This picture of a RIM Blackberry (Model 857) was taken in April 2002 (thats my hand holding it) at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium 2002 in Atlanta, USA. I was attending the event as a visitor to see how the Blackberry was being used by businesses in America and to assess the potential of the device for the company I worked for at the time before the UK launch later that year. It took a lot of convincing for my boss at the time to let me attend as I was alone in seeing the strategic potential of portable email at that time. In the early years of the nougties if you wanted corporate email on the road in the UK the only real choice was to carry a laptop, modem with access to either a VPN link into the corporate email system or access to the web based element of something like Exchange 2000. The introduction of Blackberry devices and the Blackberry Enterprise Server that accessed corporate email was to be a major game shifter for all concerned.
The Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) was in the main a RIM Blackberry event. RIM not only put on a well organised event, but they made it worth the time and expense of attending by providing a good mix of information, networking opportunities and vendors with relevant products. In the keynote speech the CEO of RIM Jim Balsillie gave a fascinating insight into the fortunes and growth of the company. He also gave me an indication on why the Blackberry devices were fast being called “Crackberrys” as he himself seemed addicted to always checking his email. This was so much of a problem to his home life that his wife had banned the Blackberry from his home and to get access to his email he had to “sneak into the garage”. In fact I was soon to notice how addictive the use of Blackberry mobile email was becoming to those Americans who already had it. Sitting next to me in the keynote speech a typical (for the time) corporate IT geek, he was paying hardly any attention to Jim Balsillie but instead was stooped down looking at and using his Blackberry. This was all new to me, in fact I’m sure I was the only person in the room without a Blackberry, so I asked him what he was doing? His response surprised me at the time, “I’m discussing the keynote with my colleague whose sitting at the back of the hall” was the response along with a facial look that seemed to say “What do you think I’m doing stupid?” At the time I thought this was somewhat strange and even discourteous to the keynote speaker who actually was delivering great opening to the WES event. Little did I know how much the Blackberry was to change my life and all of those around me as we headed towards an always connected society very much powered by devices like the Blackberry.The next few days in Atlanta at the WES event was a real eye opener for me and quickly confirmed that the Blackberry should have a place within my company as a portable email device to replace laptops where possible. However, looking back at some of the discussions in the In the Blackberry development sessions it’s fascinating to see just how far mobile technology has come in the last ten years. In 2002 the Blackberry developers could not see the need or requirement for a colour screen, something the users were asking for. The concern here was that battery technology was not yet able to support the endurance required to make portable email last at least 24hrs. Also at that time the thought of using the device to access the browser based Internet was not even being discussed. However companies like Filefish were leading the way by providing secure access to corporate files using BlackBerry Wireless Handhelds. “BlackBerry handhelds have become key extensions of the enterprise computing environment,” said Edwin Ong, FileFish’s Chief Strategy Officer. “We are excited to work with RIM to provide IT departments with the ability to rapidly provide secure file access to their BlackBerry users.” So it was clear to the industry at least that the Blackberry should be part of the tools used by remote workers and so was I. Armed with this new found knowledge I headed back of the pond and made the case to my business and IT colleagues. I had seen the future of remote working and it was being driven by a tiny piece of clever plastic not much different in size to the paperback novel.
So now in 2010 were are we?
As we enter the next decade of the 21st Century portable technology has never been so flexible, so accessible and so ubiquitous as it is right now. The iPhone from Apple, launched in 2007, changed the mobile phone industry as much as Blackberry changed how we accessed email. Written off by the mobile phone industry as irreverent and a consumer product only, Apple had by the first quarter of 2009 sold 3.9million iPhones worldwide. The take up by consumers and business alike has been driven by the compelling user experience delivered by the thoughtful touch screen interface and massive selection of iPhone applications (Apps) available from the iTunes store. But this is a highly competitive market space and Blackberry also gained greater market share in 2009. The losers appear to be traditional mobile phone companies like Nokia who in 2009 saw its share of the market drop 4% over where it was in 2008.. At 41% of the market Nokia is still dominate in this market space but this is most likely an indicator of the changes that are coming from a much bigger uptake of smart-phones by consumers and business users alike.
But what about Google?
In December 2009 it was widely reported in the worlds press that Google are to start selling there own Google branded smartphone. The success of Google Android powered smart-phones from manufactures like HTC and Motorola has proved that Google are capable of challenging Apple and their iPhone range. If there is any doubt about the power of a Google backed smartphone just watch this video demonstration of the Google Maps Navigation system. This is an internet-connected GPS navigation system with voice guidance. It is part of Google Maps for mobile and is available as a free service for phones with Android 2.0 but is currently only available in the United States on the Verizon Droid phone. What this service clearly demonstrates is the power of a portable Internet connected device backed by powerful Cloud Computing based services like Google search, maps and imaging. I already use the Google App on my iPhone to speak my search terms instead of typing them. Just how long will it be before we can ask our Google powered smartphone to access and read back a document from Google docs? Even better, just how long are we away from dictating a new Google document from our phones whilst on the road? If you need convoking that this is a possible roadmap for smart-phones take a look at the Dragon dictation iPhone application from Nuance Communications. Google has the enterprise power, technology and drive to do this and more, the next ten years is, in my view, the decade Google become bigger than the other major mobile phone companies with Apple a very close second!
So a decade of digital decadence has come and gone. Society has fallen love with being always connoted, always available and demanding better, faster mobile technology. Back in Atlanta in 2002 I realised I was witnessing something new in IT delivery to business. What I was not aware of at the time was just how much this would also impact on consumers as well. This impact on costumers is also being felt in the commercial space as well. This is also a view shared by Gartner researchers in their publication Consumerization Gains Momentum: The IT Civil War. They present the view that this new generation of users will exercise their individual purchasing power to obtain the best technology to support their virtual lifestyle. In turn, they will expect their employers to support the use of these devices in the business and will turn to the social networking and business Cloud if they can’t.As I have written before, the impact of 24/7 computing does present a challenge to IT professionals and the workforce who rely on it. It impacts on the fine line between what is work and what is home life due to the now ubiquitous nature of email and access to work systems. But in a digital age society adapts as we have done before with previous new technology. RIM Blackberry helped start this revolution in the last decade, it is now up to Apple with the iPhone (the new tablet?) and Google with their Android and Cloud technology to take us forward to the next level of portable, always-on computing. And I for one am sure the next ten years are going to be even more exciting than the cast ten when it comes to technology and gadgets so lets embrace it, enjoy it, support it!
