Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news
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Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Still slow for mobile enterprise services
'Enterprise mobility is nascent reality' indicates mobile technology still struggles in the enterprise. Not for voice calls of course - some companies even throw out their fixed-line and DECT phones and replace with only mobile phones - but when it comes to accessing internal and external information services from mobile phones it does. It seems so close at hand, but still it's like being stuck in super glue for the providers of services and the evangelists in the companies.
Quote: 'Carriers will continue to expand their 3G networks to further eliminate dead zones'
Who said 3G performance is required for e.g. simple work order management, time reporting etc? Does SMS-based IT services require 3G? Obviously no.
Quote: 'device makers will craft new handhelds for specific industrial markets'
OK, but the vast majority of users do well with the phones they already have.
Quote: 'software makers will "reinvigorate" their wireless management applications development efforts'
A long phrase meaning what? Isn't it better to make good real-life products and see if they stick?
"Companies are finally beginning to consider new wireless technologies when there isn't a hard business case to be made for it, but the landscape is so fragmented that enterprise-wide deployment is a ways off."
Yes, this is a major issue. For instance Microsoft has no solution to this due to its focus on Windows Mobile that pretty much no phones use. However good a 'Windows Mobile + Microsoft Exchange (etc)' solution might be, it's a tiny part of the market. Time for Microsoft developers to do WML and Java ME development. Also, employees already have mobile phones. Were the purchases of those phones (and PDAs) really motivated by hard business cases? I don't think so. Why not do sound service investments as well? Also, enterprise-wide deployment is of course not the first thing to do. Note how PCs came in to enterprises many years ago: in smaller departments where there were special needs that the mainframe or mini computer couldn't satisfy.
And again, why not focus on the technology that's already in users' hands, and stop this constant talking about technology overhauls when only parts of the IT system needs upgrading? The only things lacking are services and mobile applications.
See Abiro Mobilizer for more of my own thoughts on the matter.
Quote: 'Carriers will continue to expand their 3G networks to further eliminate dead zones'
Who said 3G performance is required for e.g. simple work order management, time reporting etc? Does SMS-based IT services require 3G? Obviously no.
Quote: 'device makers will craft new handhelds for specific industrial markets'
OK, but the vast majority of users do well with the phones they already have.
Quote: 'software makers will "reinvigorate" their wireless management applications development efforts'
A long phrase meaning what? Isn't it better to make good real-life products and see if they stick?
"Companies are finally beginning to consider new wireless technologies when there isn't a hard business case to be made for it, but the landscape is so fragmented that enterprise-wide deployment is a ways off."
Yes, this is a major issue. For instance Microsoft has no solution to this due to its focus on Windows Mobile that pretty much no phones use. However good a 'Windows Mobile + Microsoft Exchange (etc)' solution might be, it's a tiny part of the market. Time for Microsoft developers to do WML and Java ME development. Also, employees already have mobile phones. Were the purchases of those phones (and PDAs) really motivated by hard business cases? I don't think so. Why not do sound service investments as well? Also, enterprise-wide deployment is of course not the first thing to do. Note how PCs came in to enterprises many years ago: in smaller departments where there were special needs that the mainframe or mini computer couldn't satisfy.
And again, why not focus on the technology that's already in users' hands, and stop this constant talking about technology overhauls when only parts of the IT system needs upgrading? The only things lacking are services and mobile applications.
See Abiro Mobilizer for more of my own thoughts on the matter.
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Anders - good points! Perhaps the issue is that Maribel is a subject matter expert in networking (just the pipes, ma'am) who probably wouldn't know a MIDlet if it hit her in the head. I can only assume that she probably takes this network coverage issue seriously.
That said, you're absolutely right. Sybase Afaria is one of the best mobile device management platforms out there, and it's available with full functionality today. Also, there are quite a few middleware platforms on the market that have been designed to maintain application state in spotty network conditions.
In situations where coverage is available, there are still plenty of applications that work just fine with 2.5G (e.g. GPRS/EDGE) speeds.
And finally, so many phones (a.k.a. "mobile devices") can run Java applications today.
So the only real question is why the vendors are unable to sell. Perhaps it's easier to tell the vendors that it's an architectural and market issue than it is to state the truth: that the vendor marketing teams are falling down on the job and that the sales and business development teams can't sell their way out of a paper bag.
The thing about failure is that the mobility vendors have created a culture of failure in which they tell themselves that they are destined to fail for one reason or another. And guess what? They do.
It's a sad state of the analyst community when an experienced and respected analyst like Maribel Lopez is pandering to her (vendor) cutomer base instead of telling them the truths they desperately need to hear.
That said, you're absolutely right. Sybase Afaria is one of the best mobile device management platforms out there, and it's available with full functionality today. Also, there are quite a few middleware platforms on the market that have been designed to maintain application state in spotty network conditions.
In situations where coverage is available, there are still plenty of applications that work just fine with 2.5G (e.g. GPRS/EDGE) speeds.
And finally, so many phones (a.k.a. "mobile devices") can run Java applications today.
So the only real question is why the vendors are unable to sell. Perhaps it's easier to tell the vendors that it's an architectural and market issue than it is to state the truth: that the vendor marketing teams are falling down on the job and that the sales and business development teams can't sell their way out of a paper bag.
The thing about failure is that the mobility vendors have created a culture of failure in which they tell themselves that they are destined to fail for one reason or another. And guess what? They do.
It's a sad state of the analyst community when an experienced and respected analyst like Maribel Lopez is pandering to her (vendor) cutomer base instead of telling them the truths they desperately need to hear.
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