Mobile Computing: A Disruptive Innovation Whose Time

Mobile Computing: A Disruptive Innovation Whose Time Has Come The pervasive adoption of mobile computing devices, combined with cloud computing and the quantum gains in application software are creating a globally diverse collaborative platform. These elements taken together are deliver an exceptionally fast and pervasive level of disruptive innovation across all sociocultural and technology sectors (Bernoff, Li, 2008).

The impact of this disruptive innovation is so significant that IT departments have to drastically reorder their policies in smartphones, tablet PCs and other devices that employees are using to streamline their lives (Thomson, 2012). Smartphones, tablet PCs and devices like them are becoming so pervasive today that they are considered a formable cultural and socioeconomic factor in the planning and execution of business and government strategies well into the future (Bernoff, Li, 2008).

This platform of technology is so pervasive, that it requires in-depth support to enable integration of systems to supporting data and network access to ensure the stability, security and reliability of performance. All of these factors are leading enterprises to create end-to-end platforms and technologies to enable the use of smartphones and tablet PCs' integration into the most complex workflows companies have (Saltzer, Reed, Clark, 1984).

The large-scale investments by Google, Microsoft and others in the area of context-based computing and algorithm development, the continual investments in a technique called cyber-foraging, which is the ability to determine a person's location and interests based on the messaging provided by their smartphone or tablet PCs are nascent yet showing very significant potential (Gaddah, Kunz, 2003).

In conjunction with these technologies is the continued reliance on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to determine relative location of smartphones or tablet PCs and interlink them with local Web servers that have potentially relevant information (Satyanarayanan, 2001). Of the many technologies used for defining relative location of mobile devices to Web and cyber-foraging-based servers, the most reliable to date has been Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) (Welbourne, Balazinska, Borriello, Brunette, 2007).

RFID has also emerged as the most reliable and secured technology to build middleware components of an enterprise-wide mobile platform on (Gaddah, Kunz, 2003). Middleware is software that unites the operating systems running the variety of diverse legacy and 3rd party systems enterprises rely on for successfully running their businesses on the one hand, and the application layer of the mobile software that users actually see on their systems. Based on the analysis completed for this study, middleware is a critical component for the overall performance of any mobile network.

In evaluating the role of mobility in general and specifically the technologies needed to enable it on a global scale, the need for capturing, interpreting and providing insights in real-time back to mobile devices is critical. One of the most successful approaches for accomplishing this has been developed by Nokia, which uses a cyber-foraging technology that defines relative location of a smartphone or mobile device, also capturing its characteristics and the interests of the owner (Gaddah, Kunz, 2003).

Cyber-foraging seeks to capture, classify, aggregate response to and then selectively publish content of interest from localized servers back to a mobile device, all transparently and in real-time to the user. This study evaluates how much more effective users of mobile devices are when the have access to the data they need, both from a personal and professional standpoint (Bernoff, Li, 2008). There has been five years of analysis completed on how to use cyber-foraging to streamline complex selling and services tasks throughout enterprises using this technology (Emmerich, 2007).

Middleware's role in the future of mobility enterprise application development and its pervasive adoption is well-documented and known, and will continue to accelerate given the interest in this area by venture capitalists globally (Blair, Coulson, Grace, 2004). This analysis evaluates the advances made in Cloud-based middleware development and its use in enterprise-wide and metro-based network architectures. The third factor this that of usability, an area that has continually be a weakness in the development of mobile-based operating systems and applications.

Smaller and lower-resolution screens have made even the simplest applications difficult to use over time. There are significant implications for how the future of mobility will progress based on the development and fine-tuning of operating systems on the usability dimension. The adoption of devices based on operating system is also included in this analysis, as the impact of design and usability standards has an immediate impact on customer adoption and long-term usability. The operating systems including Apple iOS, Google Android and Microsoft Windows and others are included in the analysis.

This study has determined that the greater the level of robustness in middleware the higher the level of cross-platform integration support and stability of legacy applications over time (Gaddah, Kunz, 2003). The last section of this analysis includes an assessment of the security aspects of mobility strategies and devices, including the potential of hackers to completely overtake a mobile device and capture al personal data on it.

The impact of middleware on the security and stability of any mobility network is evident in how effective Apple has been in creating enterprise-level options for enterprise IT departments to immediately wipe the contents clean off of any iPhone or iPad that may have confidential data stored on it after it has been lost or stolen (Zhang, Gao, Jacobsen, 2005). This advanced level of functionality is attained through the use of middleware functions and support.

Analysis of Geolocation and Contextual Technologies Geocaching, precise support for Global Positioning Systems and the pervasive use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are all means that companies are using today to determine the relative location of their devices to geocaching and cyber-foraging servers, two components of mobility networks that deliver content based on user profiles. GPS systems have the ability to provide precise locations essential for cyber-foraging Web connections and the use of geocaching, yet lack signal integrity and strength for long-range updates of data and content.

GPS systems are often configured with the lowest-end electronics as well to ensure a low cost-per-device is achieved, maximizing gross margins. There is also the binary nature of the data these systems deliver, often being constrained in terms of data traffic over congested networks. GPS doesn't scale well for the advanced geocaching and cyber-foraging nature of broader networks as a result.

RFID-based technologies when combined with their native ePC codes have the potential to deliver a much greater depth and breadth of information, creating a more effective user experience as a result. The RFID chipset's downward cost spiral has also made them more economically viable for mid-range smartphones and tablet PCs. The ePC command set, which is integral to the industrial uses of RFID, includes up to 32 different codes that can be used for better understanding the information and data needs of users.

In pilots completed by Nokia and others using their cyber-foraging technologies, the ePC command set and mid-range RFID technologies have delivered scalable, secure results (Welbourne, Balazinska, Borriello, Brunette, 2007). RFID can also provide a stable enough signal for the more intricate data and information included in taxonomy entries on geocaching and cyber-foraging servers to be delivered over more congested networks. As a result, middleware researchers in the field of enterprise mobility have said that RFID is a preferred technology for metro and urban uses of geocaching and cyber-foraging (Zhang, Gao, Jacobsen, 2005).

An additional benefit of RFID is the ability to define relative location in context to geocaching and geo-locational parameters in cyber-foraging algorithms (Blair, Coulson, Grace, 2004). What this translates into is the ability to quickly determine location relative to the most relevant and highest-performing server, and then download updates to user taxonomies in real-time, completely unknown to the user.

This transaction of data to the taxonomies is driven by the ePC command set on the smartphone or tablet PC, and also requires the opt-in or approval of the user to enable its accomplishment. Google, Nokia and other are also experimenting with Web Services patents originally obtained in 2003 that create a content-aware state engine that determines, through interpolation from surrounding caching servers, if the data on the smartphone or tablet PC needs updating or not, and then selects the highest-performing server to gain the necessary data from (Gaddah, Kunz, 2003).

What has made the investments in Web Services architecture so significant is the accelerating nature it is having on the development of geocaching and cyber-foraging-based servers in pilots globally. These pilots include workflows for managing the more complex transaction-oriented systems including distributed and multichannel order capture and order management, order logistics planning and development, and the greater pricing management including optimization and pricing analysis (Medvidovic, 2002).

Enterprises are seeing the potential to automate enterprise-wide networks of buyers, sellers, distributors and services organizations through the use of geocaching and cyber-foraging based approaches to selectively managing updates to mobile devices (Medvidovic, 2002). What has Google so focused on these series of innovations and the emerging platform of technologies they represent is the ability to completely accelerate their advertising-based business model and also streamline content deliver. The shift in focus from push-based to pull-based marketing has been accelerated by Google and their AdWords and AdSense programs.

The use of cyber-foraging servers running Web Services that can quickly parse the taxonomies of consumers around them and deliver advertising content of interest and value is being piloted globally today by Google, Microsoft and others. This approach to selectively providing content is also delivering performance gains in the from of additional funding for middleware research and development, as companies including IBM, Oracle and others seek to create a highly differentiated and valued user experience by analyzing ePC profiles of consumers then selectively providing content of interest all in real-time.

This equates to the flexibility of users being able to determine just what specific areas of their taxonomy they are interested in receiving data and potential advertising specials on or not. This model also allows Google and others exploring it to charge advertisers for each potential download or delivering of their message to anyone within the perimeter of a cyber-foraging-based server. By 2020 it is feasible that advertising models-based entirely on the ePC profiles of users will dictate advertising rates throughout a mobile-enabled network (Emmerich, 2007).

In order for this level of performance to be achieved in a business model, the middleware development strategies have prioritized the development of taxonomy accuracy and performance in real-time integration scenarios first (Welbourne, Balazinska, Borriello, Brunette, 2007). Also inherent in the design and development of these middleware platforms is the need for creating integration links for legacy and 3rd party systems, especially those oriented towards CRM a, pricing and multichannel management.

These design objectives and the many efforts to bring mobility workflows more into the middleware level of software is also predicated on creating a device-independent platform Application program interface API) that can scale across mobile operating systems as a Web Service (Emmerich, 2007). Part of this API will be the ability to also customize the user experience including which areas of their taxonomy they are open to getting additional advertisements and information on (Blair, Coulson, Grace, 2004).

It is envisioned that this Web Service then becomes the unifying factor across all aspects of the middleware architecture, ensuring a very high degree of responsible and real-time updates configured to the user's preferences and requirements (Emmerich, 2007). Improving Mobility Device's Usability and Customer Experience Despite how elegant and technologically sophisticated any underlying series of mobility technologies are, the user experience will make or break any device.

The need for ensuring an exceptional customer experience is critical, and the greater the level of communication and collaboration achieved using the device, the greater the need for usability to be a designed-in strength, not an afterthought (Bernoff, Li, 2008). The many innovations that have been the result of social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and others have primarily been driven by usability and navigation of these applications' user interfaces.

Rarely do enterprise applications including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems reach full adoption, and the most common reason for this is a lack of usability planning and implementation in these platforms (Emmerich, 2007). The many advances in usability in social networks that need to be propagated down to mobile devices started in the area of Web 2.0 design principles originally defined by thought leader, author and publisher Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly, 2006). Please see Figure 1, Web 2.0 Meme Map, for an analysis of how O'Reilly defined these key factors and features (O'Reilly, 2006).

Differentiation is then being defined today by the level of communication and collaboration delivered in these applications first, and on the more routine functionality second (Bernoff, Li, 2008). Mr. O'Reilly served as the strategic consultant to Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter and others based on the period of time as a consulting strategic advisor on these and other applications. Despite these frameworks that have shown significant potential in other software platforms and applications, they have yet to deliver the potential they have on mobile platforms.

The continued studies of how to interpret the gains made in usability throughout mobility applications has shown that there is the need for entirely new standards and definitions of navigation adn application support. There is also the need for creating an entirely new series of support for location-aware and context-defined taxonomies as well.

The need for these standards in conjunction with greater reliance on XML, HTML5 and more portable, higher performance programming languages is evident in the gains being made in the Apple iOS and Google Android operating systems (Zhang, Adipat, 2005). Figure 1: Web 2.0 Meme Map Source: (O'Reilly, 2006) A recent study suggests that the entire mobility industry could learn from the early adopter successes in the mobile banking programs undertaken last year.

A study of mobile banking adoption was able to show what specific features and functions delivered the greater value overall, and also which areas of the applications users wanted to customize to their own preferences (Kang, Lee, Lee, 2012). What emerged from the study showed that the greater the level of feature and taxonomy customization and support, the greater the level of customer loyalty and adoption of the mobile banking applications over time (Kang, Lee, Lee, 2012).

There were no significant differences between the operating system used, yet the ability of users to configure the taxonomies, features and options of their applications including navigational differences all led to greater loyalty and use of the applications (Zhang, Adipat, 2005). Users want to be able to better manage the applications and tailor them to their specific requirements. Standards being developed need to illustrate this point in terms of the options they provide.

Choosing Which Mobile Platforms To Support As Google has invested heavily in the development and launch of their Android mobile operating system eclipsing Apple and all other competitors in their spending on promoting it alone, their capture of market share in low-end devices is significant. According to analysis obtained through the Securities and Exchange Commission and published in the Apple financial reporting documents, Figure 1: Comparing Smartphone, Feature Phone and Connected Device Market Shares and Distribution of Sales by Smartphone Operating System Mix (Apple Investor Relations, 2012).

Figure 1: Comparing Smartphone, Feature Phone and Connected Device Market Shares and Distribution of Sales by Smartphone Operating System Mix Source: (Apple Investor Relations, 2012) The Android operating system is most prevalent in connected devices, with Apple and their iOS operating system dominating feature phones. Further, the Apple iOS architecture and suppoirting iTunes ecosystem is generating one out of every three dollars of profit for Apple today (Apple Investor Relations, 2012).

Given the options of which operating system to develop on, the Apple platform has the greatest level of stability in terms of a revenue model, support for quality management standards and also a broader and more affluent customer base. Building on the Android platform will make it possible to reach well over 60 different smartphone and tablet PC devices today and more in the future, yet the quality and testing aspects of this operating system still continue to be perfected by Google.

In addition, the marketplace for Android applications is not nearly as defined and profitable as the one for Apple iOS, iPhone and iPad applications, with the iTunes platform being easily scaled across multiple geographies if needed. The Apple development relations functions are also more well-developed and orchestrated across many geographies, with development relations and programming assistance available online in addition to virtually (Apple Investor Relations, 2012).

The Apple User Interface standard is also evident in the many development tools the company has, and depth of expertise in their global development community as well (Kang, Lee, Lee, 2012). While Google is doing an exceptional job with evangelizing their operating system and its value, Apple has the majority of profits attributed to mobile applications today. Apple is therefore the best first choice of an operating system to develop on.

Using Web Services To Increase The Stability and High Availability of Mobile Platforms Increasingly the middleware and core infrastructure components of mobility applications are becoming Cloud-based (Kang, Lee, Lee, 2012). This translates into the need for a very efficient and intelligent level of integration into the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) component that are critical for unifying core platform support on the one hand and application layer-level logic and workflows on the other.

IaaS is emerging as the more stabilizing and secure technology available for ensuring that servers can virtualize content across a network, ensuring a very high level of performance and scalability over time (Blair, Coulson, Grace, 2004). And while there have been many critics of Cloud computing in general and the IaaS platform specifically, it is providing the level of scalability and security through virtualization to support globally-deployed enterprise-wide networks supporting smartphones and tablet PCs in many of the Fortune 1,000 companies who have standardized on this technology platform (Gaddah, Kunz, 2003).

The most critical success factor that has emerged from this study of IaaS as a platform for mobility growth is found within the approaches available for ensuring a secure and stable application development platform on a global scale that can also support geocaching and cyber-foraging in a multitude of workflows and scenarios (Saltzer, Reed, Clark, 1984).

Being able to create a middleware platform that can span the needs of GPS, RFID and other location-driven middleware technologies that also support geocaching and RFID enablement sis the future of enterprise-wide mobility strategies and will also ensure intelligence of the device and its contextual use continues.