|
 |
|
|
Feed: LATEST NEWS FROM WIRELESS DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL
Latest News from Wireless Developer's Journal
Mobile Expert Video Series: Smartsoft Mobile's EVP Ed Krufka
28-Jul-10
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.read more
In Business, the Pen Is Mightier than the iPad
26-Jul-10
Since the iPad’s release this year, questions have emerged as to whether tablet PCs will become a mainstream business tool. More specifically, does the tablet form factor address business needs better than other options that currently exist? If an organization has a significant number of field-based employees where mobility is an issue, the answer may be no. Tablet PCs can often be too expensive, too fragile, and too training-intensive to be effective. There is a clear need for a solution in the market to fill the “white space” that currently exists to capture and transmit information, particularly for enterprises with a significant mobile workforce. Digital pen technology offers an alternative to screen and keyboard solutions and can easily capture, process, interpret and transmit information in real time.read more
Nokia Reportedly Looking for New CEO
25-Jul-10
Nokia has reportedly been interviewing for a new chief executive to replace Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the guy it wants to dump.
The Wall Street Journal says the board could make a choice by the end of the month.
Nokia has no answer for the iPhone or Android, its market share and market cap are in freefall, its profits are badly eroded and it’s down to selling cheap low-end phones by the gross.
It hired Sun’s old EVP of software Rich Green as CTO a couple of months ago seeking salvation. read more
Mobility Changes the Enterprise and Expectations
20-Jul-10
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 paper, 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.read more
Certeon Enhances Global Partner Program
20-Jul-10
Certeon, a provider of virtualized wide area network optimization (WAN) and application acceleration, on Monday announced a restructuring of its global Channel Partner Program to help resellers deliver high-performance and cost-effective WAN optimization solutions to the virtualization, disaster recovery and cloud computing markets. The enhanced program provides partners a competitive edge over hardware WAN optimization solutions by giving benefits that, combined with Certeon’s cost-effective, software-based aCelera virtualized WAN optimization technology, significantly increases their ability to penetrate these high-growth markets.
Key components of Certeon’s new Channel Partner Program include technical and sales training, certification, deal registration, a service tracking and alerting system, sales and marketing support, and software demo labs. The program offers three different levels of support to best meet the needs of resellers and their target markets. The flexibility of this program enables resellers to bring enterprise-class WAN optimization solutions to a wide range of customers, from SMBs to large global enterprises.read more
I'll Call You Back, I'm in Mongolia
19-Jul-10
I've always thought the term mobile worker to be something of a misnomer. Most of them, it seems to me, are actually sitting at a desk in a spare upstairs bedroom, or on a nice day, in the garden.
Even the most dedicated road warriors never really log on from anywhere more exciting than the Costa Coffee at Watford Gap Services.
Step in F5 Networks, which will be demonstrating the more adventurous side of remote working later in the month when a sponsored team of adventure travellers will set off, not to a reseller seminar at the Swindon Holiday Inn, but across central Asia to Mongolia, the land of Ghengis Khan, tweeting and blogging as they go.
During their 10,000 epic road trip, which takes in Europe, Russia and the wild Siberian steppe, Team Bataar Hero (Bataar as in Mongolian capital Ulan Bataar - see what they did there?) will be road-testing some of the latest F5 technology.read more
Mobile Devices Meet Bricks and Mortar
19-Jul-10
A recent WSJ report Venture Capitalist's New Frontier, Where Cellphones Meet Retailing points to Reid Hoffman, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who put money early into hot start-ups like Facebook Inc. and online gaming company Zynga Game Network Inc., now has his eye on the intersection of mobile phones and bricks-and-mortar retailing.
As well he should. The explosion of mobile devices, adoption of social media and new business models that blend online and bricks and mortar components around the customer will contribute to new ways to engage shoppers.While the technology is emerging in traditional retail, I fully expect it to increasingly enter the bricks and mortar fitness and wellness space soon. Members should be able to purchase and interact with facilities using mobile devices wether outside or inside of the four walls. Solutions that bridge the mobile and facility worlds will flourish.read more
Microsoft Amassing Slate Army
18-Jul-10
Royally trumped in the tablet business that it couldn’t get off the ground – while Apple made it look easy – Microsoft is promising to return in force underneath the slates that 21 companies are supposed to put out within the year to dip their bread in the bubbling Apple-made gravy.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Monday that companies like Asus, Acer, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Panasonic and Sony – even HP despite its current infatuation with Palm’s WebOS – will be coming out with Windows 7-based tablets.
“This year one of the most important things we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates and Windows 7 phones,” he said. This is a terribly important area for us. We are hardcore about this.” read more
NTT Buys Dimension Data
18-Jul-10
Looking for growth and global expansion, NTT, Japan’s giant telecom, is buying South Africa’s $4 billion-a-year IT services and support company Dimension Data Holdings (DiData) for about $3.2 billion cash. That’s an 18% premium to its share price.
DiData’s geographic reach is pretty evenly divided among Australia, Europe and the Middle East and Africa. Its 6,000 customers in 49 countries include BMW, Capital One and Pfizer and it’s chummy with Cisco and Microsoft.
DiData’s customer base represents a cross-sell opportunity for NTT, which also builds and runs networks and data centers. As it happens DiData manages $12.5 billion worth of networking equipment. read more
Apple Reportedly Bid for Palm
17-Jul-10
Silicon Valley Insider thinks it’s identified the companies that tried to buy Palm and didn’t.
Remember Companies A through D that Palm talked about in the merger proxy filed with the SEC? Well, the blog thinks Company A, which offered $600 million cash, was Apple. It was Apple’s second time through (Steve tried to buy Palm years ago) and it was mostly interested in Palm’s patent stockpile but reportedly seemed willing to fund operations.
It thinks Company B was Lenovo. It put stock on the table but said it needed time to close the deal. Palm didn’t have time. read more
SteelCloud Launches Hosting Program in Australia and New Zealand
16-Jul-10
SteelCloud, a developer of mobility computing appliance solutions on Thursday announced the launch of its BlackBerry Hosting Program in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). ANZ members of the BlackBerry Alliances Hosters Program will now have access to a simple, cost effective hosting solution with direct access to BlackBerry technical experts.
SteelCloud is a leading designer of specialised appliance solutions for mobile computing technologies including BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The company delivers integrated hardware/software appliance solutions, to commercial and government enterprises, that focus on ease of deployment, policy compliance, and high availability. SteelCloud currently offers BlackBerry Enterprise Server licensing to hosters in 108 countries worldwide.read more
Kevin’s Mobility News Weekly
15-Jul-10
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.
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.]read more
M2M in the Home and at Work
15-Jul-10
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.read more
Cisco Courts Consumers at Home and at Work
15-Jul-10
Starting with the newly introduced Cisco Cius at the Cisco live conference in Las Vegas, it promises to take business collaboration to the next level with its HD quality video and wireless desk-top integration. From collaborating at the office or from a remote location the Cius makes it possible to keep you in touch with what is important in your business.
With consumers in mind, the Cisco Valet is a simple but yet ingenious wireless router for the home priced at $99.00, and makes connecting the whole home Wi-Fi experience a fast and easy task, which historically could be somewhat of nightmare. The Valet soothes consumers into “easily connecting your family’s computer, games and devices to the Internet”.read more
Apple Schedules Emergency Press Conference
15-Jul-10
Catching flak for arrogance and shoddy PR, Apple has whistled up what looks like an emergency triage press conference for hand-picked reporters at 10am Friday morning Left Coast time at its Silicon Valley headquarters.
It presumably means to stem the unaccustomed lost of reputation and drop in its runaway stock price created by its so-called “Antennagate” crisis, an event that Microsoft COO Kevin Turner compared Wednesday to Microsoft’s Vista debacle, or hoped as much.
read more
Windows Phone 7 Beta Tools
14-Jul-10
I cannot believe I have only been working on the Windows Phone 7 team for three months. So much has happened, it feels like a lifetime. What’s been most impressive to me has been the pace of the engineering team. Considering how many technologies from across the company we are bringing to WP7, it’s absolutely amazing what they are doing. This week, during Andy Lees’s keynote at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, we announced that the Windows Phone Developer Tools have gone BETA. Beta means that we have a near final version of the tools for building apps and games for Windows Phone 7.read more
Incorporating Video in Your Enterprise Mobility Application
14-Jul-10
Video on mobile devices is powerful. I started blogging about videos in mobile applications about three years ago, but at that time it was only available on Windows Mobile devices via a link to a browser that connected to YouTube or other video sites. Today mobile devices take and support HD video natively. YouTube can now be an application on your device, and with the new iPhone's FaceTime application you can have real time video (if speaking to another iPhone 4 user). All interesting, but how can it be used by the enterprise?read more
Why Don’t Businesses Value Mobile Computing?
13-Jul-10
I was chatting with one of our valued partners today, and we got into a very interesting discussion regarding the adoption of field based mobile computing. It appears as if we have both stumbled upon the same problem. The apparent disconnect between automating office based paper processes, and field based paper processes. This discussion really made me think.
"Why don't businesses value mobile computing like they value office based computing?"
For years companies have been using computers in the office to aid in the functions necessary to run the daily operations of the business.read more
Google’s Android Dominates U.S. Mobile Market Space
13-Jul-10
According to a new report by comScore which ranks the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers and smartphone operating system platforms in the U.S, Android's share of the US smartphone market increased 4 percent during the period between February and May of 2010. The report indicates that the smartphone market itself is expanding at a rapid rate with 49.1 million smartphone users in the US, up 8.1 percent from a year ago. Android has been able to capitalize on this increase and is definitely seizing market share from its competitors in the United States. Blackberry fell from 42.1 to 41.7 percent, Apple came down by 1 percentage to24.1 per cent and Microsoft by nearly 2 percent to 13.1 percent while Android phones accounted for 13.2 per cent of the market.
Data from the May report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.4 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with more than two out of every five handsets. LG ranked second with 21.5 percent share, followed by Motorola (21.2 percent share), RIM (8.7 percent share, up 0.5 percentage point) and Nokia (8.1 percent share).read more
Roaming Charges Mean Rethink for Telecoms
09-Jul-10
It is to the benefit of every business to understand and communicate with the customer but how this happens makes the difference between a success or the miscommunication of your message. The Roaming charges for European customers are but another example where companies did not communicate to the customer. It seems at last lessons are being learnt.read more
SoftLayer Provides Mobile Application for Android OS
07-Jul-10
SoftLayer Technologies, the innovative on-demand data center services provider, on Tuesday announced the recent release of its SoftLayer Mobile Client for Android. The application brings much of the functionality of SoftLayer’s highly valued Customer Portal in a native client for Android OS-based devices.
SoftLayer Mobile Client for Android includes capabilities for managing:
Tickets: Allows the creation and viewing of tickets for support questions or requests.
Servers: Provides details about Dedicated Servers, Virtual Servers, and CloudLayer™ Computing Instances, as well as the ability to manage system startup, shutdown, pinging, and reboot.
Bandwidth: Delivers bandwidth usage information for Dedicated Servers, CloudLayer Computing Instances, and Virtual Racks.
“SoftLayer is committed to making hosting and server management as easy and convenient as possible for our customers. So we’ve leveraged the power, security, and connectivity of the latest mobile devices to take that convenience even farther—literally wherever our customers go,” said Nathan Day, SoftLayer Chief Technology Officer. “And as a native application, Mobile Client for Android truly provides robustness and a level of control that just isn’t possible with a mere mobile-web version of a management portal.”read more
Microsoft, Free Software and Enterprise Mobility
06-Jul-10
Three years ago, Microsoft's Windows Mobile dominated the world of mobility. Thirty-six months later they have disappeared from consumer mobility and are fighting to defend their last foothold in enterprise mobility. How could a company as successful and technologically astute as Microsoft fail so completely in a market as large and important as mobility? They roared right past Palm with their marketing power a few years ago but then they seem to have taken a sabbatical. In the July 5th edition of The New York Times, Ashlee Vance wrote an article entitled, Microsoft Calling. Anyone There? In this article she writes that one of the key challenges Microsoft faces is attracting young developers. Vance writes that young cash strapped entrepreneurs are working with free or low cost software from places like Google's Android and Apple. They are avoiding expensive developer licenses that Microsoft often requires. The hip young developer community doesn't even consider Microsoft when looking to develop cool new mobile software applications. They don't believe it has market potential worth pursuing.read more
Android – Can You Afford to Ignore It?
06-Jul-10
Yes – I suppose you can ignore Android if you only work on the server side and have nothing to do with how user interacts with your application or you have taken a vow not to touch anything that has Java in it. Otherwise it may not be very wise to ignore Android. Did you know that…
1. In Q1 2010, Android based phones outsold iPhone in US – Report from OSnews
2. Google TV which is scheduled for launch on fall 2010 will run on Android – Announcement on Google Blog
read more
The Cius Mobile Collaboration Business Tablet
29-Jun-10
In today's fast-paced world, the need to be constantly connected and always accessible has made mobility a strategic corporate asset across the enterprise. Business can come to a halt when employees do not have access to network services and when they cannot easily reach the people they need -- or be reached by the people who need them. Cisco has unveiled Cisco Cius, a first-of-its-kind mobile collaboration business tablet that delivers virtual desktop integration with anywhere, anytime access to the full range of Cisco collaboration and communication applications, including HD video. Cisco Cius is an ultra-portable device weighing just 1.15lbs (0.52kg) that extends the productivity benefits of Cisco collaboration applications to a highly secure mobile platform.read more
1.7 Million iPhones Sold in Three Days
29-Jun-10
Apple said Monday that more than 1.7 million of the new iPhone 4 had sold between Thursday when the device, now apparently in spotty supply, hit the stores and closing time Saturday.
It’s unclear whether the historic number includes the 600,000 the company said had been pre-ordered.
In a statement CEO Steve Jobs said, “This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.”
The white version of the phone isn’t available at all right now because of some production glitch.
Apple sold a million of the iPhone 4’s 3G predecessor in its first three days last year. read more
Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Opportunity for Mobile Operators
28-Jun-10
I had the opportunity to present and sit on a panel at the Connected World Conference in Chicago last week, and I thought I’d summarize some of the key discussion points from these sessions. That Machine-to-Machine (M2M) is gaining ever increasing mindshare and market size is indisputable. Some recent market data: the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) (http://www.cisco.com/go/vni) forecasts that there will be over 5 billion personal devices connected to mobile networks by 2014 – and potentially billions of M2M-capable nodes. ABI Research forecasts nearly 200m deployed M2M devices by 2014, and operators’ own forecasts are much more aggressive, numbering over a billion in the same timeframe! And Berg Insight projects the share for M2M of total mobile subscriptions to grow from 1.4% in 2009 to 3.1% in 2014, with the U.S. having the highest M2M penetration at 4.3% of all mobile connections – largely due to massive adoption of telematics technology in the automotive industry.read more
Smart Grids on the Verizon
28-Jun-10
The European Union recently announced concern that more than 55% of its energy still comes from outside of its jurisdiction. Therefore new legislations have been passed to force large utilities to promote to their customers a more frugal approach to energy usage, backed by massive investment in the renewable sector. The end goal is to reduce the energy reliance outside the EU.
Owing to this, leading energy experts of the NGU EU council (hosted by GDS International) have been summoned to construct a plan to cope with the transformation of the electric grid towards a networked infrastructure. However, this is fraught with several insecurities, as expert’s debate between a smart grid program and the inevitable modernization of existing infrastructureread more
Cisco TelePresence via American Express vmX
23-Jun-10
American Express Business Travel and Cisco announced the global availability of public Cisco TelePresence Suites through American Express Business Travel's virtual meetings eXpert (vmX) solution. This agreement provides corporate clients with virtual meeting consulting services which will enable clients to make better decisions about the best method of face-to-face collaboration -- by leveraging publicly-available Cisco TelePresence rooms and increase use of private, corporate-owned systems around the world. Cisco TelePresence uses high-definition video and audio to create the experience of face-to-face meetings. People appear life-size around a virtual conference table, creating an environment where meeting participants feel as though they're sitting in the same room.read more
Mobile Platform Choice is Business, Not Religion
23-Jun-10
When a developer has an idea for a mobile application, there are hundreds of factors that go into the decision of which platform they plan on targeting. Assuming equal hardware features (e.g. the developer isn't making an app that requires something that only exists on one platform), there are a lot of things the developer needs to think about. If the developer would like to pay the bills (or even just one bill) with the proceeds from this application then the developer is not going to be thinking about platform religion. They're not going to be clinging to brand loyalty because they love Apple or because they love Microsoft or Google or Blackberry. No, religion has nothing to do with this. The developer thinking about building a mobile application is going to be thinking about which platform allows them to make the most money and/or reach the largest potential audience (wider audience might be more valuable than higher profits depending on the type of app being built..)read more
Motorola Shows Dramatic Savings in IT Operations Costs . . .
21-Jun-10
In order to really be part of the business imperatives to move forward in next-generation business processes, it was too complex to make changes. So, we focused on reducing those systems and doing it in a way that was directly aligned to business change and the directions they would like to go into.read more
Wireless Devices & Wellness
21-Jun-10
"Wireless Health" is a term that has been emerging over the past several years. As with all industries, advancing technologies are bringing revolutionary solutions to the huge health "care" marketplace. A recent article by Dana Blankenhorn titled, "Could wireless health get too rich and too Slim?" addresses medical technology's increasing momentum. He selects the grand opening of the West Wireless Health Institute, as evidence with some important recent announcements which raise an interesting question[...]read more
Indonesia’s Wireless Vision Goes High Speed
19-Jun-10
In Los Angeles we are pretty happy with our Android phones, iPhones, and other smart handheld devices. We can buy EVDO card for our laptops, and now 4G cards are starting to POP up in some locations. In Jakarta people laugh at such nonsense. With high speed wireless infrastructure covering over 95% of the addressable Indonesian population, the country has leap-frogged not only America, but also much of Asia in delivering high speed wireless service.read more
Microsoft Commits to Continue Support for Ruggedized Handheld Market
19-Jun-10
Ruggedized handhelds are a class of mobile devices that are designed to run mission critical applications while withstanding the harsh environments. Several OEM like Motorola/Symbol, Intermec, Psion Teklogix, Honeywell have been building ruggedized handhelds for several years now. Most of these devices are based on Micrsoft Windows CE and Windows Mobile operating systems. Recent whitepaper from VDC Research says that Microsoft has 87% share in this market. All these OEMs together shipped around 2.3 million devices in 2009, which is projected to reach 4.3 million by 2014. Besides that there already are around 12 million ruggedized devices in use.read more
M2M - Growth Opportunities for MNOs in Developed Markets
18-Jun-10
The new M2M analyst report that I just finished has now been uploaded and is available on the Maximizing Wireless Profits website. M2M, machine-to-machine communications, is a very intriguing market. It is closely related to enterprise mobility in that mobile devices (embedded mobile devices, remote sensors and monitors) are collecting and sending data back to a central server. The audiences for this report are mobile network operators (MNOs), M2M and mobile enterprise software companies. Handset driven customer growth has reached the saturation point in many regions of the world and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are looking for new applications, new markets and new technologies for their next phase of growth. Machine to machine (M2M) devices and applications are an area of wireless data usage with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 25% per year through 2014 and a projected need for up to 50 billion M2M devices by 2025.read more
Windows Phone 7 Device Requests
18-Jun-10
Well, there’s an old adage that you should be careful what you ask for because you might just get it. The avalanche of emails and phone calls looking for developer devices was a welcome development. There are some out there who think that we might as well pack it in on this whole mobile thing. Developers, however, know better. New markets = new opportunities for big ideas to break through. I personally have seen, erm, a surge in the amount of email I get on a daily basis, thanks in no small park to Long Zheng.read more
The Sizzling Shift to Mobile Computing is Changing More Marketing Rules
17-Jun-10
Get Ready to Rethink Your Content Marketing by Aiming at Millions of Buyers on the Move For those of us who been around computing since the early days of PCs, the consumer move to mobile devices and away from desktop and even laptop computers is astonishing–and maybe a little terrifying. In the first year of its existence, 1981, the IBM PC sold 100,000 units. Most of those buyers were geeks or leading-edge business users. Apple’s iPad sold 1 million units in less than one month and 2 million units in just two months. IPad users still include geeks and business types but they’re just as likely to include your six-year-old and your grandmother.
read more
Scaling-Up the Network for Zettabyte Era Growth
17-Jun-10
Years ago, Cisco had asked the question, "Are You Ready?" Today, the citizens of the world certainly have said "Yes." Broadband service providers (SP) have seen progressive shifts in user demand. And now, the question seems to be the user's asking their SP's. "Are You Ready? to meet the needs of us users?" If you haven't seen the VNI statistics, the results will shock you. SP's are on the verge of witnessing staggering amounts of network traffic streaming through their networks. You ask, how staggering? Well it's akin to streaming 130,000 titles in the Netflix DVD library simultaneously in just one second.read more
When Selecting Mobile Solutions, don’t Leave any ROI on the Table
15-Jun-10
When investigating mobile software solutions every organization has to ask themselves the age old question: “Can I find something off the shelf to solve this problem?” MobileFrame’s Configurable Mobile Application allows you to have a custom app with no custom programming required. If you would like to learn more about how we do it, please contact us today. We can show you how other customers in similar positions have made the decision to go with MobileFrame and have realized incredible returns.read more
Announcing Release of MobileFrame Version 4.7
15-Jun-10
MobileFrame proudly announces version 4.7 of our enterprise mobility platform. With this version, we have added a series of useful new features. MobileFrame’s Product Suites enable businesses to rapidly deploy a variety of mobile applications with a low total cost of ownership and a high return on investment. As always, our patented Smart Architecture™ provides a user friendly point and click desktop that enables novice computer users to easily create, deploy and manage sophisticated mobile applications without the need for costly and time-consuming custom coding typically required in mobile application development.read more
MobileFrame Issued Patent for its 100% Code-Free Smart Database
15-Jun-10
Patented MobileFrame Configurable Mobile Application Platform Eliminates all Coding for Custom Mobile Applications including Smart Database Synchoronzation with Back-Office Enterprise Data. MobileFrame announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. patent number 7,730,097 to MobileFrame for its unique 100% Code Free Smart Database that seamlessly synchronizes data between back-office enterprise systems and distributed mobile devices. MobileFrame’s enterprise mobility system eliminates custom programming through an intuitive, user friendly point-and-click desktop, enabling novice computer users to easily create and deploy sophisticated custom mobile applications. With secure Sarbanes-Oxley compliant instant messaging, integrated intelligent networking, prioritized smart synchronization, full remote device control, configuration and management, integrated GPS tracking and mapping, and remote software updates all built into one software platform, MobileFrame significantly streamlines mobile application development, deployment, and administration.
read more
Are Packet Core Networks Ready for a Mobile World Cup?
14-Jun-10
According to multiple reports, the 2010 World Cup will get more online viewership than any major sporting event yet. More than ever, fans in the US and around the world will be tuning in over the next four weeks on wireless mobile devices to access real-time updates anytime, anywhere while converging on social media sites to connect and share experiences. With the profusion of mobile devices, web applications and social media tools, this may be the best use case to evaluate how mobile operators and their networks are positioned to manage the deluge of traffic and content over an extended period of time. Will the World Cup, arguably the world’s most popular sporting event, create the perfect storm to galvanize the use of the mobile Internet in yet another mainstream usage - further tipping the scale towards the mobile convergence and the growth in mobile data traffic that many (including Cisco) have been predicting? In a recent AP article John Kosner, senior vice president and general manager of ESPN Digital Media acknowledged that those with live TV on their mobile phones are still a "relatively small audience," but hinted that the World Cup could be a "blueprint for what's coming." Mobile carriers in the US and abroad will need to ensure that their networks can manage the traffic and congestion that comes from moving huge amounts of data and video across multiple networks. Over the next four weeks teams will be tested, national pride will swell, hearts will be broken and fans will rejoice - but the true test is whether mobile carriers’ networks have the capacity to make this experience worthwhile and take this game to the next generation of the mobile Internet. read more
Looks Like Sculley’s Finally Got His Newton
13-Jun-10
One-time Apple CEO John Sculley, the PepsiCo misfit who was just reflecting for the benefit of the Daily Beast that maybe he should never have been CEO of Apple and maybe he should have brought back Steve Jobs a lot sooner, still seems obsessed with bringing the Newton – or its update – to market even if it means taking on Saint Steve and his “magical” iPad.
Unless something has really changed Sculley’s got money in an eight-year-old Florida outfit called OpenPeak – enough to have rated a board seat – and OpenPeak just raised a tidy $52 million – from Intel among others – on top of a $30 million C round it got in late 2007 from Morton Topfer, the former vice-chairman of Dell now a managing director of Castletop Capital, and RRE Ventures among others. And OpenPeak’s got a PDA-style tablet or maybe it’s a tablet-style PDA – Sculley is credited with inventing the term PDA – that may or may not give the iPad a run for its money.read more
Why Offering the Quad Play Would Help Cable’s Stock Price
11-Jun-10
The mobile phone market is growing exponentially and will continue to evolve for years to come. Why has the Cable Industry not moved into the lucrative mobile phone market? It could definitely be a revenue bonanza, as it currently is for telecom companies. See (The cable company will likely use WiMax to bring television shows to cell phones and smart phones.)
Verizon and AT&T’s revenues, as a percentage of stock price by division, attributes mobile phone service up to 40-42% of total revenues. This being a logical assumption as landline phone demand has forced incumbent Telco’s to rethink their business models to include cable, broadband, and cell phone. The mobile market has exploded with smart phone technology and related applications for consumers continually on the go while wanting the latest gadgets to keep up with friends, business, and news. Why has this not attracted at least, some interest from the major cable players like a Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and others? See (TREFIS-Division as a % of Stock Price)read more
Half of Banking Customers Not Satisfied with Smartphone Apps
10-Jun-10
In a survey just released, 48 percent of respondents indicated they are not satisfied with the smartphone application offered by their banking institution. Despite recent reports of increasing smartphone usage and growing investments by financial institutions, this latest survey reveals customers are simply not happy with the user experience and feature offerings of banking applications, and have serious security concerns. The survey of 300 banking customers in the U.S. was conducted by WorkLight, a provider of multi-channel software and services.read more
Amdocs B2B Solution: Give Customers What They Want
07-Jun-10
Amdocs has just this scenario in mind when creating CRM solutions which marry broadband, mobile, GPS, and IPTV technologies which interface in giving real time convergence for service providers in solving real life problems.read more
Why Network Administrators Need a Network Bandwidth Monitor
07-Jun-10
The program should collect the inbound and outbound network traffic data on computers. With such a program you can easily find out which computer in your network uses up the available bandwidth. What other benefits will we get when we use a bandwidth monitoring program? We can identify a guilty employee, who uses the company resources for personal affairs, or find computers infected by a virus which generates a lot of network traffic.read more
How Fast is 3G and What is 3.5G and When Will 4G Really be Here?
05-Jun-10
Most enterprise CTOs are very interested in the “cloud” and ways to tap into cloud-based resources. An interesting aspect of this discussion has been how to access the cloud while on the move. Today’s cellular networks support that access today, and future enhancements are making that support even better and much much faster.read more
Building and Operating Profitable 3G and 4G Networks
01-Jun-10
Continuing the discussion re. a panel of the above title at an RCR Local Boston event last month… I had earlier posted a summary of operator business model transformation issues that were discussed by the panel. Here’s a recap of a couple of the network transformation-oriented questions we discussed. How prepared are carriers to handle the increased demands being placed on their networks?
On the Mobile/Evolved Packet Core network:
Mobile packet gateways with high throughput, transaction, and density support are needed to handle the increase in subscribers, the longer session times, and the higher bandwidth services consumed like video. The Cisco ASR 5000 utilizes a simple, flexible distributed architecture that allows operators to support multiple access technologies concurrently, e.g., 2G, 3G and 4G, subscriber mobility management, and call control capabilities, as well as integrated intelligent In-line Services with policy enforcement. The Cisco ASR 5000 has leading edge throughput, signaling and capacity, is the only product to support 3G mobile networks, and through software upgrades, supports 4G without forklift upgrades. On the radio side: In addition to higher spectral efficiency and lower latency of LTE, WiFi and Femtocell (microcells) will allow operators to offload traffic to help handle the ramp in demand. This will also prove cost effective for any low-value traffic and applications that operators identify as difficult to monetize. How far are we seeing true 4G technology ready for deployment? We are very, very close! The GSMA says that 64 mobile operators have committed to LTE with 22 of these in service by end of 2010, e.g., Verizon Wireless, China Mobile, TeliaSonera, NTT, Telenor, and several more like T-Mobile and ATT next year in 2011. Got any other ideas about Network Transformation to add to above? read more
Mobile Operators Want Their Ethernet Over Fiber
29-May-10
A new telecom paradigm is on the verge of becoming reality. Not a disruptive technology, not the right brain flash of a new radical idea – rather it is a logical development of existing infrastructure using better operational execution. read more
iPad Rivals Reportedly Sent Back to the Drawing Board
29-May-10
Quoting Freescale Semiconductor’s director of global consumer segment marketing Gary Burchers, Forbes says that some tablets, netbooks and smartbooks designed to compete with Apple’s iPad and originally due out in time for the holidays have been pushed into early next year around the time of the Consumer Electronics Show in January because they weren’t competitive enough. iPad’s got a lower price, longer battery life and smoother performance than they counted on. There’s reportedly too many operating systems for them to chose from including Android, Chrome, MeeGo. read more
|