Here at AppSwing we pride ourselves on being completely device agnostic supporting any device that has a browser and some form of connection. Clearly it is also important to demonstrate this support and so this week we took the opportunity to test with an Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. While both devices worked out of the box the interface design for the on-device apps is very different to what is currently available on other devices. Therefore, we are currently looking to produce an Apple iPhone demonstration to show how you can access your back-office applications. I expect this to be online by the end of the month so watch this space for details and be one of the first to get your applications running on the iPhone.

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A couple of interesting and related articles on the BBC website today. The first reported that the symptoms felt by those living near mobile phone masts were “in the mind”. The research went on to conclude that “If you really believe something is going to do you some harm, it will.”.

This is good news for the company producing femtocell which essentially puts a mobile phone base station in your home and connects it to the internet. This means that those who have a poor signal at home will in future be able to continue to use their mobiles at home as they will connect to the femtocell and route the call via a broadband connection.

Both stores may not, however, have a happy ending. Those who feel the effects of living and working near mobile phone masts will continue to dispute the results and carry out their own studies. For femtocell the question is whether they are swimming against the tide of mobile devices that have wifi inbuilt that can connect to wireless routers and make voip calls cheaper than using a mobile.

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Some interesting surveys into attitudes to mobile devices and working this week have shown that 60% of small businesses have already implemented some form of mobile working while 10% of users would be “devastated” if their BlackBerry was taken away. Meanwhile a further survey shows that the number of workers now considered to be mobile has topped 40%.
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You may not be familiar with the name but HTC produces many of the Microsoft powered devices that are on the market today. They are also one of the most innovative companies when it comes to handset design.

The roadmap for device lanuches for the remainder of the year has been published on a number of websites today and included the following “BlackBerry-like” device:

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I have been running BlackBerry Connect on a Nokia E61 for a while now so I thought that now might be an appropriate time to do a comparison between the two.

BlackBerry Connect is the client software that allows you to use the BlackBerry push email service with a device other than a BlackBerry. Currently this is available for a number devices and mobile operating systems including Nokia, Palm and Pocket PC.

BlackBerry Connect allows an enterprise to get the additional features offered by other third party devices and still have the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) manage the push email. Additionally, depending on the version of the software, you are also able to get calendar and contact entries synchronised.

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Palm has announced today that the Windows Mobile powered version of it’s Treo is to be released in Europe before the end of the year.

What’s interesting is that the announcement was made in conjunction with Vodafone, who will be offering the phone initially, and Microsoft. This trio are looking to push push email (if you’ll pardon the puns and poor English), Microsoft’s of course. This now means that Vodafone have at least three different push email solutions with BlackBerry, Microsoft and their own Vodafone Business Email, a rebranded Visto offering.

You can find out more details on the announcement at the following address:

http://origin-euro.palm.com/uk/en/about/nextgeneration/form.html

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Having posted last time about the new devices that are coming onto the market I thought that it was worth looking at the next key consideration - device choice. For any mobility solution to be a success it has to have the support of the end users and having a usable device is one way of ensure their buy-in. What device you choose will depend on the application but there are no shortage of options - from the brick like rugged devices from suppliers such as Symbol through to the latest generations of smartphones via the UPMC devices recently announced by Microsoft.
What do you need to consider? Well questions such as:

• what’s the battery life? Will it be occasional or heavy usage?
• is keyboard input important?
• do you require phone capabilities?
• what connectivity options do you need? - wifi, gprs, bluetooth
• does the device have to withstand extreme environments?
• is peripherial access required? Such as bar code scanners, printers etc.
• does it need to integrate with an existing email system?
• what remote device management is offered?
• what security options are available on the device?

The other thing to consider is that if you are using a cliented solution for your back end application you will need to ensure that one if available for your chosen device. Many ISVs have clients for Pocket PCs only which will seriously restrict the options. If you are using AppServer then this is a clientless solution and so you have the choice of any device.
It is only when you have considered all the above questions that you can begin to work out a short list of devices. I would strongly recommend that you test drive as many devices as possible to establish each one’s strengths and weaknesses. You will prbably find that your existing mobile provider will loan devices for a trial period, which will keep costs to a minimum.
The final device choice may well be a compromise between a device that can actually run the required application and one that has the full feature set you need. As with any implementation forward planning is essential.

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The choice of devices suitable for running business applications has been fairly limited in the past. Only the BlackBerry and possibly the Treo have offered the sort of form factor that have made mobile working a possibility. But now things are really hotting up with models coming from HP, Nokia and Motorola and the launch of the Windows mobile based Treo.
What makes a great business mobile device? …
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In a week when Ernst and Young lost a laptop containing the names, addresses and credit card details of almost 250,000 Hotels.com customers it seemed appropriate to start my Key Considerations blog series on data security.
There is no doubt that security is a key concern of businesses of all sizes and this concern is only heightened with stories such as that from Ernst and Young. With more users away from their desk and the

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Today at RIM’s annual show, the Wireless Enterprise Symposium, it was announced that they are releasing software that finally breaks the link between the BES and the mail server. This is a very significant development as in the past you could only use BlackBerry if you had the devices tied to an email account. If you only wanted to run corporate applications on your device you had no choice but tie it to an email account and therefore to an individual. Now with BES for MDS Applications you will be able to get all the advantages of BES (encryption, compression, remote device management) without the need for an email account.
As a company that delivers applications to BlackBerry devices this is something that AppSwing have been asked for on a number of occasions and so I am glad that it is something we will be able to offer. The news is also significant as it shows a maturing of the mobile applications market and the recognition that there are many organisations that see the benefits of mobile working but not necessarily mobile email.
There was one final piece in the announcement that I felt was worth noting and that is the ability to be able to open documents for viewing from the BlackBerry browser which you currently cannot do and we have been requesting for a while. This will allow document download and viewing to be integrated into web based mobile applications. You can read more on the release of BES for MDS Applications at the following link: http://www.rim.com/news/press/2006/pr-15_05_2006-01.shtml

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