Text messaging is already an indispensible communications tool used by millions of mobile phone users. Now add another feature, and this one could save your life.More...

Today's blog / blurb / column / commentary is a little less serious than usual. But it’s Friday, so we can loosen the collar a little bit. So we’re keeping it light in the following discourse / essay / feature / item / piece / story / theme / think-piece /  treatise / write-up. More...

The federal government is often criticized for not taking full advantage of current technology, but that is definitely not the case when it comes to 4G. We are seeing a wave of interest in high-speed wireless 4G among federal agencies, especially with 4G coming soon to the nation’s capital as Sprint continues to roll out new markets. More...

With Labor Day and its annual salute to American workers just behind us, it seems like a good time to look at how much has changed in the way the enterprise does business. Specifically, mobility and wireless technology are driving the business transformation. It is reflected in these four attributes of today’s modern mobile workforce: [more

1)    The mobile workforce is tethered to technology.  Says the recent Mobile Workforce Report, technology-free time is almost non-existent.  "The majority of mobile employees never disconnect from technology, even during vacation. For the 46.4 percent of mobile employees that do on occasion disconnect, their reasons were mostly situational (such as being in a location with poor connectivity)".

2)    Seventy-two percent of the U.S. workforce is now mobile, says the IDC 2009-2013 forecast. This reflects how important mobility is in an enterprise IT strategy.  The far-reaching implications include device management and support (corporate/personal liable), secure remote access, dedicated 24-hour help desk support for the mobile user, etc.

3)    Mobility is the catalyst for business processes to be sped up or even re-engineered across all business segments. Take banking, for example. Customers can now take a picture with their mobile phone of a check to be deposited, and send the photo directly to their bank. The deposit is recognized earlier, speeding the check clearing process.  In transportation and manufacturing, mobile devices automate data collection and provide an audit trail through location and identification functionality. This is best reflected through M2M technology (machine-to-machine cellular connectivity).  For example, bar codes and RFID tags can be used to quickly establish the context for mobile workers when they approach a specific piece of equipment or remote site, facilitating work-flow. Such information improves audit trails and ensures that verification tasks are done while at the asset or process area. Physical security even leverages mobile technology. For instance, who checks on after-hours, on-premises security guards? Now these individuals carry M2M mobile devices and use them to check in at various stations. The premises-based device recognizes the security guard, then in turn sends a signal to a remote location.  Many such new processes are only possible with mobile solutions, speeding up and even creating new ways of doing business.

4)    Mobile workers carry multiple mobile devices. Not just smartphones like the BlackBerry, Google Android, the iPhone, and the newest HTC EVO 4G, but also the iPad, netbooks, and other thin clients. In the Mobile Workforce Report, nearly 97 percent of mobile employees carry two or more mobile devices, and almost 50 percent carry three or more. More than 90 percent of these same employees use their mobile devices for both professional and personal business.   This trend is forcing enterprise IT organizations to support a spectrum of mobile devices beyond those that are corporate liable. This is especially important as mobile phones for business are mostly about data, not voice. Today’s mobile devices access, share, and create data that is often mission-critical for employees and the enterprise.

The following blog is by guest blogger, Lisa Pierce. Pierce is president of Strategic Networks Group, an independent analyst firm specializing in emerging business-class network services. More...

Brad Reed at Network World describes how the new BlackBerry Torch could sink or swim based on its new operating system. I don't often write about mobile devices, but the thing that interests me about any converged device is how the operating system is stacked. In operating systems of old, the device was king and the user was but a knave.More...

It’s hard to find a bigger 4G supporter than Carlson, the Minneapolis-based hospitality company. Carlson’s IT manager for telecom, Phil McDonald actually jumped at the chance to start using 4G well before it was even rolled out at his company. More...

In his Cisco Subnet blog on Network World, Jim Duffy recently reacted to Cisco's foray into the business tablet computing market. In the cloud computing world of tomorrow, people will be wandering around corporate campuses with thin clients – and Apple has always had somewhat of an uphill battle in the enterprise space. More...

Teresa Kellett, Director of 4G for Sprint, recently was acknowledged as one of the “Top Women in Wireless” list, compiled by FierceWireless. This is the third annual compilation by the Fierce folks, tracking the success of female executives who are standing out in what the publication calls the “traditionally male-dominated world of telecom.” More...

As I explore cloud computing more and more, I am surprised by the number of companies that do not see mobility as being integral to cloud solutions. According to McGuire's Law, the value of a product increases with its mobility. It makes no sense, for instance, to build a next-generation Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application in the cloud without rich mobile functions. Ideally, the SaaS platform is open enough that even new phones, with no specific SaaS application written for them, still work well. More...