive slates, according to a study by iSuppli.

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=753118

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Motorola Inc. unveiled a new smartphone version of its handsets that feature a popular Chinese handwriting technology, in hopes that the company can make a comeback in China, where it was once the market leader.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704323704575461513047883520.html

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Sony Ericsson Chief Executive Bert Nordberg said Tuesday that he expects smartphone use in China to expand to half of all mobile phone users in the country within five years, as the company joins other global handset makers in shifting its focus to higher end devices.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704421104575463344074776632.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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Samsung says they've sold one million T-Mobile Vibrants and AT&T Captivates in less than a month and a half in the US.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/08/29/samsung-galaxy-million/

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Microsoft will spend about $400 million to promote the launch of its forthcoming Windows Phone 7 operating system according to Deutsche Bank analyst Jonathan Goldberg, adding his forecast doesn't include the millions the software giant has already committed to pay its handset manufacturer partners to offset non-recurring engineering costs.

http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/analyst-microsoft-will-spend-400m-market-windows-phone-7/2010-08-30

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Mobile content revenues in the U.S. will increase from less than $1.15 billion in 2009 to over $3.53 billion in 2014, a compound annual growth rate of nearly 20 percent, according to a new forecast issued by digital intelligence firm eMarketer.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/emarketer-mobile-content-revenues-top-3-5-billion-2014/2010-08-31

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AT&T Mobility readjusted its schedule to begin offering services in a number of markets it had acquired from Verizon Wireless earlier this year. The carrier said it was moving up the launch dates in markets in South Dakota, North Dakota, Alabama, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado from the originally announced “mid-2011” to “the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011.”

http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20100902/CARRIERS/100909988/att-mobility-accelerates-alltel-market-transitions

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Syclo announced it is rolling out major enhancements to its Agentry mobile enterprise application platform. Agentry is the backbone of Syclo’s mobile solution framework as it provides both the tooling and infrastructure that enterprises need to develop, test, deploy and manage high availability mobile applications.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/Agentry_Mobile_Platform/Enterprise_Mobility/prweb4460374.htm

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T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced that the company has been awarded a three year blanket purchase agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Under the terms of the agreement, the EPA and its 17,000 employees will have access to a full range of T-Mobile products and services.

http://www.bradenton.com/2010/08/31/2540816/t-mobile-usa-awarded-epa-mobility.html

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The middle-aged Internet (ARPANET first went live more than 40 years ago) could easily slide into complacency, but the National Science Foundation might be staving this off with four multimillion dollar grants that the agency has recently awarded. The Future Internet Architecture research projects are expected to re-think the network from the ground up, taking into account emerging security concerns, the demand for greater bandwidth and the growth of mobile devices.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=re-thinking-the-internet-with-secur-2010-08-31

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You are tasked with managing a team you cannot see. You are accountable for the safety of your employees in locations you have never been. Your success is based upon your team’s ability to overcome all kinds of technical challenges in remote and distant job sites. You are responsible for your team following company standards, processes and industry best practices without any supervision. You must expertly balance their schedules, qualifications and workloads to maximize customer satisfaction and profitability from a distance.

http://theemf.org/2010/09/01/managing-the-mobile-workforce/

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I recently registered for SAP's TechEd 2010 Las Vegas. I am excited about it this year - the year of mobility! SAP's 2010 focus is - on premise, on demand and on device - MOBILE device that is. I will be teaching a session on The Future of Enterprise Mobility. I have seen the conference agenda and it is packed full of sessions on mobility. I hope to see all of you there!

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2010/08/kevin-benedict-on-teched-2010-in-las.html

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Nearly a year ago, on August 27, 2009, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski called to order his first meeting as the head of the new five member panel. Inside the FCC's low slung but expansive meeting room in Southwest Washington, D.C., the commission voted to open a series of inquiries into the wireless industry.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/special-reports/one-year-fcc-where-things-stand?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

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Companies could increase their annual revenue an average of $2.01 billion by improving employee productivity through making their data just 10 percent more usable and accessible.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/sybase/study-refutes-nick-carr-shows-data-it-do-matter/397

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Recent articles from Kevin Benedict’s blog Enterprise Mobility Strategies for SAP and Others:

Education and SAP Enterprise Mobility
Apple Stores and Motorola No More
Systems Integrators and SAP Enterprise Mobility

Recommended Webinar:

I participated in the webinar, 10 Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Selecting and Implementing a Mobility Solution this week. It can be viewed here, http://www.clicksoftware.com/96ec7ed7-023c-4260-a063-a7d5c320dd23/knowledge-center-on-demand-webinars-registration.htm?mgs1=06a52axCfU.

Recommended Whitepaper:

Networked Field Services - http://www.clicksoftware.com/1c7060c0-1296-4c54-90d6-8f83c5c5ecf0/knowledge-center-white-papers-registration.htm


**************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410 twitter @krbenedict Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro Full
Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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

Kevin’s M2M News Weekly – September 1, 2010

Welcome to Kevin's M2M News Weekly. This is an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to M2M (machine to machine) and embedded mobile devices that I read 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 the M2M market.

You can read archived editions of Kevin's M2M News Weekly at http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/m2m.html.

Also available are Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly and Kevin’s Enterprise Mobility Blog.

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The auto industry is getting fired up about wireless technology in cars and trucks, but it's not just for connecting passengers' laptops or streaming Internet radio stations. At an assembly plant outside Toronto, Ford Motor Co. is using Wi-Fi transmitters to load customized phone and entertainment features into its Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers as the vehicles chug down the production line.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704504204575445642013867472.html?mod=rss_Technology

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This week Audi has been demonstrating its Travolution technology on a fleet of test vehicles near its headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany. The Travolution package incorporates a number of different technologies, including vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure communications and SmartACC. The vehicle-to-infrastructure component allows vehicles to communicate with traffic signals over a combination of WiFi and 3G mobile.

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/06/03/audi-demonstrating-travolution-vehicle-to-infrastructure-communi/

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The National Science Foundation has awarded a three year, $7.5 million grant to a Rutgers led research team to develop a future Internet design optimized for mobile networking and communication. The team of nine universities and several industrial partners has dubbed its project “MobilityFirst,” reflecting the Internet’s evolution away from traditional wired connections between desktop PCs and servers toward wireless data services on mobile platforms.

http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/news-releases/2010/08/national-science-fou-20100827

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Although they won’t attain field readiness in time to help workers trapped by the mine collapse in Chile, a number of new technologies will enter service in the next few years that could drastically increase mine collapse survival rates. These technologies differ in their use, but all use advanced sensors to help miners locate fallen colleagues, alert rescue teams and flee to safety.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38884331/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

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The convergence of personal health records and mobile communication devices may provide the mechanism to engage consumers to use technology to enhance self-care, taking cost out of the health care system, according to a new Deloitte Issue Brief released today by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

ttp://pr-canada.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=253126&Itemid=59

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An ABI report indicates renewed interest from mobile operators in the M2M space, coupled with the widespread deployment of 3G, led it to predict the M2M market will be worth $3.8 billion by 2015.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/ereaders-tablets-are-early-winners-embedded-device-category/2010-08-26

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The love affair between people and their mobile phones will grow even stronger once those devices go beyond communications and entertainment and into actual control of entire home and office environments.
http://connectedplanetonline.com/topics/machine-to-machine/m2m-smartphones-smarter-083010/

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Intel's $1.4 billion acquisition of Infineon's wireless chipset unit is now official and may boost Intel's prospects in wireless a great deal, especially in smartphones and embedded wireless products.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/intel-goes-all-wireless-infineon-deal-will-bet-pay/2010-08-30

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Eurotech, a supplier of embedded technologies has announced the Eurotech TurboXb computer on module has been deployed in GE Healthcare's EView ventilator data capture device.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ge-healthcare-deploys-eurotech-turboxb-computer-on-module-in-medical-data-capture-device-accessory-101865608.html

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Telefonica will launch a new business area in September as the company looks to beef up its data technology services and expand revenue. The Madrid based telecommunications company said that besides the video content delivery network the company will expand in the segments of eHealth, applications, security and financial services, cloud computing and M2M Internet communications.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100831-703849.html

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Mobile payment is slowly gaining traction in China, with systems already in place in top-tier cities for subways, supermarkets, convenience stories, cafes, and fast food chains. China's mobile payment market size is estimated at USD 417 million in 2010, up 45 percent from 2009. Users are expected to nearly double to 150 million. These numbers mostly reflect niche forms of mobile payment, from IC embedded traffic cards to online payments made from a handset.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2010/08/31/4983086.htm

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The number of mobile connected M2M and embedded devices will ramp up to nearly 412 million globally by 2014, according to analyst firm Juniper Research. But the main market drivers won't be the oft-hyped e-readers or netbooks. Rather, they will be several enterprise verticals led by healthcare monitoring, a small market today, but one poised to achieve significant revenues.

http://connectedplanetonline.com/mobile-apps/news/m2m-connected-devices-grows-0122/

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Wireless operators have decided to stake their claim in the mobile telematics market. The market is growing rapidly, as module prices fall and the cost and time of developing and integrating new M2M solutions drops. The industry is no longer dominated by a few verticals, such as security and fleet tracking. Broad new fields such as telemedicine, home automation, agriculture — even the insurance industry — are investing in M2M.

http://connectedplanetonline.com/connectedplanet/news/operators_piece_together/

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The world of M2M communications is no longer just about vehicle tracking applications, Kore Telematics is fond of saying. But according to its own numbers, 70.7 percent of the M2M device connections Kore manages still connect GPS devices in vehicles and other assets.

http://connectedplanetonline.com/topics/machine-to-machine/kore-m2m-connections-071510/

***************************************************
Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410 twitter @krbenedict
Join SAP Enterprise Mobility on Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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

Education and SAP Enterprise Mobility

Last week I wrote an article pondering how management strategies may need to change to take advantage of both current and emerging mobile technologies.  My reasoning is that simply placing mobile devices in the hands of a mobile workforce does not on its own improve the business.  Mobile technology is simply a way of enabling new and improved business processes and management practices.  To me this means management needs to be educated.

The SVP of National Customer Solutions Delivery, Tony Geheran at TELUS recently stated, "Efficient and effective management of our large mobile workforce is critical to the success of our business.”  The important part to note about this statement is that efficient and effective managing is the key to success, not mobile technology.  Mobile technology is an enabler, not the end goal.

I read recently that one SAP mobility partner, Clicksoftware, is advocating the combination of technology with educational services to help businesses find the right balance between reducing costs, increasing customer satisfaction, employee preferences and industry regulations.   I am a fan of this approach.  Having been involved in hundreds of mobility projects I know how important it is for the stakeholders to have a deep understanding of why mobile technologies are useful and why it is worth the implementation effort and costs.

I believe it is important for managers today to spend time in education and research to learn how mobility can make managing more efficient and effective.

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

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

Apple Stores and Motorola No More

In December of 2007 I wrote a blog article questioning why Apple was using the Motorola MC50 handheld computers and Microsoft Mobile operating systems in their stores rather than their own devices and operating systems.  Every time I popped into an Apple store for the next couple of years I would see the same thing.  However, last month I noted that all the Apple sales associates were carrying the Apple iTouch with a sleeve that appeared to have an integrated barcode reader.

I interpreted this development to be a measure of progress that Apple has made toward supporting enterprise requirements.  Early on, Apple would not use their own solutions for enterprise class POS and retail applications but now in 2010 they do.

The iTouch was using an integrated barcode reader which is a good step toward field data collection.  It seems reasonable to assume it could also integrate with RFID and any number of additional Bluetooth enabled data capture accessories.

I wonder if there would be a large enough market for a ruggedized iPhone?  It would not work well with field workers that wear gloves, but for many service technicians working primarily indoors it might be fine.  There are a lot of service technicians from companies like Konica Minolta that work indoors and are implementing mobile field services solutions. 

Here is a description of the Konica Minolta solution.  Jobs are raised in the SAP system, and this information is automatically passed to ClickSchedule via the existing interface. ClickSchedule (from an SAP mobility partner) then allocates the most suitable individual to fix or service the product based upon the engineers' skill sets, location and availability. This information is then seamlessly passed to the field engineer via rugged mobile devices which the engineers use again to update progress.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Apple developed a ruggedized and industrial grade device running iOS for this segment of the market?  Would this work or do you see more limitations with the iOS that would prevent this from being a reasonable alternative?

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
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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.