Different Sounds for New Year Apps

Beep, click, beep, hisssssss... and silence... Back in the 1990s, there was one

sound that was melody to the technophile's ear.

That was the scream of a modem dialing up on a phone line, handshaking, and

connecting. We could tell the speed from the sound: 14.4, 28.8, or the frequent

glitch, a long screech and squawking, and a drop down to lower speeds...

Today's connectivity paradigms have changed. Homes connect at 256 kbps

upward, up to megabits, over silent DSL modems whose users will never know the

joys of the squawk of the handshake.

And all around us are the sounds of the mobile: rings, SMS beeps, and the

ubiquitous buzzing of a GSM signal interfering with a sound system, the clicks

of a GPRS-based push email system over the car's speakers...

This is the era of the mobile, with 7 million mobiles being added monthly in

India. And this will be the era of the mobile application.

In 2008, many users in India will make their first Internet connection on a

mobile phone instead of on a PC. Even for those of us with alternatives...well, my

house has had WiFi since 2003, but I prefer to look up stuff on my phone

browser, for the convenience.

SMS is the preferred medium of interaction for a while generation, and the

preferred interactivity platform for most media, from TV to newspapers.

Prasanto K Roy

The numbers tell the story: 250 million mobiles in India, versus 25 million

PCs. So which do you think will be the preferred platform for all kinds of

transactions, queries, and information exchange?

The Railways are worried that their new “book your tickets on ATMs”

initiative isn't giving them much response. Forget the ATM: there are a few

thousand of those. Focus on the mobile phone: there are a few hundred million of

them.

So for those of you who run the IT departments of enterprises or work in

them, you can no longer get away from it: the mobile phone not the PC, is the

platform of 2008 for all your enterprise apps.

For those of you who have set up push email for management: 2008 will be the

year it gets democratized, and goes down the layers. Every employee who's on the

move needs push email (and you can might even save on laptops).

For those trying to reach out to customers, partners, suppliers, or trying to

let them reach out to you, if you haven't yet used SMS gateways, this is the

year to do so.

For those extending the enterprise apps to employees on the move, this is the

year to take those apps onto mobile platforms.

And if you're a developer, there's no question about the need to look quickly

and hard at one of the several mobile platforms out there, instead of at more

and more PC applications.

The mobile platforms war will rage in earnest in 2008, among Symbian and

Windows Mobile and BlackBerry and iPhone (due thus month), well ahead of

Google's Android late in the year.

All around us, we'll have the sounds of the mobile: clicks, beeps, ringtones,

the GPRS buzzing on sound systems...

Enterprises will begin to see a sea change in the way their customers,

employees and partners access information on the move-or even when sitting

still.

Whichever way you look at it, 2008 will the year of the mobile application

platform.