Mobility as a business enabler

The first question about the new iPod nano is, how did Apple cram so much stuff into a 1.28 ounce (36.4 gram) package?

(Well, actually, now that the iPod nano can serve as a video camera, sound recorder, FM radio and pedometer, as well as an external hard drive, appointment calendar and contact database, the first question should be, “Is it still accurate to call an iPod a music player?”)

Let’s look past the specific models or manufacturers. The amount of technology going into these tiny devices continues to astound and amaze. Look at any of today’s smartphones, like the iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Pre, or an Android handset. They have large displays, sophisticated user interfaces, powerful microprocessors, lots of RAM, compact batteries, microphones, speakers, and of course, radios operating on the Bluetooth, WiFi and cellular radio bands.

That’s just the hardware. Today’s pocket-sized marvels also contain full-featured operating systems and incredibly sophisticated software stacks, able to run both connected and off-line apps.

In some products, like the iPod nano, the platform is closed. The only way to get new application functionality is for the manufacturer to build it and then push out a firmware upgrade. In other cases, as with many of the industry’s hottest smartphones, there are various models for adding new applications, which run in (we hope) well-crafted sandboxes.

In the enterprise, it’s easy to overlook these devices. Of course, the new iPod nano doesn’t have much of a business case behind it, except as a toy. But let’s not overlook the impact that its bigger cousins are having today. Check your Web server logs – what percentage of your traffic is coming from smartphones? Whether it’s Internet or intranet, that’s only going to go up, up, up. Mobile access and mobile apps are a key part of the future.

Mobile technology is a business enabler, and there’s no going back.