Kevin Benedict Ponders the Future

Mobile Expert Video Series: Smartsoft Mobile's EVP Ed Krufka

I had the opportunity recently to video record an interview with Ed Krufka, EVP at Smartsoft Mobile about their company and strategies. Click here to watch the video interview on the YouTube SAP Mentor channel.

I think it is always interesting and useful to hear from someone that has 400,000 mobile users, and over 700 ERP/mobility consultants with over 5,000 man-years of experience on staff.

To watch other video interviews with mobility experts check out the complete list here.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
Phone +1 208-991-4410

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.

Field Service Automation ROIs and Service Optimization, Part 1

Andy Wright, in a recent blog article wrote, "According to a recent study by the Aberdeen Group; organizations that adopt a scheduling solution see on average a 12 percent improvement in workforce utilization. While many field service organizations are slow to adopt a scheduling solution, those considered “Best-in-Class” are 50 percent more likely to adopt and implement resource planning tools that harmonize the execution capabilities of their scheduling applications."

From personal experience I would agree with the Aberdeen Group's findings. When you consider all of the different areas where a service company can receive a positive ROI, not automating a field service organization seems simply irresponsible.

Here are some of the most basic areas to look for ROIs:

Save the office staff's data entry time. Enter clean, valid data in the field using your smartphone and have it automatically synchronize with your office business software application.
Dispatch service or work order information directly to your field worker's mobile device in real time. This improves work efficiency and customer care.
Synchronize data from the field, so you don't have to drive into the office to deliver your paper work.
Provide access to database information anywhere you go. This can mean customer history, product documentation, warranty information, inventory information, time sheets, work schedules and much more. This creates efficiencies both for the field worker and the office staff.
Use bar code scanning on your mobile device to scan equipment, inventory, buildings, products, etc. Scan a bar code and have all the relevant information on your asset immediately available for your review on the screen of your smartphone.
Immediate invoicing - complete work in the field and immediately print the invoice and hand it to the customer for collection. This improves cash flow and reduces collection issues.
Create an immediate audit trail of work and locations by integrating GPS to your invoices and work orders. Detail work completed in that location.
Take digital photos of before and after work to document tasks and the completion of work to reduce costly invoice disputes.

In part 2 of this article I will take a deeper look at ROIs available from mobilizing field services. In the meantime, SAP mobility partner, Clicksoftware has a short video that describes how to mobilize various tasks in the field.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
Phone +1 208-991-4410

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.

Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos Announces $1 Billion in Mobile Sales

Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO announced this week that they are seeing rapid growth in Kindle, Amazon web services, third-party sales and retail. He added, "In the last 12 months, customers around the world have ordered more than $1 billion of products from Amazon using a mobile device."

This is a very interesting report by Bezos on mobile sales numbers. I believe it! My wife is regularly using the Amazon iPhone application to order books and other essentials. You can find a book on a store shelf, reach for your iPhone and enter the ISBN number. You can immediately see the cost for a new and used version of the book on Amazon. With one click shopping the book is on its way, and since we subscribe to the free shipping program at Amazon, even the delivery is free.

This process must frustrate bookstores or maybe not. I guess any used book store can choose to sell books on Amazon - they could be the one making money from the Amazon iPhone application.

I wonder how Amazon's mobile applications change the way a used bookstore operates? I saw an example of some changes that I suspect have come about because of Amazon and mobile applications. I was recently in the Powell's bookstore in Portland, Oregon. As I was browsing the many rooms and floors of books (the store is enormous and a favorite destination of ours), I noticed that Powell's had covered all of the original ISBN numbers and barcodes on the books with a proprietary Powell's sticker and barcode. Why would they do that? It makes it far more difficult to look up the book on an Amazon iPhone application or scan the barcode with your iPhone RedLaser application.

Very interesting indeed!

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
Phone +1 208-991-4410
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 – July 22, 2010

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

Kevin’s Weekly M2M Newsletter – July 21, 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 check out Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly and Kevin’s Enterprise Mobility Blog.

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Trilliant, a California-based provider of smart grid solutions that enhance energy efficiency, utility operations, and renewable resource integration, this morning announced that it has secured a whopping $106 million in funding from a global syndicate of industry and financial big-names: Investor Growth Capital, VantagePoint Venture Partners, ABB and GE. In August 2008 Trilliant raised $40 million from MissionPoint Capital Partners and zouk ventures.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/15/smart-grid-company-trilliant-scores-106m-in-funding-next-up-an-ipo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

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Enphase Energy's new Environ Smart Thermostat lets you control your home’s temperature and monitor your solar installations remotely. All of the data is transmitted to a website where you can analyze your energy consumption and, with the new thermostat, control your home’s temperature from afar.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/14/enphase-energy-remote-thermostat/

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T-Mobile USA is continuing its aggressive push in the increasingly important M2M services market by striking a partnership with asset protection provider IContain and Asset Protection Products LLC to help reduce operating costs in the $7 billion US rent-to-own sector.

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=194363&f_src=lightreading_gnews

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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/
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Cinterion Wireless Modules, a leader in cellular M2M communication modules, and Airo Wireless, a maker of ruggedized cell phones, today announced their collaboration on the Airo A25 is, the first ever intrinsically safe, ruggedized cell phone certified for use in explosive, hazardous environments.

http://newsblaze.com/story/2010072005091700003.bw/topstory.html

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Elan Digital Systems UK believes that the next standard for M2M high speed data interface will be SDIO.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Elan-Digital-Launches-New-Dedicated-Custom-Design-Service-for-SD-SDIO-1293019.htm

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iSupplie has stated that embedded GPS technology won't just be limited to smartphones in the future. iSuppli says by 2014 there will be increased penetration in a variety of consumer and computer electronic devices. Examples of devices that will have embedded GPS in 2014 include 18 percent of all laptops and 42 percent of portable handheld video game players, the firm is estimating.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/business/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225900135

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While embedded and remote devices are not always highly visible because of their behind-the-scenes role, they are becoming pervasive. There will be more than 400 million embedded devices and M2M connections by 2014, when more of the world’s mobile data traffic will be transferred monthly on embedded computing systems than during all of 2008.

http://advice.cio.com/mark_gentile/11122/embed_management_capabilities_wherever_there_are_embedded_devices

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AT&T announced Wednesday it's signed an agreement to allow Petra Solar solar panels in New Jersey to communicate with the utility Public Service Electric and Gas over its wireless network. The AT&T agreement will allow the solar panels, which have their own smart-grid communication tools built in, to communicate with PSE&G's smart grid via the AT&T wireless network. The solar panels will even have their own pricing plan as part of the company's M2M service plan.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20011178-54.html

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US operator AT&T has announced new products aimed at the mobile enterprise, and a new partnership in the M2M space.

http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com/article/at-and-t-launches-encrypted-voice-expands-m2m

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Telit Wireless Solutions, Inc., the U.S. based mobile technology arm of Telit Communications, announced today that its CC864-DUAL, a CDMA-1XRTT dual-band cellular M2M communications module, is now certified for use with Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless service provider in the United States. Telit customers can now leverage the CC864-DUAL to launch smart, embedded cellular products on Verizon Wireless' nationwide wireless network.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/telit-technology-certified-to-connect-smart-devices-over-the-verizon-wireless-network-2010-07-21?reflink=MW_news_stmp

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With mobile services still on a rapid upswing in markets such as India and China, the past week saw the global mobile subscriber base reaching a new high of 5 billion on Thursday July 8, 2010, estimates leading telecom vendor, Ericsson. In the days to come, mobile services are also expected to be converged with M2M, and this is estimated to be a key component in the future growth of mobile services.

http://www.telecomtiger.com/Wireless_fullstory.aspx?storyid=9617&flag=1&passfrom=topstory§ion=S216

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The Subscriber Identity Module – that standard little chip that houses all of a subscriber's information for GSM-based networks card is changing. Long Term Evolution technology is advancing the smart card, while the potential of M2M communications is evolving the size and form factors for SIMs.

http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20100713/BSS_OSS/100719988/sim-card-evolves-with-lte-technology

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Rapidly falling chipset prices are making WiMax well suited for M2M communications, but expensive Long Term Evolution modules may be the only safe bet for the long haul, says Heavy Reading Mobile research analyst Tim Kridel.

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=194172&f_src=lightreading_gnews

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What do Jeff Bezos and Lindsay Lohan have in common? They are two examples of how the definition of M2M communications has broadened over the past two years.

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=194054

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry
Analyst CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
Phone +1 208-991-4410
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.

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Mobility Changes the Enterprise and Expectations

Companies rarely understand the full extent of the changes mobile software solutions will bring to their organization. They appreciate the concept of having access to enterprise content in mobile environments and converting paper document processes to electronic, but they don't often see the complete vision for how enterprise mobility can re-engineer business processes until they have walked the path for a while. Let me share some personal observations that I have had working on mobility projects.

Most mobile software projects start small and have a very limited user base and business focus in the beginning. As the users begin to test and adopt the new mobile software solutions, they most often expand the project as they quickly recognize the efficiencies that can be gained by using mobile enterprise. It seems many companies must see to believe.
There is usually some point about 80 percent through the mobile software project when the lights go on! The client can see beyond their immediate project to the greater potential for enterprise mobility. This is where the client starts wanting to add to the list of features and expand the project scope.
Mobility is a process - a company may start with simple mobile micro-apps (small iPhone, BlackBerry, Android apps) for alerts, notices, paper replacement, etc., and then expand to geospatially aware apps that are integrated with business intelligence and knowledge management applications.
Companies may start with mobilizing their field service technicians, but rapidly expand to mobile CRM, mobile shipping and inventory status, mobile enterprise asset management, quality assurance inspections and reporting, real-time mobile business analytics for the management team, route accounting and proof of delivery for the truck (or lorry) drivers.
The more the company learns, the more they realize the benefits of mobile data solutions. The challenge is architecting an enterprise mobility solution from the beginning that can accommodate all of these future additions. If a company has started down the path to mobilizing their operations and business processes but have chosen to customize each mobile application differently, they will quickly realize their error in not starting with a MEAP that can support all of the mobile applications on a common platform. The MEAP (mobile enterprise application paltform) is a server based product that supports a standardized way of designing, developing, deploying and supporting multiple mobile software projects in a standardized manner.
Once the MEAP is in place, all IT developers, consultants and technical support personnel can be trained on the same platform and methodologies for efficiencies and speed of development.
In addition to standardized design, development, deployment and support, a MEAP adds: version control, permissions, application publishing, data security configurations, database integrations, device management and much more.
It is important that field services organizations consider both the server side and the mobile side of an application. There are many advantages that can be gained if the enterprise field service optimization solution is tightly integrated with the mobile solution. Shared roadmaps can ensure that new features provided to the FSO application can be quickly extended to the mobile application. It is not good to require a separate software development project every time there is a new set of features delivered to the FSO application. The TCO (total cost of ownership) and pain goes way up! Companies like SAP's mobility partner, ClickSoftware combine both the FSA and mobile application together.
The field service technicians begin to hate paper very quickly after deploying good mobile applications. They don't want to use the mobile device for some data collection but paper for others.
The mobile user also has a smartphone, and they are increasingly sophisticated in their knowledge and use of smartphones. Their expectations for mobile enterprise applications is quickly rising.

If you have experience implementing mobile solutions, what additional observations have you noted?

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
Phone +1 208-991-4410

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.

A Mobile Work Order Process in the Field

What does an automated and "mobilized" work order system or service ticket dispatch and management system look like? Here is a scenario - A customer calls in to report a broken heating system. The office staff takes the phone call, enters the relevant information into the work order application on the desktop computer which then creates a unique work order and number.

The work order database application, with GIS integration, can compare the location of each service technician to determine which one is closest to the work location. The dispatch system can also look at the estimated availability of the nearby service technicians. In addition, the solution can quickly look up the qualifications of each service technician to see which ones are qualified for the job.

Once the appropriate service technician is identified, the work order is dispatched to the smartphone or handheld computer used by the service technician. Included in the electronic work order is driving directions from his/her current location to the next job location. In addition to the work order information, warranty, repair, users manual, maintenance history, customer support issues and product information on file can also be dispatched to the mobile device for reference and parts inventory management.

Once the service technician arrives at the location, he opens the work order on the mobile device. Opening the work order automatically captures the service technician's name, the date/time stamp and the GPS coordinates of the jobsite and enters them into the mobile application’s work order. In addition, the service technician can see where all other service technicians are currently located.

Next the service technician examines the broken heating system and determines which parts need replaced. He can pull out his mobile device and check whether he has the needed parts in his vehicle inventory, if not, it can automatically search for nearby service vehicles that may contain the part (GPS tracking enables this feature). If another nearby service vehicle is determined to have the required part, then driving directions can be provided.

When the service technician arrives at the service vehicle with the needed part, then the part is scanned using a bar code scanner in the handheld computer to log its removal from the vehicle's inventory and assigns it to the appropriate work order number.

Back at the work site, the service technician runs into a challenge. He has never worked on this model before and needs advice. He snaps a digital photo or activates his digital video and records a view of the equipment and problem. His supervisor reviews the images and quickly walks him through the repair.

Once the work is completed, the service technician signs his name on the mobile device screen, and has the customer sign the work order screen as well. The service technician prints an invoice on a mobile printer and collects the payment or swipes the customer’s credit or debit card. The collection is noted on the mobile work order and synchronized back to the office.

As soon as the work order is completed and synchronized, the mobile application reminds the service technician to promote a 2 year service contract. The service technician reviews the details with the customer and signs them up for a 2 year service contract. Next, the work order system reviews job locations and priorities and assigns the next optimized work order to the field service technician.

This is an example of the processes involved with a basic mobilized work order. There are many more powerful and sophisticated features available from field service automation experts like SAP mobility partner, ClickSoftware. I read recently about the "emergency response" capabilities of ClickSoftware that helps you understand the industry expertise that goes into an enterprise quality field services solution. You can read more about the "emergency response" capabilities on Gil Bouhnick's blog. Gil helps you understand the level of complexity involved in simply switching priorities and addressing emergencies while in the field.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
Phone +1 208-991-4410

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 – July 15, 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 newsletters here - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html.

You may also find Kevin’s M2M News Weekly on the subjects of M2M (machine-to-machine) and the mobile embedded device market of interest here - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/m2m.html.

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Trimble announced recently it has partnered with Timmons Group to provide an integrated system for the field collection, management, and submittal of wetland delineation data. The solution combines handheld computers with the WetCollect wetland delineation software to comply with the reporting requirements of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The COE determines whether a wetland is a "water of the United States," which is regulated under the federal Clean Water Act. [Kevin’s comments – this is an example of a mobile application that fits a very small niche. It is likely these kinds of field data collection applications will always be custom development projects. As such, it is good to have an SDK for mobile applications. This application will most likely be developed for Windows Mobile OS.]

http://www.trimble.com/news/release.aspx?id=070610a

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The iPhone 4 takes an average of 23 percent longer to charge while charging via USB than it does while charging via a standard electrical outlet.

http://iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=10516

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Foursquare has just over 1.9 million users. At its current pace, Foursquare will surpass 2 million users within a week. Currently Foursquare has about 5.6 million venues. One in three venues on Foursquare have been checked into only once or never.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/07/foursquare-gowalla-stats/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

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New research released recently by Anoto found that 86 percent of businesses are still using paper-based forms in either their own business or in their clients' business, compared to 13.9 percent who say they are no longer using them at all. This research confirms the ongoing use of paper-based forms in business and highlights a clear need for solutions that can digitally capture handwritten data. [Kevin’s comments – this is a good example of why there is still a great market for mobile forms builders, see an example here, http://clicksoftware-mobilefever.blogspot.com/2010/06/create-clickmobile-form-in-5-minutes.html.]

http://www.fieldtechnologiesonline.com/article.mvc/New-Research-Finds-86-Of-Companies-Still-0001?user=2373698&source=nl:28009

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According to ABI Research's Cellular Modem Product Tracking Database, more than 50 percent of the modem models now available in the market utilize the ubiquitous USB interface. USB modems have become the most popular products – so popular that ABI Research forecasts shipments of nearly 81 million this year.

http://www.fieldtechnologiesonline.com/article.mvc/More-Than-80-Million-USB-Wireless-Modems-0001?user=2373698&source=nl:28009

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Cardiologist Eric Topol sets aside his fresh garden salad and holds up an iPhone with a palpable sense of glee. “All I have to do is touch the screen and I can call up a patient’s vital signs, in real time,” said Topol, a renowned researcher at the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla. “See, there’s the heartbeat, pulse.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/27/topol-profile-6-28/

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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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Banks need to reinforce security for their mobile payment services, according to an Ovum research report. The report urges banks to understand the vulnerabilities in mobile payments at every level of its infrastructure.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/mobile-banking-growth-requires-defense-in-depth-security-study/

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MasterCard has introduced an iPhone application, The MarketPlace. The application gives MasterCard users mobile access to weekday deals. The application is a personalized shopping platform with customized deals and offers from select merchants.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/mastercard-extends-mobile-platform-to-revolutionize-mcommerce/

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According to Comscore by the end of April 234 million Americans aged 13 and over were mobile phone subscribers. So, based on Pew's estimate, nearly 89 million people in the U.S. have used the mobile internet in the past year -- close to one third of the total current U.S. population.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/07/08/mobile.internet.access.pew/index.html
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Spending on mobile display ads in the United States, estimated at just under $313 million today, will almost quadruple to exceed $1.2 billion in 2015, says ABI Research. The survey also finds that 28 percent of mobile subscribers are accessing the mobile Internet daily, and smartphone penetration in the US currently stands at about 20 percent.

http://www.mobiletechnews.com/info/2010/07/08/115843.html

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Mobile merchants that do not have a swipe available and have to run the card manually experience interchange rates of 2.4 percent or 2.5 percent compared with the typical card-present rate of 1.59 percent.

http://www.americanbanker.com/news/considering-mobile-payments-1021381-1.html

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According to Generator Research, the worldwide mobile payments market is expected to grow from $68 billion in 2009 to more than $600 billion by 2014, a compound annual growth rate of more than 50 percent over the next five years.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/press-release/t_new-mobile-applications-from-at-amp-t-enable-small-businesses-to-tap-the-68-billion-mobile-payments-1025876.html

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YouTube consumption on mobile devices increased 160 percent in 2009 over the previous year, with mobile video playbacks now topping 100 million per day.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/youtube-revamps-mobile-site-daily-views-top-100-million/2010-07-08?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz0t6jPGgIa

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Fifty-nine percent of American adults now go online wirelessly using a laptop or cell phone, an increase over the 51 percent of Americans who did so at a similar point in 2009.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Mobile-Access-2010.aspx?r=1

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Twitter now averages more than 800 million search queries per day, translating to over 24 billion per month--far behind Google (88 billion searches per month) but far ahead of Yahoo (9.4 billion) and Microsoft's Bing (4.1 billion).

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/twitter-exceeds-800-million-search-queries-day/2010-07-08?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz0t6hePFck

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The market for mobile health technology will reach an estimated $4.6 billion by 2014, according to a report by CSMG. mHealth is already a $1.5 billion market and it is expected to grow over the next five years at a 25 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate). If certain broad healthcare reforms are instituted, such as pay-for-performance, adoption could accelerate.

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/new-report-offers-insight-fragmented-mhealth-market

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The U.S. market for wireless home-based health care applications will grow from $304 million this year to $4.4 billion in 2013, according to a new report from Parks Associates, a Dallas-based research firm. That translates to estimated annual growth rates of 96 percent in 2010, 126 percent in 2011, 95 percent in 2012 and 68 percent in 2013. One factor fueling the increases is the economic stimulus law's health information technology provisions, which will open new opportunities for wireless vendors, according to the report.

http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/home_health-38778-1.html

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In the year 2000, about 720 million people had mobile subscriptions, less than the amount of users China alone has today. Mobile broadband subscriptions are growing at a similar pace and are expected to amount to more than 3.4 billion by 2015 (from 360 million in 2009).

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=744707

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While Foursquare is just shy of 2 million users, other services like MyTown have quickly surpassed that number. Same with Google Latitude, which is at 3 million. And you can put Loopt on that list as well, as today they’ve hit 4 million total users.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/09/loopt-4-million/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

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Research In Motion unveiled BlackBerry Protect, extending some enterprise capabilities (the ability to lock down or find a lost device, and to backup, restore and wipe its data). Protect addresses one of the most common security concerns: the lost or misplaced device.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225702859&subSection=All+Stories

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Research In Motion's BlackBerry operating system remains the dominant smartphone platform in the U.S., representing 41.7 percent of the market, its market share dropped 0.4 percent during the period as Google's Android increased 4.0 percent to 13.0 percent. Android was the sole platform to grow its market share during the period: Apple's iPhone slipped 1.0 percent to 24.4 percent, Palm's webOS fell 0.6 percent to 4.8 percent and Microsoft's Windows Mobile dropped 1.9 percent to 13.2 percent.

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/iphone-blackberry-slip-android-market-share-surges/2010-07-09

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It's official. Consumer Reports' engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception.

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/07/apple-iphone-4-antenna-issue-iphone4-problems-dropped-calls-lab-test-confirmed-problem-issues-signal-strength-att-network-gsm.html

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer promised within months a number of Windows-based tablets would be hitting the market, and that the company is urgently working to bring its Windows 7 smartphone OS to market.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/16520/ballmer_promises_windows_tablets_are_coming

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Facebook plans to migrate away from standalone mobile applications in favor of embracing a platform strategy enabling developers to leverage its position at the top of the social networking food chain. "Where we're going from here is a platform strategy. We're going away from a one-off app strategy." Facebook's conventional web platform supports more than 550,000 third-party applications and a million developer partners. Roughly 150 million users worldwide now access Facebook through their mobile devices.

http://social.venturebeat.com/2010/07/13/facebook-mobile-platform/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitter-publisher-main&utm_campaign=twitter

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Interesting mobile application strategies for fast food restaurants - On a weekly basis, McDonald’s sends program members a mobile email, with a list of coupons and promotions available that week. Customers then have two choices. One is to use their mobile browser to open mobile coupons, which are shown to McDonald’s cashiers—an alpha-numeric promotional code is clearly visible. The other option, if customers have already downloaded the McDonald’s mobile application, which 8 million consumers have already done, is to download the coupons to their contactless mobile wallet.

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/a-merchant%e2%80%99s-argument-for-mobile-contactless-technology-celent/

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The following links are interviews that I have conducted over the past few months with enterprise mobility experts and CEOs.

Mobile Expert Interview Series:

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-interview-series.html

Mobile Expert Video Series:

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/mobile-expert-video-series.html

Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly archives can be found at:

http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html.

I would invite those interested in enterprise mobility to join the Linkedin Group SAP Enterprise Mobility, http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2823585&trk=anet_ug_grppro

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
Phone +1 208-991-4410
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analsyt, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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M2M in the Home and at Work

Twice in the past two days a machine has sent me a M2M message in my home. The first time it told me that its inventory was low, and then asked if I wanted to replenish its inventory from a specific vendor. The second M2M message alerted me to a mechanical problem. In both cases it was my HP wireless printer.

Ericsson predicts that by 2020 there will be 50 billion M2M enabled devices. Those are large numbers, but I can see the value in my own home. I can just image the value in a large manufacturing operation. All the machines monitoring themselves and reporting mechanical problems, maintenance or replenishment needs.

I can also see the need for any company that has geographically dispersed high value assets like trucks, tractors, trailors, tools, etc., to want to track them and to know when they need repaired or serviced.

I have recorded a number of video comments on M2M which you can find on the SAP Mentor channel on YouTube. Click here for the list of YouTube videos: http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-video-comments.html , or read my M2M newsletter, M2M News Weekly here, http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/m2m.html.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict

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

SAP Enterprise Mobility Podcast

One of the key messages from SAPPHIRENOW 2010 is that this is the year of SAP mobility. To get a better handle on how mobility trends impact the enterprise and how to track those trends on the SAP Community Network, Jon Reed sat down with SAP Mentors John Appleby and Kevin Benedict. During this twenty minute podcast, John and Kevin explain the difference between enterprise mobility and point solutions and share their take on the SAP mobility trends to watch for this year.

Podcast: http://www.jonerp.com/content/view/354/55/

Newsletters: If you are interested in the latest news on enterprise mobility, check out Kevin's Mobility News Weekly - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-mobility-news-weekly.html or Kevin's M2M News Weekly - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/m2m.html.

Video Comments: View my ramblings on enterprise mobility - http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/p/kevins-video-comments.html

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
CEO/Principal Consultant, Netcentric Strategies LLC
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
http://twitter.com/krbenedict

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