Posts Tagged ‘blackberry’

My PC is More Mobile Than Yours

Monday, July 27th, 2009

iphoneI met with the owner of a restaurant last Thursday and had something completely unexpected happen.  The gentleman I met with has been in the restaurant business for quite some time, starting out with Subway, then rolling out his own pizza franchise concept, and now finally launching his own pizzeria.  I was there to do a little research for the product side of our business.  We talked for about an hour about several ways mobile technology could assist him in the operation of his restaurant, and also how it could help him be more in tune with his customers.

The discussion was very helpful to me, and I believe to him as well.  However, about midway through our discussion something completely unexpected happened.  This gentleman held up his iPhone that had been sitting on the table next to him throughout our discussion.  As he held it up he declared “This is my PC.”  His point was that he was not in the restaurant all the time, and he used his iPhone as not only the mechanism to help keep him in tune with what was going on his his restaurant, but also to help him access other information, make calls, visit web sites etc.  In every way, this little “phone” had become his primary computing device.

I have made mention of this trend in other previous posts, but in this case I got anecdotal confirmation straight from the horses mouth without any prompting from me.  This is not an advertisement for the iPhone, though it is a very slick device.  I am sure if asked others would say the same thing about their Windows Mobile device, or their BlackBerry, or maybe even the Pre now.  The point is that in fact, our phones are becoming much more than phones.  They are in many instances taking the place of our PC’s in the real world.

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Blackberry: Rockin’ the Smartphone Market

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Blackberry SmartphoneThe Smartphone market is one of the areas we closely watch as it serves as a bellweather for trends on how businesses are adopting mobility.  Within this market is Nokia, RIM/Blackberry, iPhone, Windows Mobile devices, HTC, Palm and others.  What makes these devices ’smart’ as compared to a cell phone?  In simple terms they have an operating system that allows applications to be downloaded, a wireless data connection and usually a keyboard that accomodates a lot of typing.

A leading research firm, Gartner, just released its annual report on this market.  Of the 138 million devices sold in 2008, Nokia owns 40% of the market, followed by Blackberry (~20%) and then iPhone (~10%).  Nokia is losing market share, Blackberry is up 84% (quarter over quarter) and iPhone, a new entrant, is up 111%.   What is interesting here is that Blackberry is now a $12Billion company and this growth rate is incredible for a company that size.  Blackberry’s niche is serving the business customer, which are typically email fanatics.  iPhone serves a completely different segment, entertainment driven customers.

My take on this development is that businesses can cost justify a Blackberry as a business tool.  With a new application store called App World, we will likely see this trend continue.

If you would like more detailed information on the subject, Michael Mace’s blog has some very good statitistics and observations.

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No Microsoft Smartphone Coming

Thursday, February 26th, 2009
2009 Mobile World Congress

Steve Ballmer

After months of speculation and rumors about a new Microsoft smartphone, and months of Microsoft denying said speculation and rumors, Steve Ballmer finally made it clear that Microsoft will not release a smartphone.

Seems like a smart move as I really don’t hear a lot of people clamoring for one. Even so, many analysts and bloggers expected a 2009 release to compete with RIM/BlackBerry and Apple/iPhone.

Apple still has the device to beat and Ballmer seems to be happy to let them keep the current “mojo” in the consumer market. Ballmer’s strategy is to continue to build upon the Windows Mobile (actually now Windows Phones) platform and make it as compatible with as many devices as possible. Though not unique, this strategy is very different from Apple’s and RIM’s, whereby they both have a proprietary device and proprietary operating system. Stirring it up even more, Palm recently announced the Pre as well as a new mobile platform called webOS.

Historically, the proprietary device/OS strategy has worked for many mobile phone providers, but I believe this may be changing. From a business user’s perspective (me), the real value in “smartdevices” comes from the business applications (increasing productivity and reducing costs) that run on it. Highly restrictive access to the OS or having to develop across an endless sea of proprietary platforms makes it difficult for mobile application companies to create solutions that can run on every device. 

I would personally like to see a handful of the best OS platforms be able to run across all the devices – and carrier networks. But I won’t hold my breath just yet.

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Presidential Smartphones

Thursday, January 29th, 2009
Barack Obama - Barack Obama 'to be allowed to continue using BlackBerry in White House'

Photo: AP

I’m sure you’ve all read it, or seen it, or heard it by now. That’s right; President Obama gets to keep his BlackBerry. The latest story I read yesterday is right here. Being in the mobile business, I’ve probably heard this story from more angles than your average bear. But with all the angles I have heard, I think most folks are missing the point. The point isn’t that the president has chosen a BlackBerry (which obviously thrills RIM), nor that they are changing presidential procedures to deal with his mobile addiction, nor that the device will require some “super spy” type of security. The point is that the president can’t do without his smartphone.

In this aspect he really is a reflection of what is going on in our society. Even during a huge economic slowdown (or recession, or depression, or whatever you call it), mobile phones continue to become a part of the very fabric of our lives. In a story yesterday from RCR Wireless news, AT&T said it added 2.1 million new customers in the fourth quarter of last year. Verizon added 1.4 million new customers during the same time frame. That’s 3.5 million new subscribers with those two carriers alone, in 3 months, during the middle of some of the worst economic conditions in a very long time.

My kids reflect this same addiction. About a year ago I was looking at our family mobile phone bill, because of some additional charge that appeared. I’ll have to admit I rarely look it over as long as it is within normal operating parameters, but somebody had gone over on some service. I don’t even recall what the deal was now. Anyway, while I was looking into the detail I noticed my then 16-year-old son had sent about 7500 text messages for the month. My then 15-year-old daughter was not far behind with about 6000. I brought up the rear with about 700. As I recall my daughter said “That’s really weak, Dad.”

So what? What’s the big deal? I’ll tell you what the big deal is: we are changing the way we communicate as a society. First it was the land line telephone, then it was the cell phone, then it was email, then instant messaging, then social networking and text messaging. The point is that our society is increasingly communicating via mobile devices for their personal lives. The teens and 20-somethings of today are immersed in a mobile world. As more of them infiltrate the work force, more of how we communicate in business will change. And we won’t be able to pull out the old lines that we can’t do it that way because it isn’t professional, or it’s not secure, or it doesn’t leave the right type of audit trail. After all, the president is using it now, and to a certain extent that changes everything.

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Online App Stores are Booming – What it means to Business

Monday, January 26th, 2009

For those of us that eat and sleep mobile (that’s our job, right?), it’s been interesting to follow how the big industry players are rushing to create online mobile application “stores”. Riding on the coattails of the successful iPhone App Store, Microsoft, Google, RIM and others are all jumping into the ring to compete head-to-head with Apple.

These industry behemoths are launching their online stores so end users/customers can find, buy and download applications and other content for their mobile devices. Plus, it provides a marketing outlet for the growing developer community to showcase and sell their wares. That’s great news for our industry as it shows strong interest and continued growth in mobility. Loosening carrier restrictions and opening platforms means just about anyone can develop, upload and sell a mobile solution to this growing market. Of course, if you’ve been paying attention you know that you’re not likely to find many strategic business applications on these sites.

iBeer ApplicationIt’s one thing to hack out some code utilizing the iPhone’s accelerometer to mimic a pint of beer and upload it to the App Store, but developing and successfully marketing a strategic business application (one that provides clear value and a quick return on investment) requires a different kind of business model. For many small and medium sized developers a great product is enough to build a list of local clients. But extending their product’s reach to the regional or national stage can be overwhelming due to prohibitive marketing and advertising costs, product support and training issues, sales channel complexities, mounting fees, distribution issues and more. Unfortunately, these big online stores don’t help with those issues because they simply aren’t designed to offer any more than just the application.

Since many business application developers struggle to effectively market their apps, potential customers have difficulty finding their products. The major search engines are too broad to be effective and most online sites are consumer-focused or too narrow. So where does Joe the Electrician (just couldn’t bring myself to say ‘plumber’!) go to find a bundled solution for inventory management, vehicle tracking and m-commerce for his business? Well, it’s not the iTunes App Store. Microsoft’s upcoming “Skymarket” store has potential, but only if the software is written for Windows Mobile  (it was going to be for version but maybe now for version 6.5 - which isn’t even out yet??). What about RIM’s new BlackBerry store (once it opens, of course)? Possibly, but Joe may need something more rugged than a shiny new BlackBerry Storm.

It’s obvious that this book is still being written - in fact, I think we’re only looking at chapter 1. And of course, as the next chapters come together, you’ll read about it here.

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