Mobile applications have been the next big thing for several years now, but they still haven't gone mainstream. These lists of mobile apps' top successes, challenges, and opportunities make it clear why. Where there is success, surprisingly it's smaller companies that are leading the way
The title of one well-attended session at last week's Mobile Business Expo in New York was listed as "Mobile Business Applications: Are We There Yet?" Based on what I heard there, the short answer, clearly, is "No."
The session, with panelists Leah Gabriel from Motorola's Field Mobility Group, Philippe Winthrop from the Aberdeen Group, Benjamin Wesson from Dexterra, and Cynthia Zanelli from AT&T, clearly laid out mobile apps' successes, challenges, and opportunities:
Successes
2. Increased use in field services -- Even if traditional business applications aren't going mobile, field service applications such as sensor-based networks, GPS, and RFID are seeing rapid growth and fast, easy-to-calculate-and-understand returns on investments measured in months, not years. If your company can save five miles of driving per day, per vehicle, or add one job per day per technician, the benefits are obvious.
3. Better technology -- The networks are better than ever. Coverage and bandwidth are less of an issue than before. The devices are better than ever. Companies can choose from a wide assortment of powerful, flexible handhelds.
4. Strong rate of adoption overseas -- The adoption curve is further along in Asia and Europe. In Japan, for example, mobile devices are the primary computing and communication method. There are lots of business people who don't use traditional computers.
DON'T MISS: Are You Ready for the Mobile Computing Revolution?
Challenges
2. ROI -- Outside of field service, it's still hard to do true return on investment analysis with hard numbers. How do you quantify the ROI for messaging? It's no surprise that there are still a lot of soft numbers out there.
3. Security -- Of the information and the device. Neither one is where it needs to be.
4. Reliability -- Again, of the application and the device. Handset life cycles are longer for businesses than for consumers, and many companies are finding that failure rates affect downtime and the total cost of ownership.
5. Management indifference -- In many companies, especially smaller ones, there aren't enough mobile workers to justify expensive development plans. And mobile apps often compete against other organizational priorities for attention and funding.
Opportunities
2. User Involvement -- Engage users as subject-matter experts early in the development process. Apply their input to re-engineer processes in ways that makes sense for mobile use. From pilot to pilot, each group of users will help make them successful.
3. Mashups -- Composite applications are a growing trend. Combining several apps on the back end makes the whole thing more usable, and users on handhelds don't have the option of switching from one window to another.
4. Mobility First -- Many of the best mobile applications are developed first on mobile devices. The key success factor is to look at mobile apps differently than regular online apps, both in type of data and how it's presented.
Clearly, we're still a long way away from the golden age of mobile applications. But there are opportunities to begin taking advantage of the benefits of mobile apps. And smaller companies, with less overhead to cover, fewer layers of management to convince, and more incentives to be nimble, are in a great position to lead the charge.
As AT&T's Cynthia Zanelli put it, "Don't wait for Nirvana; see what can be done today." As we go along, we'll "build road maps to Nirvana."
Fredric Paul is publisher/editor in chief of bMighty.com and SmallBizResource.com.
