The New Portability

Posted by Jim Van on October 13, 2010 under eOffice, mobility, portability | Read the First Comment

I was recently at T.F. Green airport, waiting at the gate area for my flight to board.  I had my iPhone with me, and was listening to a favourite Paris-based radio station while reading a book on the Kindle app.   I took a break to take a moment to shop for a birthday present for a friend on Eddie Bauer, and went back to my book.  All of a sudden, I received an alarm that one of my clients’ servers was acting abnormally.  Within a minute, I was accessing the server, and within two minutes, I’d solved the issue and was back to my book.  The flight boarded 10 minutes later.

This is perhaps one of the best examples of two things:  How our personal and professional lives have merged due to tedchnology, and how they’ve done so in the absence of a conventional computer desktop.  Meet the new portability.

The iPhone has paved the way, but is not alone in enabling us to do more while mobile.  Google’s Android OS has become a serious competitor to Apple’s iOS, both in the smartphone and notepad space, as iPad faces increasing competition from the likes of Samsung, HTC, Sony and many other major brands.  One pundit predicts that no fewer than 80 competitors to the iPad will be on display at this January’s Consumer Electronics Show.  I agree.  I also feel that the exclusive deal which AT&T has had with Apple to carry the iPhone may be nearing its end.  I think that the iPhone will be available from Verizon sometime in the first quarter, and will be offered by T-mobile before the end of 2011.  And, despite some security misgivings, Android is poised to overtake Apple’s iOS, as early as 2011.It’s application store is growing by over 2,000 applications per day, according to industry figures.

So, what does all this mean?

With the availability of so many appliances that fit into your pocket or purse, all of which give you access to applications that allow you to perform tasks that previously required you to use a PC or Mac, empowerment is the keyword here.  The power to be entertained by the latest You Tube videos or Netflix movies, or perhaps listening to internet radio or Pandora.  Or reading a book on the Kindle or Nook application.  You’ll be able to do business with any number of applications, to hang out on Facebook, to write blog entries like this one, from almost anywhere, anytime.

Of course, the downside is similar to the feeling I had the first time my brand new cell phone rang back in 1986:  My life was changed forever.  Goodbye privacy.  And that’s a problem with smartphones and tablet devices.  The GPS feature allows you to be tracked.  Most applications won’t fully function without allowing them to know your location.  Law enforcement officials can locate you, even if your device is powered down, through a GPS signal that is constantly broadcast and available only to them.

Then, of coourse, there’s the issue of being able to leave work at work.  With the ability to perform work-related tasks almost anytime and anyplace, it doesn’t bode well for spouses and partners of workaholics.

I’m in the process of forming a discussion group to address just this issue.  If you’d be interested in joining the discussion, drop me a note at jvan@logicomm-inc.com, and I’ll notify you when we have the group set up.  Oh, it will be accessible via your smartphone….