Mobile devices such as PDAs and phones could run
advanced enterprise software applications within the next five
years as data transfer speeds rise, according to experts at this
year'sMobile
World Congress Show.
Windsor Holden, an analyst with Juniper Research, said that the
widespread penetration of 3G devices - devices which are able to
connect to the internet and transfer large amounts of data - is
likely to increase the adoption of mobile services by both
businesses and consumers.
The growth of
High-Speed Downlink
Packet Access (HSDPA) in the UK in particular is likely to
allow businesses to port their current applications on to mobile
devices, said Martin Garner, mobile practice leader at Ovum.
"HSDPA will provide a user experience close to users'
expectations of broadband, and flat-rate pricing gives businesses
more confidence in their bill. As a result, USB modems for 3G are
selling fast in many countries and data traffic is rising very
quickly on the networks. This, in turn, encourages operators to
push on with building out their networks and business to invest in
the technology for mobile workforces," he said.
Field service and field sales automation, as well as access to
enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management
systems, are the first wave of applications that businesses could
be deployed on mobile devices in the next five years, according to
Gartner.
"Mobile applications could be very successful, including those
that support service-based roles or inspection processes, such as
field engineering, sales forces or health visitors," said Nick
Jones, vice-president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.
But a key challenge in enabling enterprise software applications
to run across a mobile platform remains guaranteeing quality of
service, according to the GSM
Association.
The GSM Association, a mobile standards industry body, announced
that the IPX standard would soon be ready to help overcome this
obstacle. When IPX is fully established, it will enable mobile
operators and other service providers to exchange internet protocol
based traffic - including person-to-person communications and
content - securely and with a guaranteed quality of service.
Open to any company willing to adopt the necessary technical and
commercial principles, the IPX is a private global IP backbone
designed specifically to provide guaranteed levels of quality of
service and security.
"The open internet is a wonderful thing, but when it comes to
providing a guaranteed quality of service, particularly for
time-critical services, there is still a long way to go," said Alex
Sinclair, chief technology officer of the GSMA.
Tony Cripps, senior analyst at Ovum, said that aplications such
as e-mail are working very well on devices such as Blackberrys and
work acceptably even on slower data transfer standards such as
GPRS. But applications that deal with large file, such as ERP and
CRM, require faster data transfer rates.