MOBILE FROM PAGE 35 opment for now. Brittain said GIS handheld mobile devices.
include early RIM and Palm devices, (geographic information system) “[BlackBerrys are] great little
followed by cell phones. capabilities could be of benefit to devices and indispensable as com-
While Fidelity has a uniquely flex- munication tools,
ible capability for interacting with but they’re toosmall
different browsers, the company has ‘Way back, we for applications. We
stopped short of device-specific devel- did browser would look at a tab-opment. “We have thought about it let [PC] for that,”
with J2ME, but it’s hard to support detection. ... Brittain said.
one-off applications,” Ferra said. Now we’re Location-based
Smaller enterprises, like their services such as
larger counterparts, are often doing device those Brittain is
inclined to hold back from mobile detection.’ contemplating are
application development commit- becoming attrac-ments. Many are happy to use only —JOSEPH FERRA, FIDELITY tive thanks to the
the capabilities that come packaged presence of GPS
with devices. some of the city’s workers—letting chips in many cell phones, noted
Goldrich and Kest, for example, a them know, for example, the loca- Francis Rabuck, an independent
real estate company that manages 130 tion of traffic lights, manhole covers consultant and an e Week Corpo-apartmentbuildingsandtwo marinas and fire hydrants—but that he will rate Partner.
in the Los Angeles area, is equipping likely target any such applications Rabuck pointed out that Apple
itspropertymanagers with BlackBerry for broadband-enabled laptops, not recently teamed up with the Sky-devices so they can access hook Wireless Wi-Fi Posi-and read PDF documents tioning System so that
and Microsoft Word and E-mail, Web browsing lead mobile app pack the Maps application on
Excel files—capabilities Q. What two types of applications are most frequently both the iPhone and iPod
included with the devices. used on your company’s mobile devices? Touch will be able to iden-
“We use whatever comes E-mail 92% tify the locations of Wi-Fi
on it,” said Bob Lauterbach, hot spots.
IT manager at Goldrich and Web browser 51% As for the ubiquitous
Kest and a respondent to BlackBerry, Rabuckpraised
the e Week survey. “There is Office productivity apps 13% the device’s potential while
no need to edit the files, just IM 11% lamenting that it often
to read them,” said Lauter- isn’t realized. “BlackBerrys
bach. Thirty-one Goldrich Service support/dispatch 7% can’t just be for e-mail any-and Kest employees have more,” he said. “I have seen
the devices, and 19 more Security/emergency ops 2% amazing applications on
are set to get them, the IT SFA (sales force automation)/ the BlackBerry. Just doing
manager added. CRM (customer relationship 2% e-mail is a total injustice.”
Another survey respon- management) But with newer and
dent, Jeff Brittain, IT direc- Delivery routing/supply 2% more broadly appealing
tor for the city of Hickory, platforms coming along,
N.C., told a similar tale. Asset management 2% that potential may never
The city has issued Black- be realized.
Berrys to 30 munici- Warehouse/supply chain 1% Said Gartner’s Clark,
pal employees, but the Manufacturing 0% “Thependulumwasshifting
employees are using the toward RIM and Microsoft
devices only for e-mail. until the iPhone came along.
The city is holding Source: Ziff Davis Now,theiPhoneisbreathing
off from more sophisti- Enterprise Editorial Research 0 20 40 60 80 100 Percentage of 261 respondents life into the market. Then
cated application devel- there is Android.” ´
