| 1888 Articles Home | Business Articles | Small Business Articles | Small Business RSS |  |
||
Is Windows Phone 7 ready for SMB prime time? |
||||
|
It’s hard to believe we’re nearly 20 years into the mobile phone revolution. I think even the visionaries who created the initial technological breakthrough didn’t foresee how pervasive and diverse their invention would become. |
||||||||||||
| Author: Bryan Ramona |
|
|||||||||||
Initially, the whole world of cellular communications was about voice. If you needed to make a call and if you were on the road you wouldn’t have to stand in a phone booth (remember those?) with piles of change or a “calling card” ticking off the minutes at an exorbitantly high rate. How convenient to be able to pick up your own phone and dial, and you could be reached in any number of places at any time. In the world of business and in making deals, there was a lot of excitement and justification to be the fastest to respond to customers. Wouldn’t a customer be impressed with you answering them while you are en route to your kid’s fourth grade recital? Of course they would, and you would be differentiating yourself from the guy or gal who knocks off at five o’clock and heads right to happy hour.
As time went on and technology advanced, it was inevitable that more functionality would be incorporated. Thus text messaging was born, using a protocol called SMS or Short Message Service. Using a maximum of 160 characters, one cell phone user could send a short message to another user without dialing. The unexpected byproduct was the evolution of a completely new language that some call “textspeak.” If you don’t know what “cu 2nite?” or “143” (I Love You) means then you’ve been sitting home on your rotary phone for too long!
While quick and extraordinarily popular with teens and tweens, text messaging is not used quite as broadly for business applications. Being able to both send and receive email remains the preferred written form of business communication, but it’s not always practical to connect to your Exchange server, Outlook via VPN or Outlook Web Access. So it was inevitable that the mobile phone revolution would capture email as a legitimate use. One of the pioneering innovators in the space was Research In Motion (RIM), a Canadian-based company that started producing the BlackBerry. Though often labeled with terms of derision like “CrackBerry” for its users’ complete and utterly fanatical attention to the devices, the lure of instant gratification and access soon led everyone else to follow.
At first, Microsoft just made it easy for BlackBerry users to connect to their corporate email with middleware for their pervasive Exchange platform. They even made it possible for Exchange to connect to their top rival’s mobile solution, the Apple iPhone. However, connectivity was just the first step as Microsoft made it easy to “push” email to devices without having to actively connect. In other words, Microsoft was responsible for that little “duh-DOO” tone that sent everyone to check their device to see if it was an email to them! So now hoards of mobile professionals can be reached by phone, by text or by email.
To take a page from just about every infomercial ever produced, “But wait, there’s more!” As we saw more and more miniaturized chipsets with greater power, the potential to add even more to the mix was like gravity pulling on a skydiver. So the competition for “smart” phones was on. Following RIM’s BlackBerry were the iPhone running the Apple mobile OS, and more recently the Google Android OS. In the midst of it was the logical entrant, Microsoft. After all, if you’re trying to make your Microsoft-based email and applications accessible on your mobile devices, why not create a mobile operating system that seamlessly allows that to happen? Thus, Windows Mobile was born.
The path travelled by the Microsoft development team was not always a smooth one. In fact, the early versions were not received well at all, but in the past few years the momentum has increased and Windows Phone 7 is the culmination of those efforts. As of late January 2011, Microsoft has shipped 2 million Windows Phone 7 handsets to carriers, but sales numbers from that inventory are a bit of a mystery. With the number of application developers growing and sales soon to get a spike from inclusion in the Verizon Wireless portfolio, what does the Windows Phone 7 bring to the SMB table?
As we look at the skill set of the operating system, the Windows Phone 7 interface is the first thing that jumps out. The display screen features several “Live Tiles” of information for quick access and viewing. The screen area is home to the information that many business users would look to first for applications such as Outlook, Office and SharePoint. Having information at your fingertips is just part of the business-friendly device. There are several advanced features that stand out for businesses.
1. Find My Phone – An application that allows you to remotely lock, wipe or locate your Windows Phone 7 if it’s ever lost or stolen. You can make the phone ring even if it’s set to silent or vibrate, and you can restore information automatically using online backup for contacts, calendar appointments, and notes.
2. Social Media – One of the hubs makes it easy to quickly perform social media tasks like tweeting or updating your Facebook.
3. Email – The messaging hub allows you to easily access other email accounts besides your Exchange-based mailbox.
4. Cloud-based Applications – The next big thing that allows Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 to be easily melded into your daily mobile device routine.
Not everyone believes that these features and benefits will be accepted by the SMB community. Some point to the need for Silverlight development skills to build specific applications, and most small and mid-sized businesses don’t have the ability or the budget for that. Andrew Garcia, an eWeek contributor, wrote in June 2010 that there were too many question marks around the OS including the lack of an IPSEC VPN client that was available in the previous version 6.5.
All in all, to look at the demos of the Windows Phone 7 you can see a great amount of potential for interesting applications to be built and marketed through the App Marketplace. The more that is targeted for the SMB space, the more you will see business adoption as long as that doesn’t come with a heavy price tag in IT setup and management. With the more established iPhone and BlackBerry users, as well as the steadily rising Android community, it may be a while before the 2 million handsets that have been released for sale actually find their way into the hands of the SMB. Once they do and the creative minds get to work, the sky is the limit, and with the near-seamless integration into the Microsoft world may prove to snowball into the dominant force by 2012.
About Author
SecurElement delivers a comprehensive blend of essential hardware, software, technical personnel, support and maintenance through the innovative Managed Environment program. Offering unparalleled value at a controlled cost, businesses of any size are able to leverage leading-edge technologies and services that maximize productivity, drive bottom line success and solve critical business issues.
For more information regarding SecurElement solutions, interested parties can contact the sales department at 484.323.1629 or via email at sales@securelement.com.
Article Source:
http://www.1888articles.com/author-bryan-ramona-24343.html
Other Related Articles A Fishing Rod is not as Simple as Many Believe by Haytham Amro Abu Dhabi Car Hire – The Easy Way for Your Conveyance by Ramsey Lewis Is Windows Phone 7 ready for SMB prime time? by Bryan Ramona Postcard Printing: The Secret To Getting Noticed by Janice Jenkins Catering Equipments by Christina Xio |
