Well it's that time of year we pundits start cranking out our predictions for the coming year. Of course those of us who follow the mobile space shudder at that prospect given our industry's undiminished ability to surprise and confound. Be that as it may, here's what I'm expecting in the coming year.
In this Industry Buzz podcast, Dave Michels moderates a discussion with the UCStrategies Ex
Tablet computers have certainly been one of the hottest topics in enterprise computing since the introduction of the Apple iPad in 2010, and now everyone involved with UC is trying to get a piece of the action. While jumping on the bandwagon has always been great sport in the IT field, the value proposition must be valid, the user experience must be acceptable (or "awesome"), and the overall environment must be in sync with user expectations regarding the how, where, and why users are adopting this technology.
Enterprise Connect (EC) has just wrapped up in Orlando, and while the main focus was on UC, collaboration, and video, mobility was extended its customary lip service. For those who relish irony, in his keynote address Kirk Koenigsbauer, Corporate VP, Office Business Productivity Group at Microsoft said that mobility was at the top of their list of priorities. In the meantime, Microsoft once again declined our invitation to participate in any of the mobility sessions.
IBM ran their annual Lotusphere conference last week, drawing thousands of customers and developers from around the world. As a first time attendee, I was absolutely blown away by the scale and the truly top notch manner in which the event was run. The main theme was introduced by Alistair Rennie, General Manager for Lotus Software and Collaboration Solutions as "Get Social. Do Business," so IBM has clearly placed a stake in the ground to capitalize on their advantage in social networking.
InterOp New York just wrapped up and as usual the bulk of my time was spent in the Wireless and Mobility sessions (the exception being a stop at Marty Parker's session on Interoperability in UC). Given its legacy as a data infrastructure show, there was lots of discussion of Wi-Fi, though that conversation has now devolved to arcane issues of architecture that left me with the feeling I had been watching so many angels dancing on the heads of so many pins.
At a press conference in New York today, Avaya introduced an Android-based tablet-like device called the Desktop Video Communicator. Like Cisco's not-yet-released Cius, the core application appears to be video. However, why they would bother coming out with a jazzed-up desktop touch screen video phone costing $2,000 at this point in time is a bit of a mystery.