Pocket Power: Annual Update on Mobile Devices

Pocket Power: Annual Update on Mobile Devices, originally uploaded by tgray04.

Ken Dulaney - VP, Distinguished Analyst, Gartner



IPhone - not an enterprise device at all. It is a pretty lousy phone. You can't feel the keys so it is difficult to dial while driving. It is a good multimedia type toy device, but pretty lousy as a phone.



More radios than you can imagine - FM or digital radio, GPS, digital TV, ultrawideband, Bluetooth, WiFi, broadband - much smaller real estate than a PC, but much more antennas - this requires integration.



Openwave research - How much of the audience do I loose with mobile design? Answer: 50% of users for each layer a user has to drill down. Every click looses 50% of the audience.



If deploying handheld devices, they might as well be wireless.

Have mobile devices sync directly to the server, not to the PC first. PC sync is a bad design and difficult to support.



GPS: upcoming technology will allow GPS to work indoors. GPS can be used for security or convenience purposes, but you really need to keep an eye on privacy.



Email Devices: are devices closing in on BlackBerry?



T-Mobile dash: close in design to RIM. There is hardware out there that gives RIM a run for their money. Still software security issues, but still a good piece of hardware.



Desk phones are really a device of the past and prevalent primarily in North America only. Will your company be able to get away from their 50 year old buying practices?



If your company uses fixed price per minute for wireless, consider switching to WiFi on campuses to save money. Each minute on WiFi is saved money.



Design devices and applications in a way no user manual is needed.



Microsoft Wireless - does not have a good transport in place to support application usage on handheld devices.



Workers with walking sticks:

- security on a stick

- apps on a stick

* good idea but not really sufficient just yet.



Tablets:

- embedded 3G - okay for vertical applications

- field upgradable - requires knowledgeable workers

- USB tethered devices - will be good option for 3G handhelds to allow voice and data usage at the same time

* keep in mind it generally costs about $250 to have a laptop sent back in for upgrades



RIM - the Macintosh of the handheld world?

- not a licensed OS for other handhelds

- no one else makes their handsets

* 2007 will be an important year for RIM, especially regarding the release of new Microsoft OS.



HTC - rising hardware company. #1 supplier for Microsoft. Its the new HP of handheld designs.



Symbian - Used by Nokia - okay in Europe, but not so much in North America. Its up to Nokia to grow market in North America.



Consider changing dictoral policy on handheld devices. Allow users to choose devices they want but provide expectations before they purchase.



This whole slide show presentation was great - I will try to post the entire slide show unless there are legal issues.