washed-up meaning.

Writing about technology for businesses demands that attention is paid to the words used to describe and sell technologies: words which indicate innovation, credibility and cutting edge, but words which occasionally just might have grown old.

Close scrutiny heightens the sensitivity to technology parlance, and particularly words which somehow appear to have weakened, tired, become less meaningful or even entirely redundant.

What’s in a word?

What was the analog flipside of the still much used and much celebrated “real-time”?  Isn’t real-time now generally assumed, nothing much to about brag about?  Is it just a nice bit of showy padding or is it vital in representing the immediacy of publishing and access?  Is “live” better, or worse?  These things are worth considering.

How about “over the air”?  It’s difficult to deny it’s a term which has lost some currency.  A decade or more ago getting “connected” may have been the fashionable en vogue boast, used to demonstrate a cutting edge (possibly backed by an early Primal Scream song).  But today younger generations would probably baulk if it’s not possible to do something wirelessly, or “over the air”.

With web 2.0 and the social media explosion, this language changed.  The IT industry became a digital community; conferences and events became Meet-Ups and Tweet-Ups.  Information was free and everywhere.  If you wanted to find an expert about a certain thing and meet them, you could.

Meanings and media grew dated, and those who didn’t notice the change are beginning to stand out a little more than they once did.

(Here’s a leaflet designed for electronic distribution to the industry.. This might have actually happened.  My memory is sketchy because I suffered concussion after repeatedly headbutting a desk).

Ascribing meaning

Related issues exist around dated imagery, highlighted in Scott Hanselman’s blog post, “The Floppy Disk Means Save And 14 Other Old People Icons That Don’t Make Sense Anymore.”

Language and symbols depend on shared knowledge in order for meaning to be ascribed, therefore it is necessary for them to be aged, but how aged?  Blur and ambiguity occurs in today’s technology space because the pace of change is more dizzying than ever.  Rights and wrongs and style guidelines can be tougher to pin down and easier to ignore.

People are forever Tweeting ideas about words which are and are not acceptable for general use, as if It Is The Law, or at least widely known by every sentient human being the world over.  When it really (probably) isn’t.  And by its very nature, language will always be in a state of flux.  This can all lead to uncertainty about change and sticking with what’s already there, because it’s safer.

Unavoidable jargon

Idiosyncratic legacy words, images, phrases and acronyms linger in all businesses, casually filling gaps until something better is imagined.  But it’s worth taking a moment to consider, not always accepting boardroom language at face value.  It’s ok to challenge and think and pitch alternative words with potentially more shelf life.

Which isn’t to say they’ll be accepted; a major challenge can be achieving consensus about content and style.  Equally there’s no guarantee of substantial longevity for any replacements.  How reassuring.

Screens?!  What are screens?

______

“The Floppy Disk Means Save And 14 Other Old People Icons That Don’t Make Sense Anymore.”

Facebook’s recent acquisition of social image sharing application Instagram underlined the growing digital importance of combining images with information.

In the early days of mobile, MMS or picture messaging never won enough fans.  While it was able to combine a cameraphone image or video with text and even audio, it was never made both affordable and technically reliable for high volume mass market use.  Compared with text messaging, adoption was poor.  Meanwhile over on the desktop, user experience of managing cumbersome jpeg email attachments proved equally tricky, slow and laborious.

Today however, it’s virtually impossible to attend a football match or concert without seeing a tide of hands waving devices in the air, eager to capture the moment.  There is a virtually insatiable consumer appetite for taking and viewing images. This is largely thanks to smartphone penetration in the western world – although the evolution of sleek digital cameras with intuitive user interfaces, together with the rocketing popularity of photography and associated online services has also offered a strong hand.

It makes commercial sense to capitalise on this popularity and ease of access to capture and view images.

Now the relatively new ability to take a quick, decent quality picture using a mobile device is beginning to blend with the development of sophisticated software applications.  As increasing attention is given to how image and information can technically coalesce, it’s natural for a rising demand in the volume and sophistication of information which can be ascribed to a single image.

As always, advertisers will shortly clamour for Facebook’s new Instagram data: what users are capturing what type of images, where and why, and using what devices and sharing through what applications?  Methods of exploiting the data will doubtless be found, although it may take time to find the most effective way.

But it’s the business space which might prove even more interesting.  A range of image-based solutions are available to streamline enterprise processes, vital in facilities and asset management for organisations like local authorities and sectors such as fleet management.

In 2012 data transfer of image and information can be made faster and more elegant, further bolstered by a range of cloud services like Dropbox.  File data can contain a countless number of customisable embedded fields in addition to the image and its exif data: from location and co-ordinates to orientation and customisable detail about an image.

Has or will any single provider truly claim “The Enterprise Solution”?  Given the wide array of special requirements and intricately specific workflows, it could be argued that this is unlikely even for the most intuitive DIY app, and it will be a peripheral extension of a broader solution for most.  However, it is a space where competition is gently simmering away.

As with many exclusively corporate or enterprise solutions, it’s a less glamorous battle that may slip under the general tech radar.  In part because Facebook isn’t likely to dish out a casual $1 billion for it; in part because taking pictures of vandalised public toilets isn’t terribly sexy.

But that’s not to say the pickings aren’t rich.  Clever and practical ways of marrying images with information will always be compelling.  Consumer desire to capture and share in a finger-click is reflected in the business demand to record, provide evidence and invoice immediately.

changing times

News of Velti’s acquisition of Mobile Interactive Group caught many off guard, the market consolidation suggesting chill economic winds not only for its competitors, but also for the two organisations themselves.

The official statement read:

– Velti plc (NASDAQ: VELT), the leading mobile marketing and advertising technology provider for brands, advertising agencies, mobile operators and media, today announced the acquisition of Mobile Interactive Group (“MIG”), UK’s largest mobile marketing company. The acquisition expands Velti’s lead as the world’s largest mobile marketing company based on revenue, customers, consumer reach and technology holdings.

With more than $100 million in gross billings, more than $20 million in net revenues in 2010, and more than 160 employees MIG has established itself as a leading mobile marketing player. The company’s global partnership with Skype, its Facebook Preferred Developer Consultant status and the launch of its mobile / broadcast interactive platform have won MIG accolades as a pioneer in bridging social media, mobile marketing and commerce transactions. Earlier this year, Deloitte named MIG the fastest growing privately owned technology firm in Europe.

MIG had been developing a strong mobile war-chest thanks to an acquisition spree of its own, buying mobile response facilitator Piri, production house Golden Bytes, mobile payment outfit Zaypay, as well as the digital marketer Digital Jigsaw.   It also had a joint bid with ECI Partners for AIM listed competitor WIN Plc declined earlier this year.

The move bears comparison with the acquisition by Amdocs of a long-term MIG competitor, MX Telecom back in March 2010.  What was formerly known as MX Telecom now makes up part of the Amdocs company, Open Market.  That acquisition too was unexpected, even to the MX executives concerned.  But the figures are worth a look.

ME reports that Velti will pay in a minimum consideration of $25 million for MIG, including $20 million of cash at closing. Depending on MIG’s performance, Velti will pay up to an additional $34 million over time by 2013, using a 7.5 times adjusted EBITDA multiple, taking the potential value up to $54m.

Amdocs acquired MX Telecom for approximately $104 million USD in cash, net of debt and cash.

What made MX Telecom worth almost double, give or take a paltry $4 million?  Its own global presences in New York and Sydney?  Better technical infrastructure?  Hard to fathom at the time, but a slightly less pessimistic economy?  The fact MX was entirely self-funded and profitable from day one?  A fact it wasn’t shy of publicising.  In contrast, MIG’s chief executive is the largest shareholder in the business (25%) whereas the remainder is held by other founders, staff and (whisper it) minority angel investors.

Of course it could be none of these at all.  It could be largely academic whether they received funding or not, or how significant the funding was.  There are many unknowns which are pointless to speculate about, but irresistible not to.

Velti said 160-employee MIG had $20 million in revenue and $100 million billings in 2010.   Velti’s CEO, Alex Moukas, added: “This acquisition solidifies our leadership in mobile marketing, a $16 billion category that many predict will nearly double to $30 billion in the next few years.”

Those are the key numbers.

Where next – more market consolidation?

Where does it leave businesses which previously considered themselves Tier 1 aggregators on a level, or at least within grabbing distance of MIG and MX Telecom?

Up until recently mBlox proclaimed itself the “the world’s largest mobile transaction network”.  It no longer says that on the website, or at least not as prominently.  Although it does keep innovating with payment products which helps to keep the brand looking as shiny as ever.  However, it may now be casting nervous glances around a squeezed market, along with businesses such as 2ergo, WIN Plc and Dialogue Communications.

ME heard speculation that both MIG and Velti have been struggling in the downturn and have made redundancies, which makes consolidation unsurprising.  But a lack of new business stories in the space isn’t necessarily an accurate bellwether for the lack of new activity.  Many in the pack have been shy, or simply unfussed about publicising the cash they’re raking in from premium adult services.

That said, the market consolidation will squeeze the market, particularly if the acquisition strategies continue, making it a colder environment for some providers.  What chance an Everything Everywhere style merger between two, or even more of the remaining former Tier 1 Aggregators?

Plenty left of the pie

always more pie

These numbers don’t mean there is nothing left in the market for other mobile players.

Niche markets are still being cleverly exploited by the providers who know them best.  Messaging solutions for the public sector in the form of education, healthcare and government are thriving, as evidenced by Leeds-based Txttools and its partnership with Blackboard Connect, which has delivered over 1bn voice, email and text messages.

Slower-burners in the marketplace are picking up a head of steam too, with old Midland sparring partners Dynmark International and TxtLocal now achieving greater profile, profitability and footprint.

There’s still time for messaging-based companies – lest we forget the proportion without smartphones or any desire to get one.  But all the same, it’s shrinking.  Many are already diversifying and with apps, HTML5 and instant messaging modifications.

Precisely how Alex Moukas’s $30 billion market evolves will be largely dictated by splintered technologies and emerging sister sectors like epublishing and tablet technology.  As mobile messaging revenues dwindle with consumer popularity, it’s likely that the clamour will grow more urgent for mergers and acquisitions which give expanded footprint and broader opportunities.

Hopes in the cloud?

Technology’s greatest strength, and arguably its biggest, weakness is that there is rarely an end-game, one perfect final solution.  Everything just keeps developing, for better or worse.

In an introductory video for The Guardian’s new iPad application, Editor In Chief Alan Rusbridger explicitly states: “there will be no final incarnation of The Guardian.”  It’s equally unlikely that there will be a final incarnation of much web-based technology we see around us today.  Will there be a final Facebook solution?  A final iPhone?

Maybe one day.  But this seemingly relentless forward march means consumers are always being asked to keep up, upgrade, download, update – which can grow tedious after a while.  People don’t always welcome change upon change upon change.  They want consistency and reliability.  Facebook continues to aggravate a constituency with its changes, (“could they just leave it alone for one week?”) – not that it appears to care.

Many of these updates require active consumer opt-in decisions, to visit an application store and update, to tick a box and accept revised terms and conditions, to visit a shop and buy the latest new thing.  The weighty volume of these requests you might argue is beginning to subtly narrow consumer preferences.  “I don’t use half these apps and don’t care if they’ve been upgraded. I’ll delete them.”

Anecdotal suspicions they may be, but if there’s a tension between the tide of incremental enhancements and consumer patience when things are running smoothly, imagine what happens when it isn’t.

When it all falls down

There’s an outcry when popular technology stops working these days.  You can’t have failed to hear the bloodcurdling, anguished screams of BlackBerry users echoing around Twitter, or even on the high street.  Maybe in playgrounds too.

We tend to pay most big technology suppliers a considerable wodge of cash (except Facebook, who we pay with our personal details and preferences), and we place them on a glamorous and powerful pedestal.  We expect a reliable and efficient service as consumers.  For businesses though, this trust and dependence gets even more serious.

Having no emails arrive on my BlackBerry throughout the whole course of the day: that’s a big deal.  I didn’t even realise how much of a big deal it was until I suddenly didn’t have it anymore.  With technology, as with lots of things, we don’t realise how much we take it for granted until we can’t have it anymore.

Added to the day’s frustrations, later that evening I tried to open the latest iOS Facebook application, updated the day before but not looked at.  It wouldn’t open.  A welcome screen was all I saw.  I was vaguely aware of reported glitches in the new iPad app, but this was on an iPod Touch.  I whined in a frustrated malaise of technology.

Service accountability

Service accountability for technology giants can be a disappointingly flimsy notion.   How is it possible for applications, especially Facebook applications, to not be adequately tested?    The iPad version had been in gestation for a remarkably long time, yet it still had bugs.  BlackBerry’s colossal data outage has limped into a third day.

If a small to medium sized business fundamentally failed to deliver a service, it would not get paid by its customers.

Does BlackBerry’s position in the mobile value chain as a mere device manufacturer mean it’s protected from offering any consumer compensation?  (Presumably important corporate customers would be prioritised thanks to SLAs).

Perhaps an arrangement could be made with mobile operators, which could be passed on to customers.  But given the technical complexities involved, it’s hard not to be sceptical of that.

Play for today

A deeper issue is the suggested negligence at BlackBerry maker, RIM.  It’s been claimed that doubts were raised over the development of an infrastructure which could cope with significantly inflated traffic, and this has never been addressed.

One former RIM employee told The Guardian that RIM has been ignoring problems with its server architecture that could prove its downfall for years.

A glaring lack of contingency has been shown in the technology, and in BlackBerry’s crisis communications: of the problems, of the efforts made to address them and of apologies to customers.  Messages which have been sent have sounded token, corporate and clueless.

Similarly ill-considered can be promises of ‘future-proofing’ solutions, of which there are probably more guilty organisations than just RIM.  Fatalistic ‘play for today’ attitudes may prevail where product pipelines look empty.  Up until not too long ago there were comparable mutterings about the billing platforms of mobile networks being figuratively stuck together with sticky tape and glue.  You squeeze the revenue stream you know for as long as possible.

If the former RIM employee is correct, perhaps this might prove their downfall.

What of tomorrow?

Might there be more of these outages or an even bigger tech-pocalypse on the horizon?  Web monsters like Google have globally spread, monster data centres and have presumably built in as much contingency as possible.  But can we really know exactly who we rely on, and for what?  There can be infinite cogs in a machine and it really might all come down to an iffy ‘core switch’, as RIM has suggested.

As we move into unchartered territory and data traffic continues to bulge at the seams, you wonder how much load-bearing will simply be guess-work.

One thing is growing clearer.  With continued failings, the drumbeat for 4G, LTE and more sophisticated IP connectivity grows louder than ever.  Technology won’t stop pushing ahead so there’s little choice but to roll with the tide.  Forward march.

Here’s a slightly offbeat subject for this site but hell, it’s our place and we’ll say what we want.

This is a declaration of love for the photo-sharing site, Flickr, which is fast becoming my favourite social network.  It’s mostly because Flickr is easily the most global and shuns the implicit need for written perfection.  A bold claim, perhaps, and one at odds with the key business interest of Composed.

Images reflect you too

However, it’s one worth looking at.  It may sound like a ridiculously obvious thing to point out, but photos, images, pictures: they’re all visual entities which rarely need any grasp of language in order to be decoded.

Language is often a barrier for global networks, communication, and even diplomacy.  How many Chinese chums have you made on Twitter?  Equally, for all technological advances, western nations still don’t always enjoy the healthiest of high-level relationships with those who speak in a more distant tongue.  See Russia and China, to say nothing of Middle Eastern nations.

Irritatingly for professional communicators, different corners of the globe use different languages.

But with Flickr, language is refreshingly secondary.

Yes you can use language to garnish images on Flickr and this might help to describe, add a theme, concept or idea.  But first and foremost it’s about the single thing you see with your eyes, a thing which anyone anywhere is able to judge and quickly form an opinion about.

Do I like it?

Don’t I like?

Is it interesting?

Isn’t it interesting?

What is it trying to say?

Even if the answers to these questions can’t be verbally expressed, an involuntary process along these lines often occurs in milliseconds.

This isn’t to say that language is a total irrelevance to the Flickr experience.  There are increasingly impressive translation tools like Google Translate, which perform perfectly adequately in responding to different tongues, provided you keep it simple.

Flickr is responsible for the personal loss of hours trawling around places I never knew existed, and equally places I know well.  The groups feature is excellent for browsing these images – although the sheer volume of groups and the process of adding images can get a little overwhelming and labour-intensive.

Images are always likely to exist as a jumping off point from which ideas can be spawned, or as an item which can be appreciated in the simplest sense, in its own right, entirely devolved of subtlety or nuance.  A cute puppy is a cute puppy.  An image cannot discuss in detail or in depth.  It captures a mere moment.

Yet when those moments add up to a global network like Flickr, they become an astonishing amount more.

At a time swarming with out-of-the-box website templates and stale corporate boardroom images, the power of relevant, eye-catching images should be acknowledged.  Image selection deserves to be ranked highly alongside engaging copy, striking design and smooth user experience.

Composed on Flickr.

Mark Hawkins Photography

Technology and vehicles: not blue sky thinking. Simple black and white.

Reselling cars might not be the most obvious place to find innovative new uses of mobile technology, but together with a free lunch and a trip to Microsoft’s shiny London HQ (strong on Windows) it was a topic which attracted some of the UK’s major car buyers and sellers.

The British Car Auctions (BCA) event set out to examine the intersection of mobile technology with selling vehicles, the wider economic importance of which cannot be understated.

Indeed, Christopher MacGowan OBE introduced the event with the arresting fact that today’s market generates £8.5 billion for the British economy.  There are seven volume factories in operation in the UK and eight Formula One teams are based in the country.

MacGowan also stressed that the UK shouldn’t be isolated from the global marketplace.  In 2010 the Chinese new car market was larger than the United States and its new car market value is expected to exceed America’s by 2014, propelled by higher profit margins.  Up to seven times as much profit can be earned by top brand cars in China than in the UK, which can put the UK market in a tricky position.

However, with so much cash swilling around a global marketplace, perpetual market fluctuation and consolidation will be a given, with even the comparatively small opportunities being significant, not least for technology providers.

Environmentally friendly electric cars will have an impact on the market; the scale and precise nature of which largely remains to be seen, according to MacGowan.  But how the market prepares for the influx of second hand electric vehicles, and how electric vehicles stand the test of time and miles, will have a growing impact on used vehicle profits.  Connected technologies will be key to this.

Mobilising BCA

Jonathan Higham of British Car Auctions (BCA) kicked off the presentations with an overview of BCA’s place in the market.

BCA now boasts 46 auction centres across 11 countries and will sell over 600,000 cars in 2011.  Of these sales 20% are now sold online, giving more eyeballs on vehicles and greater reach.  Electronic online bidding hasn’t slowed down the auction process but instead gives considerably more detailed information, enabling 750,000 monthly viewers of BCA’s online Auction View to make better informed decisions.

Added to this is a greater stream of data accessible on the go.  Mobile data means notifications can be delivered when bids are offered and accepted, while buyers can send a text message containing a vehicle’s registration number to a short code, and receive information back about that vehicle.

There have been operational benefits too.  Channel remarketing requires knowledge of where any vehicle is at a given time, both physically and virtually.  That is, where it is parked and where it is positioned in the supply chain.  This information can be passed to users thanks to TBS Enterprise Mobility’s TaskMaster software, running on Windows Mobile operating systems inside Motorola devices.  As well as delivering information into the field, the software can dynamically formulate essential workflow statistics and monitor where field staff are throughout their working day.

Technology and the used car market

Richard Richmond of Lombard was then welcomed for an interview with Christopher MacGowan.  Questioned on today’s market, Richard explained that the market is in a transient state of consolidation with mergers and acquisitions, and such changes will always occur.

But it was agreed that technology adoption has been rapid and significant.  Only five years ago operations were being conducted almost exclusively using spreadsheets alone, and such rigid dependencies forced the market to embrace new technologies.

Tellingly, one of the day’s largest audience reactions came from Richard’s response about customers selling vehicles:  “Sometimes they lie, don’t they?”  A pithy inconvenient truth, combatting the ability to conceal information is a primary objective for new technologies deployed, with functions such as image capture and GPS tracking helping to prevent any falsification.

Richard went on to discuss the impact of hybrid vehicles on the market.  The unknowns of a 4 year-old hybrid vehicle’s performance or battery life will be hugely important to any resale price and the market will have to adapt to these unknown values, with a consequence that some will inevitably get burnt.

Responding to a popular question about the shortage of used cars in the retail end of the market, Richard offered an optimistic, alternative view based on perceived over-supply to the market.  Any under supply will be balanced out by earlier over supply and a correct level will be found.  External factors were also flagged as influential to the shrinking retail market.  With potential interest rate rises, mortgages will rise too, leaving less disposable household income for cars.

The technologists’ take

Microsoft’s Developer Evangelist Paul Foster then took the stage.  Paul explained how mobile devices have effectively consumerised IT, giving everybody the power to harness technology for their own needs, through a wide range of devices and applications, inside the home, the office and the car.  It served to underline how all industries can prepare for consumer use of smartphone technology to translate to any sector by considering how best to touch customers, and make everyone’s lives easier.

Steve Reynolds, CEO of TBS Enterprise Mobility – the technology delivery partner for BCA – focussed on the aspects of everyday life which are converging with mobile technology and how these are multiplying.  He explained how the benefits of mobile telemetry and data transfer technology will grow clearer, increasingly helping to avoid traffic congestion, improve fuel efficiency and give new safety features.

With reduced traffic congestion comes reduced Carbon Dioxide emissions.  It has been calculated that a free-flowing road produces 20% less Carbon Dioxide than a congested road, hence the commitment towards reducing traffic congestion by almost any means.

Why wouldn’t you?

A closing Q&A session yielded several reasons for scepticism around adopting mobile.  Are buyers more savvy than sellers, with portable smartphones listing up-to-the-minute retail prices?  Can anything sellers do compete with them?

When will mobile coverage be better everywhere?  My signal is still poor in certain places.

Arguably most interesting was the question around the reliance on paper forms in the buying, insuring and taxing processes.  Why does there remain such dependence and can’t an implanted NFC chip contain all this data?  Here lies a common inertia which technology providers struggle against, day-to-day.  Implicit trust will come eventually, with time and secure, unimpeachable solutions.

A snapshot of the industry revealed a cross-section of successful businesspeople who knew their complicated supply chain industry intimately well, and were open to learning more.  Interesting to observe will be how broadly mobile is adopted, how attitudes towards technology do change, and how far engagement effectively percolates down the chain.

The right platform: key in getting you where you want to go.

This year’s mobile news has at times seemed dominated by smartphone Operating Systems: which has the most users, which is the most advanced, which is the most flexible and developer-friendly.  But outside of consumer bells and whistles, how many platforms are ready for the serious test of enterprise deployment?  We spoke to TBS Enterprise Mobility’s Managing Director, Steve Reynolds…

Q: We’re hearing more and more about smartphone operating systems and particularly the rise of the Google Android OS. How much impact is this having on enterprise solutions?

SR. What we’re seeing in the marketplace is a lot of focus on innovation in consumer smartphone operating systems. There’s a lot of noise out there which, as always, can make it tough to gauge what’s significant and what isn’t. What isn’t in dispute is that the smartphone market growth is phenomenal. It’s quite possible that we’ll see another 1000% growth on top of what we have now.

Q. What does this mean for device manufacturers?

SR. Manufacturers are at the point where they need to differentiate through genuine innovation. LG is launching its 3D phone, and there’s been considerable attention on the birth of smartphones with integrated Near Field Communications (NFC) functionality this year.

Manufacturers need to also be aware of form factors creeping up on the smartphone. At executive level in the enterprise space many devices like tablets are used covertly, or ‘unofficially.’ It’s only a matter of time before enterprise demands more from manufacturers’ technology stack, and consumer functions formally and securely percolate through to enterprise class devices.

Q: Why has Android become the consumer OS of choice?

SR. It’s the consumer OS of choice for many reasons. Android is an open source platform that’s been adopted across device manufacturers who are each seeking to differentiate and the open nature of the system gives greater opportunity to do this. High end, sophisticated devices are being produced alongside entry level, affordable smartphones like those from Samsung. This has defined the consumer difference.

Q. Is Android ready for use in the enterprise?

SR. There are considerable challenges for the Android OS before it is fit for enterprise purpose. With open source systems come legitimate concerns over lack of control. The current Android marketplace for distributing applications has a minimal form of quality testing, with reports suggesting that as many as 4 in 6 applications risk breaching data confidentiality regulations. Added to this are challenges around security, remote device management and whether Android devices are more vulnerable to being hacked. We don’t want to see another Sony PlayStation scenario with mobile data.

But there is promise. Developers can program enterprise applications to protect businesses from these threats. The next 12 months will see enterprise-focussed organisations like TBS develop applications which are sensitive to OS weaknesses.

Q: With the breadth of choice, what should I consider in selecting an OS for an enterprise solution?

SR. We should be careful to distinguish between enterprise solutions and field mobility here.

For many in the corporate space, enterprise solutions can mean email and messaging systems alone. These requirements can be adequately accommodated in iPhone and Android systems – provided there is an appropriate level of security installed on devices. Perimeter passwords offer protection, while technical policies can control the types of applications which can be downloaded.

However, field mobility organisations demand the flexibility to grow and adapt their solutions according to tight specifications and specific business needs. Rather than purchasing applications from a marketplace, many organisations select developers who can provide bespoke applications which future-proof investment through innovation roadmaps.

Remote device management and perimeter security has been a key requirement for enterprise based solutions over the last decade. For those managing large fleets of vehicles or construction teams in remote environments, this is critical. Windows Mobile 6.X has largely stood alone in supporting these requirements up until now.

Q. Are businesses limited by the availability of operating systems and devices, or is there enough choice?

SR. If anything there is too much choice at the moment. Everything from Android’s rise, to Palm’s Mobile OS, to Nokia’s disposal of Symbian hints at an overarching consolidation which could ultimately converge to just 3 or 4 systems.

Multiple OSs with multiple Software Development Kits makes for a frustrating and confusing development experience, but the advent of HTML 5 heralds a real cross-platform development leap forward. Notwithstanding current limitations in its low level control of devices and an absence of rich control, in time it will lead to more fluent programming.

Q. What is the TBS development strategy for accommodating the OS market evolution?

SR. It’s imperative for TBS that we support as many smartphone operating systems as possible to give our customers the chance to innovate. To this end we have an intensive programme underway to provide solutions on all of the major smartphone systems, in addition to tablet devices. With device boundaries set to blur in the future, our goal is to ensure TBS customers can use multiple form factors and are given the ultimate flexibility to adapt solutions in line with their businesses.

Collision avoidance technology is a vested interest of insurance companies.

The blue dot on my Google Maps app indicates that the complex of buildings approaching on the left is my final destination.  I marvel anew at this now relatively dated technology and its ability to get me from A to B.

When I enter the site and realise the solutions tested and validated here take intelligent transport to a whole other level, it becomes clear that I am a simple fool to still be impressed by GPS alone. Hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and wholly autonomous vehicles all undergo testing at the site, with various degrees of confidentiality – hence the tight security levels.

MIRA Ltd is focused on creating the future of advanced vehicle and systems technology. It provides services around product engineering, testing, consultancy and certification, working towards developments such as Smart Electric Vehicles and Smart Low Carbon Vehicles.

Former home of RAF Lindley, a buzzing hub of operations during World War Two, the 750 acre site is located in the dead centre of the UK – and largely within a mobile signal dead-zone. The Ministry of Defence remains a stakeholder, but with so much space and technology at its disposal, MIRA is the landlord to a number of other private and public-affiliated companies. These include household name manufacturers, insurance companies and unique interest organisations.

Amongst the latter is innovITS, the UK’s centre for excellence in transport telematics and technology. Established in 2005 with funding from what was formerly known as the UK DTI – now department for Business Innovations and Skills – the objective is for innovITS to become the UK gateway for expertise in intelligent transport.

innovITS ADVANCE offers a fully controllable and connected ‘cityscape’ test track, which enables the testing, validation and demonstration of new innovations. The environment, a genuine first in being entirely independent from any specific manufacturer, gives precise specification of road conditions and communications access and denial.

A tour of the track confirms its huge potential as a significant test-bed for intelligent transport, from the range of junction types, road surfaces and signalling mechanisms, to real-time communications installed through site-wide wireless, GPRS and 3G mobile connectivity points. Exterior safety and collision-avoidance solutions could be enhanced just as interior in-car entertainment, or ‘infotainment’ applications could be put through their paces.

Parts of the outer track are already in full use, as an orange Lamborghini’s hypnotising circuits testify, but the finishing touches are now being put in place on the inner circuit.

The challenge for ADVANCE and for intelligent transport more widely, is in the communication of what it is and what it can do for different engineering and technology organisations, and organisations at the intersection of the two. Too often technology specialists can accidentally deflect interest by adopting alienating jargon and acronyms. This is a significant space for improving the safety of vehicles and roads globally, for generally making urban life less hazardous.

A number of experiential improvements can and inevitably will happen along the way thanks to the ubiquity of connection and the rapid development of sophisticated electronics. For the investment to start paying back and for Intelligent Transport developments to shift up a gear or two, ADVANCE needs to be embraced by a range of technology communities and stakeholders, before, during and after work is carried out.

My mobile 3G flickers back to life as I leave the site, but I snub Google Maps for the return journey. It’s not all that special really.

It reveals that most consumers want to receive mobile deals by text message (61 per cent), and within service messages such as top-up confirmations (9 per cent), missed call and voicemail alerts (8 per cent), balance updates and roaming notifications (7 per cent).

While consumers will accept offers, the report shows that there is a threshold. 14 per cent saying they were prepared to receive offer messages up to two times a month, 38 per cent once a month, and 31 per cent less than that.

A Moco News item led with a top line saying most consumers are likely to accept mobile marketing when it’s delivered by their mobile operator rather than a third party. This is probably because most mobile marketing is delivered by mobile operators.

By signing up to a contract or buying credit, you’re also giving a soft opt-in to receive messages. Added to this, many recipients won’t know how to unsubscribe from these messages, or won’t be bothered enough to find out.

Consumers do accept the messages from mobile operators, but arguably because they think that’s part of the deal. Third party marketing from unknown origins will always be tougher.

Almost 66 per cent of consumers said they would opt-in to receive third party advertising if it offered discount incentives, but 88 per cent said it was unacceptable for mobile operators to feature third-party advertising.

This appears so strong many SMS marketing veterans might baulk at the suggestion. But while the question itself hints that Upstream might have the odd solution it wants to sell directly into mobile operators, it also underlines the antipathy which many still hold towards third-party SMS mobile marketing.

The SMS inbox clearly remains a private place where access should be permission-based and earned.

Alex Vratskides, CEO of Upstream, told Mobile Entertainment: “In Upstream’s experience, personalised messages, which are contextual and feature utility and transactional driven rewards can have a significant impact on an operator’s average revenue per user – particularly when these offers are included in messages the operator is already sending to the customer.”

In other words, the best messages are personal yet functional, and expected but affective. It’s both a fine balance to strike, as well as a tricky skill to master, particularly in the explosive whirl of rival media – which sometimes might be more appropriate. Just because you struck gold once, it doesn’t mean you have a permanently winning formula. But practise makes perfect and if Upstream can keep commissioning these YouGov reports, the rewards are definitely still out there.

still looking further afield?

Rumours are circulating that the iPhone 5 will not now have NFC (Near Field Communication). It’s a big ‘Stand Down’ message for all those excited by the potential which stood to be unleashed by the new over-the-air medium which revolutionised quick payments on London Underground system. You can almost hear the disappointed groan, like children who’d been promised a rise of pocket money.

It would appear that standardising the medium was more problematic than first imagined. Apple is rumoured to be developing its own NFC standard that will link to iTunes and the 200 million-plus consumers who have registered their credit card information with Apple, but this would still be moot point for regulators.

And it stands to reason.

An O2 press release was issued on 28th November 2007 celebrating the first large scale UK pilot of NFC, in collaboration with Nokia, Transport for London, Visa Europe, Barclaycard, Transys and AEG. That’s a while ago now. And the mobile NFC progress in the UK since that pilot?  Um.. after you Apple, whenever you’re ready guys.

To deploy NFC solutions themselves might be a comparative no-brainer and RFID solutions are already enjoying successful use in field enterprise for tasks such as asset management. But to implement secure standards around them in the consumer market appears rather more complex. Not renowned for grasping technically complicated nettles with added regulatory implications (also see age verification), perhaps the networks have stood off and waited for manufacturers to approach them with something that fits better.

With the news that termination rates for voice calls are set to significantly drop, the attention to monetising data and increasing new revenue streams for mobile is increasingly urgent. That’s despite a theory that NFC has stronger value away from payments and transactions, but in virtual currency too. Surely though, revenue share agreements are still there to be had, the NFC wealth would be shared and ripple through the market.

This widely discussed stalling of NFC for the iPhone 5 could be welcomed by Apple’s rivals – particularly the inexorable Android.  Indeed, closely followed the iPhone 5 rumour was news of Google picking up the NFC baton.  But only in the form of yet another mobile payment pilot test, this one with VeriFone in New York and San Francisco.  Who knows how different this is from the O2, Nokia, TfL pilot of 2007/08?

Testing is all well and good, and perhaps this latest Google effort will lead to something, but more high-level tests aren’t what the industry is looking for.  It’s looking for wide-spread, secure implementation through an iPhone or an Android: a full rollout which will see NFC floodgates finally start to creak ajar.   This is what was hoped for in the iPhone 5, so the failure to deliver presents another disappointment for the wider ecosystem, the agency creatives and those ‘nearly’ men of NFC evangelism (pun intended, sorry).

We were excited in 2007 and we’re still excited now, in 2011. Surely there’s a limit to the false dawns and patience and ifs and buts.

Still, here we are. Sorry son, here’s a fiver and a Bluetooth app. Maybe next year.