Research group IDC recently held a conference on Mobility in Dublin. Presenting were Lars Vestergaard, research director, IDC, Duncan Brown, consulting director, IDC, with representatives from Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle, Casio and EDS on hand to give their perspectives. PC Cubed, Manowave, Celtrak and Quinn Direct also participated with case studies and advice on implementation.
In the opening presentation Vestergaard, focused on mobilising the workforce. With Europe-wide research, the summation was that mobility “looks good on paper but is difficult to deal with”. This was illustrated by the response to a question on mobility in general and the area that help was most needed on. The industry respondents said that general advice was highest on the list. Further figures showed that between 30- and 40% of those surveyed had not got a mobility strategy.
Unsurprisingly, e-mail was the most popular application of mobility. However, pricing seems to have been an inhibitor according to the research as more than half of those surveyed said they would not want to pay more over existing costs for 3G type services. This is supported by the results that said among those surveyed, 58% said that mobile phones were not yet the primary phones used in their organisations. Ireland, according the research, is still voice-centric in its use of mobile services with an 85-15% split in favour of voice.
In an interview, Vestergaard elaborated on the Irish situation. “Ireland has seen something if a hesitant launch of 3G.” Though within the European context, this is not so unusual and Vestergaard likened the situation to his native Denmark. Vestergaard said, though, that the entrance of Telefonica into the Irish market through 02 will have a beneficial effect, giving further momentum to Vodafone’s recent 3G improvements. Citing Telefonica’s other European experiences, not all of which were successful, Vestergaard said “Telefonica is a big 3G, company and they are really going to make sure the O2 goes on the right track with 3G in Ireland.”
Marianne Roling, regional director of mobility and embedded devices EMEA, Microsoft, presented on Microsoft’s strategy in the mobile market. Building on recent announcements for Windows Mobile 5.0, Roling said that a new service pack for Exchange 2003 will provide the base services necessary to provide push e-mail services for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. The service pack will be free and should represent a low overhead implementation and management for the devices. The service pack does not require additional hardware and is widely regarded as being a direct competitor for RIM Blackberry devices. However, the service pack will only provide the base services and a feature pack due for release in 2006 will be required before fully featured services can be properly implemented.
With regard to the technology itself, Vestergaard said that 3G will be developed for some time yet before other offerings such a High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) become available. “3G will continue to evolve. HSDPA could be called 3.5G but we will continue to enhance 3G for several years. That is why Wi-Max could be considered too little too late because when the roadmap is so clear for 3G, and the commitment is behind it, the business case is now solid.”
While Duncan Brown’s presentation look ad the issues around fixed and mobile convergence, it seems that the outlook for mobility is good, though few businesses in Ireland, in common with Europe, appear to have a coherent strategy to handle it. Better pricing structures and services from providers, couple with greater choice in devices however, are likely to drive mobility toward strong growth for 2006 and beyond.
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