DvDand Solutions, LLC

Recently I came across a blog post by Phillipe Winthrop discussing whether carriers can make inroads in the Enterprise Mobility market using consumer-centric devices like iPhone and Android-based devices. This got me thinking about what are some of the things that are needed for enterprises to adopt these consumer-centric devices.

This is first in a series of posts discussing the mobility needs of an enterprise. In this post, we will discuss some of the requirements as they relate to the devices. In future posts, we will talk about the network requirements and enterprise readiness.

Let’s talk about devices. Smartphones are becoming ubiquitous in the consumer market and have been for a while in the enterprise market thanks to RIM’s Blackberry devices and also Windows Mobile based devices. However, Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platforms have opened up new avenues in both the consumer and enterprise market. Both these companies entered the mobile market with consumer centric devices. Hence their consumer offerings are strong, especially in the case of Apple. Android is also catching up thanks to the many partners Google has signed up in the Open Handset Alliance, who are offering several devices on that platform.

In the enterprise market both these device platforms have been slow in gaining traction. Here is what I believe needs to happen in order for these platforms to crack the enterprise market:

- Dual Profiles – The enterprise end users would like to use a single device for both personal and business purpose. They are loathe to carrying multiple devices if they don’t have to. Devices that can support dual profiles to segragate the personal and business use would find a welcoming market. Android seems to have taken a step in that direction by allowing different home screens based on the profile selected, whether it is work related, social, fun, etc. Howerver, this is very superficial in that it only customizes the apps available on the home screen. What is needed is true segregation whereby the data is also protected and also some specific features are enabled based on the profile.

- Data Security – Enterprises are leary about allowing users access to its data while they are away from office or not on a secure network. Devices need to support not only  data encryption, but also ability to connect securely to the enterprise network. Part of this connectivity is network and enterprise dependent and I will talk about this in future posts. However, from the device perspective, data encryption is absolute must.

- Remote Device Management – This goes hand-in-hand with Data Security. Enterprises want the ability to manage devices remotely so that they can push updates to the devices to ensure data security and also be able to remotely wipe the device in case it is lost or stolen. A lot of companies are working on this for both the Apple and Android platforms, however, they are still in early stages and have not gained enough traction yet.

- Private Application Market – Enterprises would like to control what applications users can install on devices owned by the enterprises. Currently, Apple controls the iPhone App Store and only it can decide which applications can go into the store. Google too has its own Android Market, however, so far it has been relaxed in its control over the applications and also lets developers host applications on their own servers. Apple will have to allow for private app stores if it wants to crack the enterprise market. Both will also have to rethink their pricing strategies for the private app stores because enterprises would not want to pay 30% to Apple or Google for every application a user downloads.

While this is not a complete list, I believe these are the top priorities for consumer devices manufactures like Apple or HTC or others to penetrate the enterprise market.

So, finally, it is Election Day here in US. After almost two years of campaigning we will see the results tonight. It is a historic election which ever candidate wins. However, it is also a day of reckoning for technology, especially mobile technology. Will we see a lot of technical glitches like the 2000 & 2004 elections? Answer to that is most likely. In fact, even as I write this, there are reports of equipment failure.

We have already seen the power of the web being successfully used by both candidates, perhaps more effectively by Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign. The web has been successful in helping Obama’s campaign avoid public financing and break all fundraising records. It has also helped him build a formidible grass-roots movement. It may even help him govern by allowing him to communicate directly to the public, much like Franklin Roosvelt did with his fire-side, radio talks during Depression. His campaign has also uploaded several YouTube videos which have been watched 92 million times. Acording to TechPresident.com, a website that tracks technology use in presidential campaigns, his Facebook page has 2 million followers and his campaign has managed to get 8 million supporters through various social media sites. Compared to that McCain’s campaign has been relatively tepid in using social media. McCain managed to raise $217 million via the web compared to Obama’s haul of $600 million. McCain has 560,000 followers on Facebook and his YouTube videos have been seen only a third of Obama’s videos.

Earlier in the summer, Obama started organizing his text messaging campaign by asking supporters to sign up for text messages and he promised them that they would be the first to know his VP nominee. In that instant, the supporters were disappointed because traditional news media scooped them and there were some bungling on part of the campaign which resulted in supporters getting the message hours after the VP pick was known. However, it resulted in about 3 million supporters signing up. Since then he has constantly kept in touch with these supporters (I know as I am one of the subscribers), whether it be to remind voters to watch the Democratic convention, or the debates or to take advantage of early voting where possible or to ask for volunteers to make calls for his campaign. Compared to that, McCain does not have a text messaging campaign at all. On Oct 2, Obama campaign unveiled their iPhone applications which among other things helps users find contacts in battleground states that they can then call to ask them to vote for Obama.

Today though is mobile technology’s day to shine. Obama’s campaign can use this to get the vote out. The campaign has already sent out messages to inform the subscribers nationwide of their respective polling hours. I don’t live in a battleground state, so I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine that they would have already sent out several messages to get his supporters to not only vote, but also to encourage others to vote.

We are already hearing huge turnout effort. However, it is too early to get a sense of how effective mobile campaign was for the Obama campaign. I truly believe that today’s election is a watershed moment for mobile technology in USA. A few years back, American Idol got text messaging into the US consciousness. Today’s election will showcase the power of this technology. Today we will see if the technological divide between the two campaigns will set a new course of history or whether it will become a footnote in history.

In a recent patent application, Microsoft describes how multiple mobile phones (presumably running Windows Mobile, of course) can be brought together to form a single system which would pool the otherwise limited resources of individual phones. According to this patent, one could dynamically bring together several phone screens that would act as a single big screen. This type collaboration is not limited to just phone screens, but also to the CPU, memory, and other resources to form interesting collaborations. This type of collaboration will have several usage including video which is described in the patent as:

The collaborative architecture applies an adaptive video decoder so that each mobile device can participate in playing back a larger and higher-resolution video across combined display screens than any single mobile device could playback alone.

In addition to video display aggregation, Microsoft also envisages following scenarios:

• drag and drop file transfer
• microphone aggregation
• speaker aggregation
• camera aggregation
• antenna aggregation

Clearly, Microsoft is eyeing the future of mobile devices coming together to form ad-hoc network for collaboration at various levels. I certainly hope that this patent becomes a reality in some future version of Windows Mobile.

Now that 1 million iPhone 3G (er, iBrick ) are out in the wild, is Apple laughing to the bank? Certainly, but it is not the reason for that. According to TechCrunch estimate, Apple might have raked in $5 million over the weekend since iPhone was released. Apple has not revealed any numbers. These are just back of the napkin calculation by Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch. I am excited and looking forward to Apple’s quarterly results for this quarter. That is when the actual numbers will be revealed. If I were a betting man, I would bet on Apple posting bigger gain in revenue and profits due to the App Store than iPhone 3G.

With Nokia looking to acquire the rest of Symbian that it does not own, and Google readying Android, the Platform Wars are about to begin. So, who will win the Platform War? It is a way early to predict the winners and losers of this war. However, the battlefield has been defined.

With Symbian on 66% of Smartphones, it would seem to have most to lose. So, with this latest announcement from Nokia, they are gearing up for the tough battle ahead. True, Nokia, has ambitions to transform itself from a phone company to an entertainment company. 

However, Adam Leach, principal analyst at Ovum, hit on the real reason, when he was quoted by Paul McDougall of InformationWeek saying:

“The creation of the Symbian Foundation reflects the fact that Symbian’s competitive landscape has started to change rapidly over the past year with new entrants and old competitors increasing their influence,”

They have seen Microsoft, IBM and now Google, make money from the software and services. They want to become a software company. It sees the handset market as a tough market with the Asian manufacturers leading the pack. While Nokia has some great handsets and are the leading provider of phones worldwide, they see the writing on the wall. They want to get out of the handset business. I see them spinning off their handset division in the next year or so and possibly exiting the handset business in 3-5 years.

Nokia will have its work cut out. Now that it is forming the foundation, it will have to tread a careful path so as not to alienate some of the handset providers who are members of the foundation. Also, Microsoft and Google are not going to give in easily. Not to mention upstarts like Apple with iPhone and RIM with Blackberry. Things are just beginning to heat up. Let’s see who remains standing when the dust settles.