Spiral Arm News

Friday, April 30, 2004

"Users should encrypt mobile data to avoid falling foul of data protection legislation" (Computer Weekly).

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Twenty-five percent of 7-10 year olds now have a mobile phone, reports
BBC News.

Monday, April 26, 2004

Mobile Enterprise Magazine on mobile technology and real estate sales: "Leveraging a mobile/wireless solution can enhance [a Relator's] productivity rate by 25 percent."

Friday, April 23, 2004

PDA and smartphone sales rocket in Europe, reports The Register.

Smartphones outselling PDAs 2:1, with Symbian dominating the market. Impressive growth for RIM, now taking 8% of the PDA market.

Thursday, April 22, 2004

SearchCIO offers advice on managing mobile technology.

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Mobile technology key to global business, comments Computing.
"It's about making employees more effective".

"The mobile business isn't just a high-tech vision. Companies are already beginning to think about how they can make staff more productive using the latest mobile technologies and applications" (Stevan Hoyle, Vodafone UK).

Monday, April 19, 2004

Mobile Pipline summarizes an IDC survey on the need for
"specialized [mobile] solutions that address organizations' unique requirements, preferences, and concerns".

"A survey included as part of the study found that employees that use PDAs in fields such as discrete manufacturing and healthcare education tend to use PDAs based on the Palm OS while mobile employees in the telecommunications and the process manufacturing sectors tend to use PDAs based on Microsoft's Pocket PC platform".

Friday, April 16, 2004

Computing: Mobile data maketh the IT manager.
PDAs and Smartphones "... present opportunities galore. Some IT managers understand this already and are taking advantage of what is on offer at the moment."

Thursday, April 15, 2004

CRM Daily is reporting on mobile applications for field service staff.
The key benefit is in "freeing up mobile workers from time-intensive data entry, thus making more of their time available for the specific tasks they were hired to perform".

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

"Mobile Enterprise Asset Management initiatives represent untapped opportunities for direct improvements in reliability, compliance, and operations costs", notes EnergyPulse.

Thursday, April 08, 2004

InfoWorld explain that building a mobile application isn't about copying a desktop interface and "making it smaller". When you go mobile, the screens you need and their order may be quite different compared to a desktop.

"Most companies are so bent on getting their enterprise applications into handhelds that they forget that mobility, by its nature, changes businesses' processes and workflows".

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

A special report on mobile technology in Computing: "Mobile data is a fact of life".

The special includes a survey of technology adoption based on 600 readers of IT magazines. Here are the smartphone and PDA-related results (from page 35 and 36 of the 18 March 2004 print edition):

Main objectives for mobile rollout: 1) improve access to email; 2) improve employee productivity; 3) introduce flexible work practices; 4) improve access to company data.

Stage of implementation for PDA: 20% rollout complete; 20% rollout underway; 17% piloting; 17% considering; 26% no plans.

Stage of implementation for smartphones: 2% rollout complete; 4% rollout underway; 10% piloting; 24% considering; 60% no plans.

Barriers to investment for smartphones: 1) uncertainty about ROI; 2) security of information on devices; 3) cost of hardware or software; 4) uncertainty about use of applications on devices; 5) awaiting developments in technology.

Expectations of PDAs/handhelds: 17% exceeded; 73% met; 16% failed.

These numbers point out how it's still early days for the enterprise mobile market, compared to the roll out of wireless laptops (rollout complete: 62%; no plans: 6%).

Later in the special report the state of mobile phone adoption in business is described: "Most of us will toss out our small-screen models in favour of fancy ones with colour screens, mini-mousepads, and improved version of Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition, that will support serious business applications. Tony Davis, chief executive of mobile application publisher Tira Wireless, says some companies have already extended their infrastructure to include mobiles. 'It's technically possible now, but it's in niches targeting pretty cumbersome devices like the PocketPC and Plam-based platforms,' he says. Within two years, Davis believes IT departments will routinely deploy business applications to mobile phones."

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Computer Weekly reports on mobile technology in healthcare. Scenarios include using a mobile to download data from exercise machines or upload personal training programmes to them.

Monday, April 05, 2004

Gartner report on mobile data encryption (PDF) urges: "Every mobile device should have the capability of file-level encryption because most organizations won't know which devices will contain sensitive data or will be at the highest risk of theft or loss."

Friday, April 02, 2004

Mobile technology could revolutionize HR admin, reports Computer Weekly. Examples: "A person on holiday with the family on some remote island resort can apply for additional leave via a simple SMS". Other services include notification of salary payments, query loan balances, access to personal details and historical information.