McGuire’s Law

Bonus: Network World’s John Cox proposes “4 steps to take control of your mobile devices”

In order to be winners in the new mobile era, businesses will not only need to capture the power of mobility, but also manage the danger. Highlighted below are recent examples of the danger of mobility and how some firms are beginning to manage it:

• Loss of mobile access
• Undiscovered phone features
• SME IT security
• Sensitive data left on used devices
• Violated IT policies
• Mobile wannabes

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Now playing: The Benjamin Gate - Lift Me Up

More and more, the world around us reflects the growing assumption of the law of mobility. Here are a few indicators of Mobility’s growing importance in our businesses, our lives, and our society:

• Nearly half turn to cellphones for entertainment
• Data 20% of global operator revenues
• Cellphones driving global chip sales
• Smartphone demand stronger than economic fears
• GM CIO: “Mobility as a phenomenon is here to stay and should be on every CIO’s agenda.”

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Now playing: Charlie Peacock - The Way of Love

Standard disclaimer: don’t take from my selections, ordering, headlines, etc. any indications of the interests or plans of my employer (if you do, you’ll undoubtedly be disappointed when they don’t play out.)

• Improving the Store Experience
• Vindigo shuts down
• Will Amazon Kindle Vertical Integration?
• ATandT chairman says credit woes crimping operations
• Nokia closing business mobility segment: so long Intellisync
• Small US Operators Form Trade Purchasing Body
• Credit Crunch - Silver Lining for Telcos? (Part 2)
• Use Cases for Telco 2.0 - making it tangible
• Multiple devices per account on WiMAX + also wholesale options
• T-Mobile joins 3 UK in prepaid mobile broadband race
• Hearts, minds and the mobile address book
• Why 3G ­Embedded Notebook Forecasts are Overhyped
• Mobility, Context, Interactions and Data @ Design4Mobile
• Phoload - free mobile apps marketplace…
• Open Access Service Examples
• The allure of the mobile society
• Software as a service? The difference between services, apps, features and functions
• Application Developer Needs Part 2
• Forget The Blackberry “Application Center.” The BerryStore Will Have Better Apps.
• BART Riders Embrace Paying with Mobile Phones - NFC Trial a Success
• Despite economy, smartphone market remains resilient
• Mobile Web Apps will Beat Native Apps

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Now playing: Sam Ashworth - Loved One

Standard disclaimer: don’t take from my selections, ordering, headlines, etc. any indications of the interests or plans of my employer (if you do, you’ll undoubtedly be disappointed when they don’t play out.)

• Google Patent Could Kill Off Cellphone Contracts
• Save us from Apple’s groundbreaking, developer-shackling App Store
• Why iPhone developers should defect to Android
• Will open source succeed in the mobile space?
• Google’s First Handset - strategic implications
• Could Google save us from the tyranny of the SIM card?
• Smartphones are opening - but just a crack
• EA Mobile: No Android games without premium billing
• HTC: up to 2 million Android phones sold by end of ‘09
• Will Apple be forced to make more money?

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Now playing: Charlie Peacock & Friends - Down in the lowlands

I spent some time this morning with Chris Fleck, Citrix’ VP of Solutions Development.  Chris is very focused on mobility, and as we talked, it was clear that our visions of the potential impact of mobility on businesses are well aligned.

One of our conversations centered around how Citrix’ products (XenApp, XenDesktop, etc.) have been demonstratable on smartphones for some time, but not practical.  The devices lacked the processing power, memory, screen resolution, keyboard/usability, and the networks lacked the bandwidth required for a smartphone to actually serve as an extended desktop.  Chris was excited because those barriers have largely gone away.  The time has finally arrived when folks can stop carrying their laptops around and still have complete access to full corporate applications.

Another of our conversations was around how to overcome the physical limitations inherent in the smartphone form factor.  One approach is to use a Bluetooth device like the Redfly.  Chris thinks that the Redfly is finally at the right price point ($199) to drive broad adoption by enterprises, which is great.  But Chris wants to extend it further to what he calls the Nirvana Phone.

I share Chris’ excitement about the pivotal time we’re in when these long-held visions are moving from “nirvana” to reality.  A great and energizing conversation.  Thanks Chris.

Research is good. Free highlights from expensive research reports are great. Here are some recent headlines:

• $600B in mobile payments by 2013 (Juniper Research)
  
• 140M mobile social networkers by 2013 (ABI Research)
• 730M mobile social networkers by 2013 (Juniper Research)
• $7.3B in mobile UGC by 2013 (Juniper Research)
• $11.6B in U.S. mobile business apps by 2012 (Compass Intelligence)
• $43B in 3G, 4G vertical services by 2014 (Senza Fili)
• 700M mobile phones to be NFC enabled by 2013 (Juniper Research)
• 75% of consumers would consider mobile banking (Fiserv)
• $5B in touch screens for mobile next year (ABI Research)
• 566M mobile TV users by 2013 (NSR)
• $22B in cellular modem sales by 2013 (ABI Research)
• 5.7M wireless base stations by 2013 (ABI Research)
• $1.9B in mobile ads by 2012 (Frost & Sullivan)
• 84% would pay for all-you-can-eat music (Strategy Analytics)
• 47% (of 9%) would switch carriers for mobile payments (Smart Card Alliance)
• 34% annual growth in data revenues through 2011 (TIA)
• 200M ultramobile devices by 2013 (ABI Research)
• 133M WiMax users by 2012 (WiMax Forum)
• 100M to make international money transfers by 2013 (Juniper Research)
• 90M touchscreen phones next year (Strategy Analytics)
• $90B in non-handset revenues in 2013 (ARCchart)
• 50 million people would benefit from wireless home healthcare monitoring (Berg Insight)

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Now playing: Charlie Peacock - Be Well Johnny Cash

The Law of Mobility talks about value increasing with mobility. The impact of this law is being felt because the barriers to building mobility in are being obliterated week after week. Here are examples of technology advances enabling this to happen:

• IPSO
• 2″ 960×540 LCD
• 256GB SSD
• 1.8″ 250GB drives
• Indoor positioning systems
• 16GB microSD
• 1.8V GPS module
• UMA
• Encrypted SMS

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Now playing: Peacock, Charlie - That’s The Point

As we work to build mobility into every product, service, and process, our greatest inhibitor is the mindset represented by those who defend the tethering of products and processes to specific places. This mindset is fueled by the investments that have been made that establish power in the companies, departments, and individuals that stand in the way of mobilizing our lives and our businesses. These investments are not always in hard assets, but often are investments of time and experience to establish intellectual and relational assets. We should expect our assault on these ways to be defended to the death. Here are recent examples:

• Big Bells don’t want to be held accountable
• “Verizon, Your Hypocrisy is Showing”
• Wireless carrier sues to block WiFi app
• Canadian Big Bell exercising market power to harm competitors

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Now playing: Charlie Peacock & Friends - Insult like the truth

Converging products into a cellphone is one way that mobility is getting built into every product, but it’s not the only way. Every month, I’ll focus on devices that are integrating the power of mobility into products themselves in ways that create new value for the customer. Power up!

• Teddy bears
• Newspapers
• BMWs
• Cars

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Now playing: Peacock, Charlie - Till You Caught My Eye

Bonus: Aliza Sherman shares “10 Everyday Ways to Use Twitter for Work”

Mobility is a wonderful thing. As mobility gets built into all products and services, businesses need to learn how to both capture the power of mobility and manage the dangers introduced through mobility. Here are some examples of how the power of mobility is being applied to create competitive advantage:

• NYC cabs adopt real-time mobile payments
• Wichita Wingnuts welcome wireless for cashless concessions
• Diet Coke launches mobile portal to reach female consumers
• BMW uses MMS to engage with customers (and sell winter tires)
• Visa mobilizes money transfers and account inquiries

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Now playing: Peacock, Charlie - Whole Lot Different