Pervasive cellular broadband

In order to provide customers with anywhere, anytime connectivity, all of the major cell phone providers have invested heavily in extensive broadband infrastructures over recent years. And today, many devices can send and receive e-mail and surf the web. Many providers have gone so far as to require the purchase of a data plan with selected devices. This pervasive connectivity bodes well for the future of all mobile devices. It wasn’t that long ago, that connectivity was the “weakest link” and a real barrier to using cellular devices for much more than voice calls and text messaging. Today, these networks are pervasive and reliable and ready to support a more significant role in the computing world.

WiMax

Cellular broadband is not the only high speed option that’s altering the mobile landscape. WiMax, also known as 802.16, appears poised for wide scale roll out. WiMax stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, and offers connection speeds up to 10MB/second over ranges up to 30 miles, representing a promising alternative to virtually all other data communication technologies in place today, including the long playing WiFi (802.11) standard. The most significant obstacle so far has been the limited availability of WiMax technology in end user devices. But that appears ready to change as virtually all vendors have announced the availability of WiMax connectivity in their most popular products beginning this year. WiMax might be the last connectivity technology end users need….for a while!

Web browsers on every device

Over time, end user applications have been written using a variety of development tools, but have always required installation on local devices where they would be used. Next generation applications, however, are moving away from this approach and instead will be accessible exclusively from a web browser. So whether core applications and critical data reside on corporate servers or on hosted machines that user’s access via a monthly subscription SaaS (Software as a Service) model, the end user experience is the same – everything they require is accessible via a web browser. So with web browsers appearing on virtually all devices today, along with pervasive broadband connectivity, the next generation of end user applications will be useable, anywhere, any time!

New devices

While the search for the perfect mobile device continues, the appearance of several recent devices has stimulated considerable thought and discussion about how these new formats might be leveraged in the working world. One such device is the netbook. Netbooks are actually a type of sub-notebook. They are smaller in size and do not sport the same power or functionality of a traditional notebook, but netbooks have become incredibly popular in the last 12 months given their small size, light weight and long battery life. Netbooks can be reasonably used to access e-mail and the Internet, along with light word processing, note taking and simple spreadsheets. In many ways, they are the perfect travel device - bigger than a cell phone, with a sufficiently sized QWERTY keyboard for answering e-mails and surfing the web, yet smaller than a notebook. Many regard the netbook as the perfect “grab and go” device.

Cell phones are also pushing the mobile envelope at a dizzying pace. Today, the latest Blackberry, Apple, Palm and Google devices sport brilliant, high-resolution screens, high speed broadband and 802.11 connectivity, web browsers and access to multiple e-mail accounts along with extensive app (application) stores where end users can download a seemingly endless assortment of add-on programs.

Are there any concerns on the fast moving mobile frontier? One thing that might impair progress is a good old-fashioned traffic jam! According to Forrester Research, 34 million US mobile subscribers accessed the Internet using their cell phone at of the end of 2008. That figure is projected to grow to 106 million by 2014. And Web-enabled smartphones are estimated to consume 30 times more data than regular cell phones. Hopefully cellular providers can keep pace with growing end user appetites for data access! Beep beep!