I have talked a lot about the need to Mobilize Existing Business Systems and Processes in an innovative and strategic way and at the heart of this for Mobile App development is the Mobile Enterprise Application Platform or MEAP. This is important because mobile technology is evolving so rapidly. Companies need to be in position to take advantages of new innovations as they come to market. The world is increasingly unforgiving of those who fail to keep up, as I have said before... Don't be left in the Starting Blocks!
There is a lot of competitive advantage in Mobility and you need to invest in your vision to reap the reward! You need to also build a Business Mobility Infrastructure that is capable of accommodating new mobile technologies.
You might say, but with all the advances that we’ve seen in the past couple of years, with so many new models of smartphones, and now tablets, what more can there really be? How many ways can device manufactures package a Converged Mobile Device (CMD - I'm bundling both smartphone and tablets here)? You're probably asking...Isn’t all this mobility frenzy going to settle down?
That is possible, but just when you think you’ve seen it all……..
Recently there was an interesting story (part 1 and part 2) about a mobile device under development at Microsoft around the time that Apple was developing the iPad. This device, called Microsoft Courier, was a totally different, 2-screen approach to a tablet that looked more like a thin book. When you open a book, you see facing pages. When you opened the Courier, you would see facing screens. The screens were smaller than iPad screens, giving the entire device a smaller form factor, but the total screen area was larger. Early previewers of this innovative device fell in love with it.
To make a long story short, Microsoft Courier never saw the light of day. The story detailing the Courier’s development and ultimate demise, along with lots of speculation as to what this means about Microsoft as a company, makes for fascinating reading. However it underscores a very important point for business mobility planners. The numbers and varieties of devices that are probably under development at this very moment are hard to imagine.
I personally believe that we are at the point in Mobility where it is now so the Norm that we will see massive growth in new Mobile Innovations, that we can only dream of!!!
I will just throw out an idea to you all, that could be in the not-too-distant future. It’s based on the fact that several of the latest smartphones and tablets (CMD's) contain dual core processors, which makes them potentially more powerful than notebook computers of several years ago. Personally I believe we are in the Post-PC Era. Imagine an office of the near future:
You arrive at your office and sit down at your desk or in fact any available desk. The desk is clear, except for a big monitor and an stylish wireless keyboard, but no desk phone. There is also a little Bluetooth unit beside your coffee mug. You take your CMD out of your pocket or bag (or not if you so wish) and it connects to the Bluetooth unit. The monitor lights up. You check email, write a few messages, edit a document, check your calendar, access internal information via an in-house built application, take a call while working... maybe via a Voice Over IP service (you have a Bluetooth ear piece, and your CMD is a powerful multi-tasker... a Converged Mobile Device). A meeting alert pops up on your monitor. You take your CMD and you head out to your meeting. The monitor on your desk goes dark.
Is this an accurate vision of the future? Will we all become Mobile Workers of one shape or form? Who knows? But if you have already embraced Enterprise Mobility and with the right kind of Mobility Infrastructure Vision, you will be ready for it when it happens and at the head of the pack!!!
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