Mobile Net the next frontier

The next big shift in the way people gather information and surf the Internet will be mobile browsing. The industry is experiencing a surge in the uptake of devices capable of providing the ability to browse the web from a mobile device.

On the other side of the equation, Organizations are not keeping pace with this demand by optimizing their websites for viewing from a mobile device. At the same time we are still saddled with less than exemplary mobile browers available on today's devices. Apple is the first (aren't they always?) to recognize this paradigm shift in the way people are trying to access information. The iPhone arguably provides the best mobile web browsing experience available today.

Some of the applications that will provide future services, have yet to be written. Surprisingly, Nokia was testing these waters back in 1997 when they wrote an application that used GPS and crime statistics database, to offer life insurance to users who strayed into statistically high crime neighbourhoods. That was probably all most people needed to "high tail" it out of there!

The mobile Net will be the next battle ground for the hearts and minds of consumers and information junkies. The mobile Net will belong to those who best anticipate the new ways people will use it. Just think how the functionality of GPS can create a "situational awareness" of not only where you are, but what goods and services are available near by. It adds the benefit of creating a context to where you are and what you may be doing. to which Goods and Services can be applied and offered.

But that's only the first part of what some people envision for mapping. Using data they collect with GPS handsets, people will begin to create virtual maps of their lives. It's already starting to happen. Last year, Nokia posted a prototype of Sports Tracker, a free application for runners and other athletes that uses a GPS phone to record their training. A million people downloaded the program, which quickly morphed into a way for users to create online diaries and share photos of their whereabouts. Nokia rebranded the program as viNe for athletes and others, underscoring how the mobile Web is evolving more by user creativity than corporate decree.

BRICs and the Mobile Web
New research from Nielsen reveals contrasts in Web surfing of cell-phone users in developed countries vs. those in the so-called BRIC nations. Mobile subscribers in Brazil, Russia, India, and China rank entertainment, gaming, and music sites among their top five categories visited. In Europe and the U.S., e-mail, weather and news, and sports top the list. Why? BRIC residents often don't have the home PCs, cable TV, and iPods that Westerners do. (AAPL) So more use cell phones for entertainment. Read the study HERE

BIG News in wireless synchronisation

The big news that everyone is talking about is the announcement by Nokia that they are dropping Intellisync...and their $430 million dollar investment that went along with it. Dropping that kind of cash is news enough in itself. Dropping support for a product that you have convinced thousands if not millions of people to use...is another story.

Comments from pundits are starting to surface and it's too early to gauge the reaction to the move by giant Nokia. Our attention is immediately drawn to the situation now faced by the millions of GroupWise users the world over. Intellisync is/was the "guts" of the GroupWise Mobile Server...so now what? Poor GroupWise gets kicked in the groin again by one of its "partners" and once again we're reminded to be careful what we wish for. Support for your product by a monster organization like Nokia, may be a curse disguised as a blessing or the proverbial "wolf in sheeps clothing". I dare say the GroupWise team got bitten on the behind with this move!

Fortunately for the wireless mobility world...there is NotifyLink. As one wireless platform provider after another bites the dust, NotifyLink stands strong.

If you're not using NotifyLink now, dump what you're using before they dump you! Come to a company offering a product you can trust for the long haul. We've been here since the birth of mobility and we're remain determined to provide the worlds best third party mobility application. You will continue to have the CHOICE to use what ever email platform, device, wireless carrier and data plan that YOU CHOOSE.

We say it's time to stand up and tell your carrier what YOU want!

**These opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations about which I write.

Nokia gives corporate email the push

Nokia is to give up on corporate email and pushed applications, leaving all that to third-party companies while it concentrates on selling push email to ordinary punters.

The moment RIM proved that push email was such an important gateway into corporations, everyone started furiously developing competing services while carefully stepping around RIMs patents (often unsuccessfully).

Nokia's effort culminated in the purchase of Intellisync in 2005 for $430m, with the intention of offering businesses a push-email solution with a Nokia brand.
But the plethora of competing technologies, along with the obtuse reluctance of IT departments to support a wide variety of email gateways, has made the market fiercely competitive. It's also a business that doesn't really fit with Nokia's consumer-services-brand aspirations, so the company says that in future it will "form its enterprise solutions... by combining Nokia devices and applications with software solutions from industry leading enterprise vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and others".

The Intellisync business isn't big enough to be worth selling off as a going concern, so the company is left to claim that "technologies and expertise will be reallocated to Nokia's new consumer push email service" - so a $430m investment gets folded into the Ovi service and the Intellisync brand disappears entirely.

Meanwhile Nokia's security-appliance business is being wrapped up for a potential sale as part of what Nokia calls its "renewal of its business mobility strategy".
Microsoft, RIM and their ilk might have corporate email sewn up, but Nokia believes the market for personal email services is still wide open - though between Google and Apple the opportunity won't last much longer

New Google patent to help consumers

While we all thought Google’s Android was merely a way for Google to make it easier for is AdWords ads to appear on your cell phone, a new patent filing could reveal a larger goal.
A bidding system where wireless providers bid to offer the lowest calling rates for your unlocked cell phone.

Here’s how ComputerWorld describes the new Google patent application:

…When at home, the device would attach to the user’s Wi-Fi network…But once outside, the device could periodically search for other available service providers, asking the service providers to bid for the chance to offer service to the customer. The device could automatically switch to the network that has the best price without interrupting a user’s voice call or data connection.

On the back end, a program on the phone could contact each of the available networks individually, or the phone could instead communicate with a central server that handles the negotiations with each service provider.

List of Activesync relative deficiencies

Here is a short list of deficiencies included for free in Exchange Active Sync. Latest version of EAS is: 4.5.5096.0

1. No ability to lock a device remotely
2. Remote PC Sync (via WiFi or LAN) has been removed due to Enterprise customer feedback around security issues. Microsoft® Outlook® 2000 is not supported by ActiveSync .
3. Starting with Windows Vista, ActiveSync has been replaced with the Windows Mobile Device Center, which is included as part of the operating system
4. EAS may not connect after joining the workstation to a domain

NL v4.5 has been certified against CGP v5.2.7.

Notify Technology Corp. (NTFY) of San Jose, CA, announced today that they have certified NotifyLink v4.5 against CommunigatePro v5.2.7.

This means users of CGP's latest version can be assured of full bi-directional synchronization of email, calendar, contacts and tasks when using NotifyLink for any BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Palm or Symbian 9.1s60r3 device.