Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

HTML5 - What's New the Week of November 28, 2011

Adobe Drops Flash Player for Mobile Devices

This month Adobe announced that it will no longer develop the Flash Player for mobile devices. Wow! Steve Jobs said it was not a worthy technology for the iOS platform and that Apple would not support it. Now it goes away completely. Add another correct check mark for the late Steve Jobs.

Adobe did state it will release one final version of the Flash Player for Android and the BlackBerry Playbook.  Danny Winokur, Vice President and General Manager of Interactive Development at Adobe stated on the Adobe Flash Platform blog: “HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively. This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.” He also indicated that “These changes will allow us to increase investment in HTML5 and innovate with Flash where it can have most impact for the industry, including advanced gaming and premium video.”

PC Magazine, in a November 10, 2011 article (Why Adobe is Deflating Flash: HTML5), states “Adobe's decision yesterday to stop development of its Flash Player for mobile devices and instead focus on creating tools for HTML5 seemed inevitable, given the near-universal support that HTML5 has garnered from the makers of mobile operating systems.”

Wedge Networks Announces Protection Against Security Threats in HTML5

Wedge Networks’ patented WedgeOS platform will support, protect, and mitigate against malware found in HTML5 specific content threats. According to the November 15, 2011 press release, “HTML5 provides a rich, responsive and standardized web application environment, enabling trends like mobile access and cloud-based applications. It is rapidly being adopted by organizations as web designers leverage the new protocols to create dynamic content to improve the overall end user experience."

Safer than previous versions, HTML5 however, does continue to have security challenges. To take advantage of the benefits of HTML5 while maintaining security, organizations require solutions that first support the protocol, then utilize techniques to understand and secure the content transferred through it. The WedgeOS platform from Wedge Networks is the first platform to support and secure HTML5 content and protocols.”

Read the complete press release here.

The Wall Street Journal on HTML5 

The Wall Street Journal published an article on HTML5 on November 11, 2011 titled “HTML5: A Look Behind the Technology Changing the Web”. The article’s author, Don Clark, states that according to binvisions.com, a blog that tracks Web technologies, 34% of the 100 most popular websites used HTML5 in the quarter ending in September. Mr. Clark goes on to say that despite the fact the HTML5 is missing some key features, the HTML5 excitement has spread, and many users won’t notice striking differences from websites that use Flash.  Also in the article, Dean Hachamovitch of Microsoft is quoted as saying “When you show people HTML5 applications, they say that doesn’t feel at all like a website.”

Read the complete article here.

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Mobile Commerce News Weekly - Week of November 28, 2011

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 Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Medical News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

PayPal has announced that on November 24, the company saw a 538 percent increase in mobile payments compared to the same day last year. Read Original Content

Following its success in the United States, Starbucks is planning to install a payment system in its iPhone app for 700 of its stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Read Original Content

Pyxis Mobile provides an agile, powerful, and secure mobile enterprise application platform. It enables rapid cross-platform application development, unlimited data integration, enterprise-grade security, and the unique ability to change and update applications in real time. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Pyxis Mobile, http://pyxismobile.com/

The European Union is deciding whether to regulate mobile payments as NFC technology is driving the rapid advancement of paying through smartphones. Read Original Content

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

Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Medical News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

SAP and Sybase, a provider of enterprise and mobile software, have unveiled new mobile apps designed for a wide range of industries and mobile workers, from executives to knowledge and task workers. Read Original Content

The U.S. Army Logistics Innovation Agency is installing more than 6,500 active radio frequency identification tags as part of its Next Generation Wireless Communications program for logistics applications, to track military vehicles and other equipment as they are washed at Camp Arifjan, in Kuwait. Read Original Content

The U.S. Army is currently developing a tablet computer for battlefield use. The tablet is expected to use Android operating systems, and be smaller than Apple’s iPad with a ruggedized a protective case. Read Original Content

Since 1995, Syclo has enabled hundreds of companies in 37 countries and industries supercharge their businesses with mobility. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Syclo. http://www.syclo.com/.

In recent years rugged tablet computers have found practical uses in work settings that include dairy farms, beverage distributors, and auto-part companies as they find that tablet computers allow for more efficient business practices. Read Original Content

Motorola's RhoElements is this Strategy a Trend?

In October of 2011, Motorola Solutions (MSI), the segment of Motorola that split off to focus on business solutions, acquired RhoMobile. Rhomobile is a software company that develops mobile business and government solutions, and MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms). The day that Motorola announced this acquisition, they also announced a new solution from RhoMobile called RhoElements, a hybrid HTML5 platform for Windows Mobile, Windows CE and Android based Motorola devices.

This is an interesting strategy for a traditional manufacturer of Windows Mobile and Windows CE based barcode scanners, ruggedized smartphones, handheld and tablet computers. It appears that MSI is no longer willing to wait for Microsoft based OS answers and upgrade paths.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has severely damaged the ruggedized hardware market through neglect and a refusal to provide an upgrade path for their Windows Mobile and Windows CE mobile operating systems. This has forced the ruggedized hardware manufacturers to try to compete and sell expensive mobile hardware, with outdated operating systems, against a tsunami of innovative, inexpensive, new consumer-oriented smartphones and tablets. The ruggedized handheld manufacturers have seen their markets shrink as a result.

This Microsoft engineered disadvantage is motivating the manufacturers of industrial grade mobile devices to look for alternative solutions and upgrade paths. It appears that MSI has acquired theirs with RhoMobile. Rather than wait for Microsoft, MSI released RhoElement which appears to enable HTML5 based mobile applications to run on the old Windows CE and Windows Mobile browsers as this excerpt from DevProConnect states, "RhoElements is designed to allow businesses to quickly and cost-effectively develop and deploy web-based applications on existing Motorola Windows Embedded Handheld (formerly known as Windows Mobile) and Windows Embedded Compact (Win-CE) mobile computers as well as Motorola's recently announced ET1 Android-based enterprise tablet."

MSI bought a MEAP with RhoMobile that they hope to make a "universal" standard. RhoElement already supports Windows Mobile 6.5 and Android, and they have promised to soon support all of the other popular OSs.

Let's now take a closer look at some of the motivations that MSI has given for the acquisition of RhoMobile:

We (MSI and RhoMobile) have a shared focus on the enterprise with a strong commitment to partners.
MSI will provide the scale, resources, and industry knowledge to accelerate universal adoption of Rho technology.
MSI is strategically committed to the Rhomobile suite of products.
MSI is committed to supporting the Rhomobile community and continuing the open source heritage of Rhodes.

My analysis is that given the lack of answers and no Microsoft provided upgrade path, MSI is strategically changing paths. They have seen the negative impact on their business caused by a dependence on Microsoft and have sought and found a non-operating system dependent path to innovation which is a RhoElement, HTML5 hybrid approach to enterprise mobility solutions.

It will be very interesting to see if others like Intermec, PSION, Honeywell, Trimble and others also decide to acquire a non-Microsoft path.

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Mobile Medical News Weekly - Week of November 21, 2011

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

Mobile Marketing Innovations - Guest Blogger

As marketplaces becomes more competitive, companies look for new ways to engage their customers. An increasingly popular method for doing this is through the use of creative mobile marketing campaigns.

People nearly always have their phones and tablets on hand, so it should come as no surprise that these campaigns are doing well. By taking advantage of the smartphone technology to create branded apps and promotions, many companies are seeing success at bringing customers to their store and visitors to their website. Here’s a look at five of the most innovative mobile marketing campaigns:

Starbucks – Starbucks recently launched an app for both the iOS and Android operating systems that allows customers to pay with their smartphones. The app, called Starbucks Card Mobile, is a virtual gift card, of sorts, and is reloadable. With money loaded on this “card” customers can simply scan their smartphones to pay for gourmet coffee and other drinks. More than 3 million customers have already used the app.

Dell – Combining mobile apps with mobile promotions, Dell is offering its customers special promotions when they text the word “OFFER” to 335548. Currently, Dell is offering a coupon good for $100 off either a Dell XPS 15 or 17 which they can then use with the new Dell Mobile app. By combining the power of a mobile app with SMS messaging, Dell shortens the shopping process for many customers.

Domino’s – Domino’s pizza lovers can experience the thrill of making their own pizzas with the Pizza Hero app for iPad. With this app, customers get to experience what it is really like to work in a Domino’s restaurant as they go through all the steps of making a pizza, from spreading the dough, to slicing it at the end. They can even play with a time limit and get “feedback” on their pizza making skills. After making the perfect pie, pizza “heroes” can then order it directly from the app.

Nike – Nike created a unique way to interact with its customers in real time when it launched a 23-story billboard in Time Square to promote their Nike iD footwear. Customers could call the number listed on the billboard from any phone—smart or not—in order to customize the on-screen shoe. The customers then received a text message with a link to buy their design.

Macy’s – Macy’s launched a campaign earlier this year called Backstage Pass that took advantage of QR codes to give customers behind-the-scenes looks at their products as well as celebrity tips for fashion and design. Because the company knew that not all of their customers would be completely tech-savvy, Macy’s also began running a series of ads to explain the QR codes and what they were for.
Mobile marking has helped these companies breathe new life into their customer base. It’s likely that this type of mobile marketing will continue to increase in popularity and importance as both companies and customers find new ways to take advantage of the technology.

I want to thank our guest author David Malmborg for sharing with us. David works with Dell and enjoys writing about technology, computers and saving money.

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Mobile Marketing News Weekly - Week of November 21, 2011

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 Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Medical News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

According to Juniper Research the mobile retail sector is set to grow up to $15 billion worldwide by 2012. This is an increase of 50 percent over and above the figures for 2011. An earlier report had predicted that revenue from the mobile NFC market would reach $50 billion by 2014. Read Original Content

Mobile QR codes in magazines have risen 228 percent since last January according to research firm Nellymoser. Read Original Content

For the second quarter of 2011, Pandora reported revenue that was up 117 percent year over year to $67 million, and mobile advertising accounted for half of that total revenue. Read Original Content

Pyxis Mobile provides an agile, powerful, and secure mobile enterprise application platform. It enables rapid cross-platform application development, unlimited data integration, enterprise-grade security, and the unique ability to change and update applications in real time. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Pyxis Mobile, http://pyxismobile.com/

As retailers battle to draw customers into their stores on Black Friday, online merchants are plotting a cunning ambush — offering an arsenal of mobile-only deals intended to pick off shoppers as they wait in line. Read Original Content

Mobility Charts Weekly - Week of November 21, 2011

The Mobility Charts Weekly is a weekly publication of charts depicting the current and future status of the enterprise mobility market. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

According to Canaccord Genuity analysts T. Michael Walkley and Mattew Ramsay, Apple controls only four percent of the total phone market, but captures 52 percent of its profits. Read Original Content

In the IDTechEx research report "RFID for Animals, Food and Farming 2011-2021", IDTechEx suggests that by 2021 the market for livestock tracking via RFID will have increased from $1.17 billion in 2011 to $4.09 billion in 2021. Read Original Content

Asymco.com has published a collection of mobility graphs recently, emphasizing the surge in Android smartphone shipments since the second quarter of 2007. Read Original Content

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

Click Here!

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 November 21, 2011

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 Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Medical News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

The latest installment of the Twilight movies, Breaking Dawn broke the all time mobile ticket sales record. Twenty-two percent of all tickets sold through Fandango.com were purchased with a mobile device. Read Original Content

A recent survey of shoppers by the National Retail Federation found that 50 percent of smartphone owners plan to use their device to research products or make a purchase this holiday. Read Original Content

Toys ‘R’ Us Inc. has expanded its mobile offerings for the holiday season, updating its iPhone and Android apps and adding technology from eBay Inc., Google Inc., Foursquare and shopkick. Read Original Content

Pyxis Mobile provides an agile, powerful, and secure mobile enterprise application platform. It enables rapid cross-platform application development, unlimited data integration, enterprise-grade security, and the unique ability to change and update applications in real time. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Pyxis Mobile, http://pyxismobile.com/

Of the 502 U.S. credit card users Auriemma Consulting Group surveyed online in June, 37 percent said the most likely place they would expect to use mobile payments would be in person at a large retailer; 29 percent said they would use mobile payments at a large online retailer; and 29 percent said they would use mobile payments at a large restaurant. Read Original Content

HTML5 Week - Thanksgiving Special

This week we are going to catch up on some of the recent news around HTML5. Stay tuned all week for articles on HTML5. Happy Thanksgiving!

Facebook launched a new “HTML5 Resource Center” to assist developers with building, testing, and distributing HTML5 apps. The Resource Center is available to all HTML5 developers. According to the Facebook Developers website, “Web technologies today enable you to build the kind of experience that until recently could only be built with proprietary technologies, like Flash and native mobile platforms. With the latest improvements in HTML5 and HTML5-capable browsers ubiquitous on desktops, smartphones and tablets, you can now build similar experiences using web standards.

In years past, users primarily used their apps on desktop. These days, users have multiple devices, and expect their experiences to be seamless and interchangeable across all their devices – desktop, mobile and tablets. Web enables you to build a seamless experience.”

To learn more about the Facebook HTML5 Resource Center visit: https://developers.facebook.com/html5/

Facebook has also created an HTML5 blog, which can be found at: https://developers.facebook.com/html5/blog/

Amazon is adding HTML5 to its updated Kindle E-book format. The new generation file format for Kindle books, KF8, will include new features and enhancements, including HTML5 support. The new format will soon replace Mobi 7. Amazon states in the announcement that the KF8 format “adds over 150 new formatting capabilities, including fixed layouts, nested tables, callouts, sidebars and Scalable Vector Graphics, opening up more opportunities to create Kindle books that readers will love.”

The Amazon announcement can be found at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000729511

Appcelerator will add HTML5 expertise with acquisition of Particle Code. Appcelerator announced on October 25, 2011, that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Particle Code. Appcelerator is an integrated mobile platform for rapidly developing native and mobile web applications using open web technologies. According to the press release, “The acquisition enables Appcelerator to expand its platform used by over 1.6 million developers to become the first mobile platform to offer an integrated native, hybrid, and HTML5 web application solution.”

Press Release: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/appcelerator-acquires-particle-code-to-become-the-leading-integrated-native-application-and-html5-mobile-web-platform-2011-10-24

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Enterprise Mobility Workshop in Irvine, California - Next Week

Next week on Wednesday, November 30th from 4:35 PM to 8 PM, I will be presenting a workshop on Enterprise Mobility and Mobile Strategies at the beautiful Winery Restaurant in Tustin, California (right next to Irvine). This will be held in an intimate setting with dinner, fine wine and good conversation (and an iPad 2 will be given away). There are still 10 seats left for executives and IT decision makers that are interested in learning more about enterprise mobility and mobile strategies. The event is sponsored by Preludesys. This is a condensed version of the workshops that I presented in Tokyo and Singapore last week.

If you are an enterprise executive or IT decision maker interested in learning more about enterprise mobility, then please contact Vince Burns, Preludesys' VP of IT Business Solutions at (310) 766-3079 for reservations.

I will be providing an overview of enterprise mobility, my latest mobility research, mobile priorities, expected ROIs, and reviewing new enterprise mobility strategies.

If you are in Southern California, I would love to meet you!

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Field Mobility News Weekly - Week of November 21, 2011

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

Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Medical News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read Mobility Charts Weekly

Panasonic has officially announced its Toughpad lineup of rugged tablets. The 10-inch A1 and 7-inch B1, are built for heavy-duty usage scenarios like military deployment, construction sites, and unruly kindergarten classrooms. Read Original Content

Mobile apps geared to enterprises will generate more than $150 billion globally for solution providers over next six years, according to Insight Research Corp. Read Original Content

Korean pharmaceutical companies are beginning to use RFID tracking technology to maintain more secure inventories and to prevent illegal production and sale of counterfeit and substandard drugs. Read Original Content

Since 1995, Syclo has enabled hundreds of companies in 37 countries and industries supercharge their businesses with mobility. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Syclo. http://www.syclo.com/.

Xplore Technologies, a manufacturer of rugged tablet PCs, has recently received purchase orders from one of the world’s largest utility companies for the purchase of more than 4,000 of the Company’s newly launched iX104C5 rugged tablet PCs, representing over $14 million in aggregate sales orders. Read Original Content

Mobile Expert Video Series: K2 Partnering's Patrick Caroll

Patrick Caroll is an industry veteran and mobility expert that has spent time in his career at SAP, Vivido Labs and other large high tech product and services companies. This last week he was my Asia travel partner, event manager and "minder" (A person assigned to guide or escort a visitor, or to provide protection to somebody, or to otherwise assist or take care of something. ~ Wikipedia).

We conducted a series of workshops on enterprise mobility, and mobile strategies in Japan and in Singapore. We met with folks from SAP, IBM, Danone, FujiFilm, Cognizant, Novartis, GAP Japan, Accenture, British Telecom, Spansion Appio Labs, NEC and many other companies.

Patrick does not normally wear the beginnings of a mustache, although with 6 or 7 months I am sure it would look good. He is participating in the Movember campaign during the month of November to raise awareness and funds for male cancer initiatives such as prostate cancer.

In this video Patrick Caroll discusses these workshops and our experiences in Tokyo.

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: K2 Partnering's Mark Stevenson

Mark Stevenson with K2 Partnering is a great sport and a pleasure to interview. He first showed me around some of the best food stands in Singapore, and then was nice enough to allow me to interview him about his versatile Samsung Galaxy.

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

M2M News Weekly - Week of November 14, 2011

Mobile Video Expert Series: Jeff Wallace in Tokyo

I had the opportunity to sit down with Cognizant's AVP of Mobility, Jeff Wallace earlier this week in Tokyo and ask him about enterprise mobility and what he is seeing in the market.

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Mobile Expert Video Series: Mikie Noma

This week I presented several enterprise mobility workshops in Tokyo. In this interview I corner K2 Partnering's Mikie Noma, a participant in one of our Tokyo workshops, and ask him what he learned.

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Reporting on Enterprise Mobility from Singapore

Singapore's Skyline

Early this morning (2 AM) I landed in Singapore, took a taxi to my hotel and slept for a few hours. I got out of bed at 6 AM and walked around the city as the sun rose. Later in the day, I had the pleasure of conducting a workshop on enterprise mobility to a full house in the Screening Room which is not far from Singapore's China Town.

The weather was hot and humid today, but there was no rain until late in the afternoon. My traveling companions said we could walk to the workshop venue, but a mile walk in this humidity would have left us dripping in sweat so we opted for a taxi ride.

It was great to be guided by Patrick Carroll on this trip as he grew up in Singapore and attended school here.

The event was organized and sponsored by the good folks at K2 Partnering and it was well attended with folks from SAP, IBM, British Telecom, Johnson Controls, Cognizant, Spansion, Kulicke and Soffa and many others attending. We had a lively crowd that was willing to ask questions and share experiences over lunch and during the workshop.

Jeff Wallace with Cognizant
(right) and Patrick Carroll (left)
with K2 Partnering

One of our workshop participants shared a story about how 5,000 rugged devices were purchased and deployed to their field services teams, but that the field services teams had refused to use them. The project ended up failing partly because the users did not want to carry the heavy and ugly ruggedized "bricks."

Another attendee confirmed my observations that most companies avoid using the IT department for mobile B2C (business to consumer) app development and implementations. It seems most B2C projects are outsourced by the marketing departments.

IBM, SAP and Cognizant all shared that they were expanding their efforts around enterprise mobility in Asia and that there is a great deal of interest among their customer bases.

Singapore is a very interesting mix of cultures and a hub for global commerce. You can't walk a block without passing dozens of delicious looking restaurants with exotic foods from all over the globe.

Many western companies have their Asian headquarters in Singapore as English is the official language and it is a business friendly central location.

These enterprise mobility workshops that I have been conducting seem to be both useful and popular as many of the attendees were asking for the dates of future workshops that their colleagues could attend. I cover mobility platforms and frameworks, mobile security, mobile SDKs, mobile strategies and supporting a real-time enterprise.

Side note #1: The K2 Partnering team in Singapore also voted Korean food as their favorite. What is up with that?

Side note #2: My Singapore hotel shower head is directly over the toilet. How very efficient.

Side note #3: Foot massages hurt.

Side note #4: My spicy chicken dinner included about 50% chicken bones.

Side note #5: If you hang up your dress shirts overnight they are wrinkle free in the morning due to the humidity.

Side note #6: A one way street means you must drive in reverse to go against the traffic.

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

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the SAP Enterprise Mobility and Sybase Unwired Platform Groups

Read The Mobility News Weekly

Read The M2M News Monthly

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

Mobility News Weekly - Week of November 14, 2011

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

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

According to NPD Group, 59 percent of all mobile phones sold during the third quarter of 2011 were smartphones, up from 46 percent in the same period last year. Read Original Content

According to research firm Gartner in the third quarter of 2011, Android phones accounted for 52.5 percent of all smartphones sold worldwide, up from 25.3 percent in the same quarter last year. Read Original Content

Worldwide sales of mobile devices totaled 440.5 million units in the third quarter of 2011, up 5.6 percent from the same period last year, according to Gartner, Inc. Read Original Content

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/.

Android tops the charts in mobile malware, largely due to the failure of Google's Android Market to properly review apps before they hit the marketplace, says a new report from Juniper Networks. Read Original Content

Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

HTML5 - What's New the Week of November 28, 2011

Mobile Commerce News Weekly - Week of November 28, 2011

Field Mobility News Weekly - Week of November 28, 2011

Motorola's RhoElements is this Strategy a Trend?

Mobile Medical News Weekly - Week of November 21, 2011

M2M News Weekly - Week of November 21, 2011

Mobility News Weekly - Week of November 21, 2011

Mobile Marketing Innovations - Guest Blogger

Mobile Marketing News Weekly - Week of November 21, 2011

Mobility Charts Weekly - Week of November 21, 2011

Mobile Commerce News Weekly - Week of November 21, 2011

HTML5 Week - Thanksgiving Special

Enterprise Mobility Workshop in Irvine, California - Next Week

Field Mobility News Weekly - Week of November 21, 2011

Mobile Expert Video Series: K2 Partnering's Patrick Caroll

Mobile Expert Video Series: K2 Partnering's Mark Stevenson

M2M News Weekly - Week of November 14, 2011

Mobile Video Expert Series: Jeff Wallace in Tokyo

Mobile Expert Video Series: Mikie Noma

Reporting on Enterprise Mobility from Singapore

Mobility News Weekly - Week of November 14, 2011

Interviews with Kevin Benedict

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