According to international research firm Gartner, investment in mobile applications and technologies will surge through 2011 as companies emerge from recession.
“We are highlighting these 10 mobile technologies that should be on every organization’s radar”, said Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. The company will widely discuss these trends at the Gartner Wireless, Networking & Communications Summit, April 19-21, in San Diego, California.
10. Bluetooth 3 and 4
By 2011, two new Bluetooth versions will emerge: Bluetooth 3 will introduce 802.11 as a bearer for faster data transmission, and Bluetooth 4 will introduce a new low-energy (LE) mode that will enable communication with external peripherals and sensors, with both versions aiming to improve battery life and security.
According to Gartner, Bluetooth 3 will facilitate corporate and consumer functions demanding large bandwidth (for example, downloading images and videos from handsets). Bluetooth LE will enable a range of new sensor-based business models in industries such as fitness, healthcare and environmental control and will be used by handset and PC peripherals to enable new functions, such as PCs that autolock when users move away from them.
9. The Mobile Web
Over 85% of globally shipped handsets will include browsers by 2011, report the Gartner analysts. In mature markets such as Western Europe and Japan, 60% pf handsets will be smartphones with advanced browsing capabilities. The mobile web, along with associated web adaptation tools, will be a leading technology for B2C mobile applications through 2012, and should be part of every organisation’s B2C technology portfolio.
8. Mobile Widgets
Widgets are installable web applications that use technologies such as JavaScript and HTML. Many handsets support widgets running on their home screens, where they are easily visible and accessible. Despite the lack of standards, widgets provide a convenient way to deliver simple, connected applications, especially those involving real-time data updates (such as weather forecasts, e-mail notifications, marketing, blogs and information feeds).
7. Platform-Independent Mobile AD Tools
Mobile platforms will become more diverse through 2012, although consolidation will not have started, and, in some markets, five or more platforms may have a significant presence, said the Gartner analysts.
Therefore, tools that can reduce the burden of delivering installable applications to several platforms will be very attractive. Platform-independent application development (AD) tools cannot deliver a “write once, run anywhere” equivalent to native code; however, they can significantly reduce the cost of delivering and supporting multi-platform applications that provide a more sophisticated experience than the mobile web and operate outside signal coverage.
6. App Stores
App stores will be the primary way to distribute applications to smartphones and other mobile devices. App stores also provide a range of business support functions, such as payment processing for smaller organisations. They will be a distribution channel for mobile applications and a commercial channel to sell applications and content, especially in international markets, and they will provide new options for application sourcing. Many applications will exploit ecosystem cloud services.
5. Enhanced Location Awareness
As with mobile browsers, over 75% of devices shipped in mature markets will include a GPS by the end of 2011. GPS will be the primary, but not the only, means of establishing handset location. Wi-Fi and cell ID systems will remain important in situations where GPS is unavailable or unreliable. The popularity of location-aware handsets will enable a wide range of B2E and B2C location-aware applications, and will serve as a foundation for more-sophisticated contextual applications in the future.
4.Cellular Broadband
During 2010 and 2011, the availability of multi-megabit wireless broadband performance will continue to grow as mobile networks enhance their broadband performance. Continuous improvements in wireless broadband performance will increase the range of applications that no longer require fixed networking, and make cellular broadband a more effective fallback when fixed connections fail. Embedded cellular networking will become a standard feature of many corporate laptops, and will enable new types of network-connected devices and business models, such as e-books and media players.
3.Touchscreens
Touchscreens are emerging as the dominant user interface for large-screen handsets, and will be included in over 60% of mobile devices shipped in Western Europe and North America in 2011. Touch-enabled devices will also make increasing use of techniques such as haptics to enhance user experience. Organisations developing native handset applications may need to exploit single and multitouch interfaces and haptics to give their applications a compelling and competitive user experience.
2. M2M
According to Gartner studies, many network service providers increased their commitment to machine to machine (M2M) in 2009, so a good range of both national and multinational M2M service options will be available in mature markets during 2010 and 2011. Although the M2M market is very fragmented, it is growing at over 30% per year. Low-cost M2M modules will enable a wide range of new networked devices and business models. Key applications include smart grid, meter reading, security/surveillance, automotive systems, vending and point of sale, remote monitoring, and track and trace.
1. Device-Independent Security
Device-Independent Security is not strictly a single technology, but refers to a collection of security technologies, application technologies and sourcing options that enable the provisioning of applications that are secure, but less tightly tied to specific devices and platforms, and that, in many cases, do not require security tools to be installed on the client.
It includes thin-client architectures, applications as a service, platform-independent forms of network access control (NAC), portable personality, virtualisation, and hosted security services, such as “in the cloud” virus scanning. Device-independent tools cannot provide the rigour of fully installed security, but a blend of several of these tools can enable CIOs to deliver applications that can run on a wider range of devices while reducing security risks.
