With the prevalence of the mobile phone market domestically and abroad, I think it is safe to say we are a media hungry world. With MP3’s for ring tones, e-mail and text messaging blitzing in and out of your phone, and real-time video streaming to and from that little gadget in your hand - mobile media (media accessible through handheld devices) is now the rule, not the exception.

At what point do we see the commercial space cross over into the realm of enterprise? In decades past, it has been the enterprise that has paved the way for mass consumption of many things electronic - even the lucrative commercial offerings mobile phone providers now tout had their origins in Corporate America. Maybe it is time the commercial / retail space gave a little back.

Mobile media’s place in the enterprise is under discussion in many offices across the U.S. Arguably, there are key areas in the company which may be dramatically impacted through mobile media, but many executives still contend this medium of delivery as largely youth driven.

While mobile-media isn’t a favorite topic of those in the corner office, mobile media has really caught the eye of corporate IT, whose key responsibilities are generally keeping the network operational and ensuring overall security. Quite frankly, mobile media potentially threatens both.

With corporations overly-crowded ‘tubes’, companies are pushing more bandwidth down their pipes than ever. Sure server space and network speeds are to be had at a cheaper rate, but toss in the CFO’s command to control costs, and now you have a genuine recipe for a witch-hunt on your hands -with IT hold the pitch-forks and torches.

From personal experience in managing a mid-sized, privately held company’s infrastructure, it is a tough road to walk. Well, if you are in IT - you may think it very cut and dry, but how to you reconcile the bleeding-effect occurring between knowledge workers’ work and personal life?

Many times, today’s workers’ are working towards and being measured on results, not hours worked. These workers seek a streamlined life as well as consistent and constant access to data. In other words, they want always on connections that synchronize amongst themselves - digital on-ramps and off-ramps, and a key one of these being a handheld device.

Richer user experiences will continue to be a demand touted by skilled workers, and employers will have to find a way to deal with the expectations of fringe benefits such as a corporate handheld device that also doubles as a personal MP3 player - as in the case of the illustrious iPhone. If you think this is a fad, I would suggest not; it is a trend that appears to be increasing in frequency.

1. What challenges have you and your company run into with regards to mobile media?
2. Do you allow your mobile workforce to blur the lines between work and personal content?

Photo credit: Sanja Gjenero

With all of this talk about location services with the iPhone, and the pending “me too” launch of RIM’s Thunder/Storm product - I thought it prudent that RIM invest in some similar services, and even partner with leaders in other industries to co-brand a wonderful set of tools.

Think about combining location services, like GPS, with the raw e-mail potential BlackBerry is so good at.

And so, the top 5 BlackBerry signature services were born:

• 5. DriveBerry: A factory-installed, directional system optional with 2010 GM Hummers where you can control the movements of the vehicle directly from your BlackBerry handheld. *only available on the AT&T network and in major markets. Subject to terms and conditions.
• 4. QWERTY-FISH: Click Here to receive a text message translating what I just typed in this e-mail: A service provided in conjunction with Yahoo! BABEL FISH.
• 3. SpeedBump: I’ve hit ‘X’ number of pedestrians while trying to find the exclamation point: A new service in partnership with Rockstar Games: Makers of Grand Theft Auto IV
• 2. CrackTrap: Current speed while typing this e-mail is ‘X’ mph: A service provided by your friendly California Highway Patrol (CHP) Traffic and Safety Division.

… and the number 1 BlackBerry Signature Service is:

• Crack-cident: Now going on X days without an accident: A free signature service provide by your friendly insurance company.

Do you have more? Send me your best RIM Signatures.

Vista seems to have left a very bad taste in many people’s mouths… or at least this is what the media would have you believe. Sure, Microsoft’s licensing model is confusing, and since when did Microsoft’s licensing model every really make sense?

Let me start by saying that I swore I would never, ever, ever post something on Vista.

Why? Well, let me tell you I get so sick of hearing the back and forth on Microsoft and how bad Vista is… I swear it’s like watching the 6 o’clock news, and looking forward to who’s been shot, stabbed, or otherwise abused in life… Not that fun!

That being said, I am responsible for setting tactical and strategic technology policy within my company. We evaluated Vista when it was first released, and there was no compelling reason to upgrade; we would have incurred more cost, both in labor and upgrade costs, as well as not seen any significant impact to business.

As always, times change, and I am a firm believer in watching the bleeding edge very closely. My theory is that once the early adopters have lost a few fingers, it should be safe for me to move in.

So I watched, and I waited, and kept watching… and there was a lot of bad press on Vista, some genius negative TV ad campaign (which were really quite funny), and hte entire debacle over whether Microsoft 2.0 would be able to survive post-Billy and without Yahoo!’s advertising business unit…

Well, Microsoft isn’t the dominant enterprise operating system for a reason. I’m not saying 10 years from now Microsoft won’t go the way of Novell, but folks why is Vista receiving such bad press?

Maybe it’s just me (post service pack 1) along with my dual core processor and 4 GB of RAM, but come on…

I wouldn’t advocate just rushing out and purchasing Vista like you would a new iPhone, but if you are upgrading your hardware, don’t be bashful about the new stuff. Embrace the fact that XP is in its silver years and its days will pass into the west. Don’t resist change… Vista really doesn’t deserve all this bad press.

So there, I put my stake in the ground, and that’s all I have to say about that.

Image courtesy of MouseRunner.com

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

I got some interesting feedback from my recent post, Can Apple Take Over the Enterprise? Kontra, over at CounterNotions, seems to think there are no significant challengers to Apples huge marketshare gains in the recent months:

Who then can challenge Apple?Not Palm or Motorola (extremely weak and rudderless leadership); not RIM (no OS level hw/sw integration, little UI and very limited consumer market expertise)…

Our company has used Windows Mobile devices for several years, and has recently launched a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) offering geared towards our Sales personnel. I have found the UI for the BlackBerry to be better as a phone, but less rich as a PDA. We now run a blended strategy of both BES and ActiveSync solutions. It has been our observation that less technically-inclined individuals prefer the BlackBerry solution, whereas technically-inclined people tend to prefer the gadgets offered by a Windows Mobile device.

The BES solution offers stability, granular security control, and a superior phone experience to that of Windows Mobile devices. However, The Windows Mobile ActiveSync (same platform Apple is basing their Enterprise Roadmap upon) option is less costly and natively supports Outlook/PDA integration on the fly (without use of 3rd party solutions).

While I have not personally used the iPhone, if the Touch is any indication of how well a UI can perform, the phone must be a wonderful marriage of form and function. BlackBerry and Windows Mobile alike have met the needs of their customers, but have not followed a basic tenant, “technology should improve the lives of those it touches.”

The iPhone is realistically the device to match this tenant, but Apple has hooked their wagon to that of Microsoft, an arch-rival in the desktop arena. Add to this, ActiveSync is not perceived as being an enterprise-class solution by many in the circles I travel, but it has its place in the SMB. This will help Apple continue to gain marketshare, but not enough to oust RIM in OS version 2.0.

RIM hasn’t done itself any favors with its recent patent infringement suits and NOC outages. Microsoft and Apple were both quick to point out their solution did not have such weaknesses. Needless to say, RIM enjoys a dominant spot in the enterprise for a reason, it is a solid performer and is perceived to be much more secure (from this writers perspective this has been mostly true).

It was a bold move for Apple to forge into an extremely competitive space, and they will need to strategically innovate to continue their growth. For now, Apple is beholden to Microsoft and AT&T, but is seemingly biding its time, waiting for a choice opportunity to strike.

I predict Apple will continue to gain marketshare and will be able to better negotiate deals with vendor/partners once they have established themselves as a dominant player. The next strategic step for Apple and RIM might be to port the Blackberry agent across to the iPhone, just like RIM did with Windows Mobile; that might serve Apple’s need to push a superior hardware model while protecting RIM’s base of licensees. Could that pave the way for a merger or acquisition? Hmm… that’s definitely worth chewing on!

At a recent Apple March 6 Event, Steve Jobs and some of his team outlined both the iPhone Enterprise Beta Program and iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK). While the long awaited SDK has been eagerly devoured by developers across the industry, I was keenly watching the Enterprise Roadmap.

In a nutshell, this allows the iPhone to connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server using ActiveSync. Thus, the end-user can receive “pushed” e-mail, calendar events, and contacts. This one area signals a storm that is long overdue in the world of technology, the introduction of a truly disruptive technology such as the iPhone & iPod Touch.

For a long time, Microsoft has catered to the goliath of enterprise business, giving this audience just enough of what they needed to hook them into an ever growing web of Microsoft products. They quickly understood that businesses wanted integration across their networks, to bring a common user interface (UI) to everyone. Why spend a lot of time and money on integrating software platforms when you have at least a promise of integration with a suite of solutions by one provider.

Microsoft leveraged their dominance in the desktop market to grow into the office suite, back office products, and even the mobile market.

Apple on the other hand had floundered without Steve Jobs at the helm, and has been playing catch-up for quite some time upon his return. However, by “the 4th quarter of 2007, the iPhone surged to a 28% share of the US converged device market…” (TechCrunch). With the veritable flop of Vista (to date), the surge of adoption of the iPhone and iPod products, and the launch of the iPhone Roadmap Apple stands poised to ride a cresting wave of unfounded end-user adoption…

Even though many people are making a big deal out of the iPhone, there are some other key things that hold true adoption of the Apple offerings back, and those are 3rd party application integration. Sure you can run Office 2008 on a Mac, but does it really work? Does it really play as well with the OS as it might on Vista?

Enter virtualization technologies… and I’m not just talking about Bootcamp or parallel here people; there are revolutionary new offerings whereby applications themselves can be pushed to the desktop for an extremely rich user experience while allowing IT an easier path to management.

And let’s not forget SaaS (Software as a Service). The ability to have an almost desktop-like experience is quickly replacing the “old” model of licensing and extending the enterprise across work and home computers securely. IT staffs are scrambling to handle more diverse fleets of hardware and software every day, and the resurgence of centralization (e.g. virtualization and thin/web clients) is gaining some tremendous ground and attention.

All these things play to Apple’s advantage, as the underdog. However, these are just as easily capitalized on by others as well. So what is the catalyst that will tip Apple over the edge to gain true marketshare? Giving customers what they want how they want it… see Starbucks!

I’m going on record! I predict that IF apple continues on its iPhone Roadmap, continues to develop disruptive technologies (as they have proven they can do), and can keep giving customers what they need and want, in 5 years Apple will have between 25% - 45% marketshare in the business desktop/notebook space.

 Yes, Apple can take over the enterprise! Next, can Apple unseat RIM BlackBerry?

My birthday is coming up this week, and my loving and caring wife actually decided to purchase me a real want, an Apple Touch! This little device wasn’t cheap in my opinion, and was definitely classified as a want - NOT a need… Now, many of you have been exposed to either the iPhone or Touch (and certainly have your opinions), but it really got me thinking about gauging success in terms of whether you meet the needs requirement document - or whether you step past that and also meet the wants that often get dropped off the list.

 I have loved my various iPods over the years, and credit Apple (much like all pundits) with a truly creative and unique offering to the market - a game changing, paradigm shift in the market. When they released the iPhone, not only did they do a superior marketing job (as Apple almost always does), but launched a truly revolutionary OS platform that finally does bring an intuitive interface with most of the things I want and need in an electronic device.

Many of you probably suffer from the same blurring of home and work life that I do (according to many surveys), and a device that allows me to keep “my life” together (both personal and professional) is truly wonderful. I mean I’ve been using smart devices for years, both Palm and Windows Mobile - and recently RIM BlackBerry. All seem to lack something, but I can now see that the only thing Apple is really lacking for a blockbuster smartdevice is simply more integrations - a trend that has been ramping up for some time with EDI, etc. - but it has really taken off with the advent of what most people commonly refer to as Web 2.0…

 According to a February 2008 article on TechCrunch, the iPhone is second only to RIM in the US smartphone market.

Figures released from research firm Canalys show that Apple’s iPhone in now second only to RIM (Blackberry) in the US smartphone market.

In the 4th quarter of 2007, the iPhone surged to a 28% share of the US converged device market behind RIM’s 41%, but ahead of 3rd third placed Palm on 9%. The iPhone was ahead of all Windows Mobile device vendors combined with a market share of 21%.

Despite its still limited official availability, Apple moved into 3rd place globally, behind Nokia (52.9%) and RIM (11.4%). Apple’s 6.5% global smart phone market share put it 19,000 units ahead of the struggling Motorola.

So, it’s an interesting case study in  the simple fact that when you really meet the needs AND wants of your customers (end-users for all you IT pogues out there), it becomes a game changer… it’s ultimately the greatest metric for true success, as indicated by these staggering numbers. Now, all Apple has to do is stave off the on-slaught of me-to companies that is bound to come (according to their Q1-08 10T). That just goes to show you success won’t allow you to stand still, you always have to adapt to the ever-changing marketplace.

 Well, I’m off to enjoy my new Touch… It really was the one of the best gifts I have received in a long time…