Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly – Week of March 18, 2012

Welcome to Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly, an online newsletter that consists of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility in Asia.  Asia is predicted to be the fastest area of growth for enterprise mobility between now and 2016.

Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

A recent global IT survey by the Ponemon Institute and Websense revealed that 61 percent of Australian IT professionals felt the use of mobile devices in the workplace is an important part of achieving business objectives. Read Original Content

BlackBerry leads as the most popular enterprise platform in India, according to a recent survey of CIOs.  Sixty-one percent of those responding preferred the BlackBerry as an enterprise mobility solution, with Android far behind with 18 percent. Read Original Content

CTI Group and Australia’s KNet Technology have announced a partnership and a move into the Asia Pacific region. Read Original Content

A study from research firm TechNavio shows that mobile may be the solution for voice over Internet protocol technology for businesses in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.  The research predicts that the market will reach $5.3 billion in two years. Read Original Content


TriQuint Semiconductor has opened a headquarters facility in Singapore. "With Asia's appetite for new technologies, particularly in mobile devices, and government support of the latest communications infrastructure, we believe Asia will continue to offer great opportunities for business growth.” Read Original Content

Mobile Health News Weekly – Week of March 12, 2012

The Mobile Health News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to mobile health that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

FORCE Therapeutics has released its next generation app, FORCE Mobile, which offers professional exercise solutions for musculo-skeletal injuries, direct to the consumer. The app intelligently recommends exercises based on sport, area and type of dysfunction. Read Original Content

A new healthcare mobility survey from iHealthBeat found that 85 percent of respondents said their organization has a BYOD policy, but the organizations vary in the amount of data they allowed personal mobile devices to access. Read Original Content

Patient-centric medical homes are touted to fix the healthcare cost crisis, but the deep pockets and extensive IT resources they require aren't available to every healthcare provider. Read Original Content

Webalo technology eliminates the need for traditional mobile application development tools and custom programming to provide in hours, instead of weeks or months, mobile access to the specific enterprise data and functions that smartphone and tablet users rely on to do their jobs.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by Webalo, www.webalo.com.

Low-cost, self-service platforms for SMS alerts will soon replace manual phone calls and handwritten notes for appointment reminders and prescription refill notifications, ensuring that billable services and products are used and patients receive their scheduled care. This is just one of the reasons mHealth will go mainstream in 2012. Read Original Content


According to a report by the Boston Consulting Group and Telenor Group, a Norway-based mobile communications provider, mobile health projects could reduce maternal and perinatal mortality rates by about 30 percent; and reduce medical data collection-related costs by about 24 percent. Read Original Content

Mobility News Weekly – Week of March 12, 2012

The Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Marketing News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly

Samsung’s market share in the Chinese market is three times larger than Apple’s and still growing, Bloomberg reported.  Read Original Content

By 2016, iGR expects approximately 96 percent of U.S. handset sales to be comprised entirely of smartphone sales.  Read Original Content

4G handsets grabbed 35 percent of the smartphone market in the fourth quarter, up from just 6 percent a year earlier, NPD said.  Read Original Content

ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware - http://www.clicksoftware.com/.

Beginning March 1, Facebook began allowing brands that people “like” to send messages and ads to those users’ mobile news feeds. Facebook could generate more than $1.2 billion from mobile ads in the program’s first year, estimates Mobile Squared.  Read Original Content

By 2016, at least 50 percent of enterprise email users will rely primarily on a browser, tablet or mobile client instead of a desktop client, according to Gartner.  Read Original Content

Mobile Expert Video Series: SAP's Anu Agarwal

I had the privilege of attending a session on SAP's new mobile applications taught by SAP's Anu Agarwal a couple of weeks ago.  After the session Anu granted me an interview on a range of topics related to enterprise mobility and mobile application architecture.  Anu manages the development of SAP's new mobile EAM (enterprise asset management) and Field Services applications. These applications connect to SAP's CRM.  I hope you find it useful.

 

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Coca Cola Consolidated and Enterprise Mobility

I just listened to an overview of a recent mobility project that Coca Cola Consolidated did using the system integrator Energy4U and the MEAP vendor Syclo.  The solution integrated with SAP.  It was basically a mobile shipping, inventory and warehouse application.

A few interesting points, 1)Coca Cola Consolidated are mobility veterans in some parts of their organization with over 25 years of mobility experience, but they outsourced this project to a mobility vendor and a system integrator, and 2) the project only took 8 weeks.

Coca Cola Consolidated selected Energy4U and Syclo as their mobility implementation team because mobility was not their core focus.  They wanted to outsource this effort to an experienced team with SAP expertise.

The success of the project was credited to productive on site visits where processes and requirements were accurately documented, trained experts and a good MEAP vendor.  It also helped that there was a very experienced Energy4U mobility team that were skilled veterans of developing on Syclo's Smart Mobile Suite.

Venky Govind of Coca Cola Consolidating said they wanted a mobility vendor that would be responsible for supporting all of the current and future mobile operating systems and devices, and keeping the MEAP (mobile enterprise application platform) updated.  They did not want that responsibility in-house.

This solution was replacing a manual paper driven process.   The mobile app replaced the paper forms and simplified the entire process while automating the data collection and integrating it directly with SAP.

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

What Mobile Software Vendor will Oracle Buy in 2012?

What mobile software vendor will Oracle buy in 2012?  This is the question I asked, and sixty-six people shared their thoughts.  Here are their answers:

  • 42% - Antenna Software
  • 27% - Kony Solutions
  • 13% - Verivo (formerly Pyxis Mobile)
  • 12% - Syclo
  • 4%   - Rhomobile

I asked this question because SAP bought Sybase, IBM bought WorkLight, HP bought webOS (oops!), and it seems like Oracle must make a move into enterprise mobility soon.  The market will not wait for Oracle, so if Oracle wants to control their future they need to act.



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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Marketing News Weekly – Week of March 12, 2012

The Mobile Marketing News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news, articles and links related to mobile marketing that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting market size and market trend information.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility and M2M News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly

As Twitter launches mobile ads — 66 percent say they don’t want smartphone ads as indicated in this infographic. Read Original Content

College campuses are the new targets of choice for leading mobile ad firms like Touchpoint. Touchpoint revealed a nationwide deployment of its mobile technology to over 130 college campuses in what it dubs the “Campus Connection.” Read Original Content

A new report by Nielsen showed that mobile advertising on tablets is leading to an impressive number of purchases on other devices. Among owners of tablets like Apple’s iPad in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Italy, 29 percent made purchases on a PC after seeing ads for those goods on their tablet. Read Original Content

Verivo is a leading provider of enterprise mobility software, Verivo helps companies accelerate their business results. Its unique technology empowers teams to build, deploy, manage and update their mobile apps -- rapidly and securely. Verivo’s mobility platform is used by hundreds of companies in numerous industries, worldwide. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Verivo.  To learn more, visit www.verivo.com

On the back of tickets to Los Angeles Lakers games Toyota has been advertising ToyoTags, its mobile marketing app, that allows consumers to enter sweepstakes or receive information about a car special. Downloads of the app increased 600 percent the first week and 700 percent the second.  Read Original Content

NY Waterway has installed GPS technology on town buses that take passengers from Fort Lee, Cliffside Park and Edgewater to the Edgewater ferry landing, enabling residents to track buses via the web or a new mobile app. Read Original Content

What's New in HTML5 - Week of March 12, 2012


HTML5 offers some genuine advantages and tools for developers, but it is not mature enough to serve as a tool for business applications, according to David Akka of Magic Software.  Read original content

The basics of establishing user location with HTML5 are covered in this tutorial from developerdrive.com.  Read original content

The iPad 2 ranks as the best device for HTML5 games and apps performance, according to a new report from spaceport.io.  Overall, iOS devices and browsers outperformed Android “across the board”.  Read original content

Mozilla has created a mobile OS based on HTML5, JavaScript and CSS.  Boot to Gecko is an open source web-based operating system for mobile devices and “eliminates the need for apps to be built on platform-specific native APIs.”  For a demo visit, https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G/Demo.  Read original content


Combining the benefits of HTML5 and native app technologies may be the best approach.  Ashley Streb of Brightcove states that “for cross-platform, content-centric apps, this approach saves both time and money."  Read original content

Is the Java development community ready to embrace HTML5?  Opinion seems to be divided at this point.  Read original content

Sencha has upgraded its HTML5 mobile application framework with the release of Sencha Touch 2.   One of the goals of the upgrade was to “make standards-based Web apps rival native apps on all the top devices and browsers."  Read original content

Although HTML5 has made strides in apps development, Apple customers are still demonstrating their love for native apps.  The iOS app store has exceeded 25 billion downloads.  Read original content

appMobi has announced the release of the beta version of its directCanvas HTML5 acceleration technology.  “HTML5 is the future of the open Web and many people want to take advantage of building games with it on smart devices.”  Read original content

Corel’s VideoStudio Pro is now available in a new “X5” version that provides the ability to generate HTML5 video content that will display in any browser that supports HTML5.  Read original content

Ludei has announced the availability of CocoonJS, a development tool that provides the ability for developers to convert HTML5 games into iOS and Android apps.  Read original content

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

SAP Mobility and the App Pricing Problem

SAP has a challenge.  After nearly two years the field sales still can't figure out how to organize consistent pricing on enterprise mobility.  Yes, I have been given many explanations by SAP on their pricing strategy(it does exist), but these details haven't seemed to trickle down to the field. When I talk to end customers and systems integrators (many over the past 14 days) they express frustration and say there is no consistent pricing.  As a result, many companies are finding it challenging to plan for and implement enterprise mobility.

In an analyst report that I recently wrote for insiderResearch titled Mobile Outlook 2012, only 32% of companies have an enterprise-wide mobile strategy that governs all applications and devices.  Without a mobile strategy in place, it is very difficult for companies to pull the trigger on large purchases of MEAPs (mobile enterprise application platforms) and MDMs (mobile device management) solutions.  In addition to the no-mobile-strategy challenge, there is the need to determine pricing for all of the mobility projects that are being requested so you can plan, budget and prioritize.  This can easily end up in a vicious circle.  No strategy and no-pricing equals barriers that will delay valuable mobility projects.


I spoke recently to a system integrator that is involved in many active enterprise mobility projects that are using SUP.  He said everyone of them have been given different pricing for SUP.  It seems the pricing is difficult to understand and communicate. I am not suggesting good clear pricing doesn't exist, it is just not getting translated to the field.

In a recent insiderResearch survey, participants (602 people completed the survey) were asked to identify their biggest challenges to implementing enterprise mobility solutions. Here are the answers:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
The first four biggest challenges were:

  1. Developing a mobile strategy
  2. Identifying and prioritizing business cases
  3. Choosing a platform and mobile technologies
  4. Budgeting
Do you see why not knowing the price of mobility can be a BIG problem.  How can the business and the IT department even start implementing mobility with all of the uncertainty?

40% of companies report that enterprise mobility is currently being managed by each line of business, business unit or group without central management or oversight.  These groups won't wait for the corporate office to negotiate with SAP.  They will purchase their own mobile solution that provides them with clear pricing.

[March 22, 2012] Read the follow-up article titled More on SAP Mobile App Pricing.





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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Video Series: Smartsoft Mobile's CEO Dan Homrich

This is an interview with mobility expert Dan Homrich, CEO of Smartsoft Mobile that I recorded at the recent SAPinsider Mobile2012 conference in Las Vegas.  Dan has been in the enterprise mobility industry for over 20 years and has many great experiences to share from his time on the front lines of mobility.  In this interview I am asking what he sees in 2012 that was different than in 2011.



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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant and SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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