That is a very interesting article with some good discussion prompting points.
Ben Worthen:Now there’s a new platform war being waged, but this time the
battleground is mobile devices. The bad news for businesses looking to
standardize on a winner: The most likely outcome is multiple survivors.
I think that this is always going to be the case with Mobiles, because there is so much choice when it comes to the OS. This is caused by the fact that most mobile phones are bought for personal use rather than work use. This means that any developer firstly has to look at whether their app is to be used in the enterprise model or by a consumer.
Ben Worthen: ...workers increasingly want to be able to choose the device that they think is the best fit for their life.
...It’s probably wise to let workers who only need to access email or
software that runs on multiple mobile platforms use whatever device
they choose
Now this point, I am not too sure that this is correct. In a business environment, the company should (and most probably do) dictate which devices are used by their employees. If they allow multiple OSs throughout their workforce then they are creating huge hurdles for themselves when it comes to both administrating the security policies and for development costs for new client side software.
Ben Worthen: Write software that people access over the Internet through a Web
browser, which isn’t dependent on an operating system. But most devices
can’t connect to the Internet at the speed necessary to run such
software
The number of devices which have 3G capable speeds is ever increasing, this plus the growing number of WiFi Hotspots means these speeds will be more attainable as time progresses. As handests are replaced they are not done so by old technology.
Mr Grays: And besides, screen size varies from device to
device, meaning that software that looks good on one might not on
another.
But, the number of mobile websites which are springing up show that this is not the case. Add that to the new wave of Mobile Internet Explorers; Opera 9.5, Safari, Skyfire, etc. which are capable of full desktop web viewing, re-rendering and zoom functions, means that SaaS and Cloud Computing is a very viable option for currnt and future developments.
Ben Worthen: Add it all together and it means that businesses need to pick and choose their battles
Or do they? Companies put the services which they require out to tender. Tenders which are renewed and replaced at regular intervals. This is the same with the mobile devices and software which companies use. Yes, the cost of switched, especailly for smaller companies can mean that this is not done on a whim, but invariably the only major cost is the server and server software.
The need to pledge alligance to a system wide PC OS is neccesary, but Mobile Devices, the sides can be switched after just a couple of year. It does mean re-training, but in most cases the Mobile OSs do not vary so much and an experienced user could/should be able to get to grips with a new platform in a very short space of time.
As a side discussion:
Ben Worthen: Google Inc. is about to enter the field with its Android operating system for mobile device
Do companies feel that an open OS is going to provide sufficient security to be used on their networks? How secure is an open platform?