June 2012

The Good

Gartner states that Apple will sell 60 million units of iPad in 2012 vs. 400 million PCs. This statistic is something which got Microsoft on its toes. They had to do something to stay in the game and viola – the Surface makes its appearance suddenly as the ‘first real business tablet’. Apple traditionally being skewed towards the consumer side, with a BYOD strategy for the enterprise and with only a few competitors like Cisco’s Cius and RIM’s Playbook, Microsoft enters this untapped territory pretty confidently. With a slick design, impressive specs and an all-in-one PC experience, Microsoft should win the hearts of the corporate IT geeks who’ve been dedicated Windows guys.

The Bad

Microsoft being Microsoft decides to have a new strategy for Surface. So, here goes, it decides not to license the Windows 8 (the OS on which Surface sits) to any of its hardware partners. “We don’t think our partners could integrate Windows 8 software with tablet hardware to make Surface”. The seeds for this were probably sown at Computex in Taiwan, where the OEMs failed to impress Microsoft. So, now, the Dells, The Lenovos and the Asus’s of the world who make Windows tablets cannot build the Surface which in turn would call for potential in-fighting. And, we still don’t know the MSRP for Surface or its availability. But to stay in the game, they need to price the Surface reasonably or lose their share to OEMs.

The Future

The big question – will MSFT’s Surface redefine mobile computing? Surface is Microsoft’s hardware, not a HP or Lenovo running on Windows software. Barring the backlash from OEMs, Microsoft is changing the complexion of this game by going Apple style but with an enterprise twist. Surface is not just a tablet, but a tablet with a twist and with PC capabilities. We’re not sure if it will ever outsell the iPad, the Mac Books or the Android-powered tablets or its own Windows powered tablets, but, it definitely will seem to raise the bars high for the rest of its OEMs. It will be an all Microsoft
tablet like an all Apple iPad but with a twist. If Microsoft prices this correctly and sets the level playing field with its competing OEMs, the Surface should take on the earth.

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Are you in the game?

Like it or not, your workforce is going mobile and managing this trend has not been easy. Confidential data can be accessed on mobile devices, which is not inside the company firewall. Mission critical applications can be downloaded with a click of a button to raise security concerns. Going mobile is not a matter of choice anymore when the majority of workforce is demanding easy access to information, anytime, and anywhere on their iPhones and Androids. IDC estimates that 70% of corporate data now resides on mobile devices and Forrester predicts that more than 400 million workers will go mobile by 2012; this represents 75% of the global workforce! So, you don’t want to be left behind with a negative impact to your security policies and to your overall business strategy.

What does it mean to go mobile?

To keep pace with this fast moving market, you need to understand what your overall strategic, mobility goals are. Is it improving the productivity of employees by enabling remote and easy access to information, is it making your sales organization more efficient by enabling them to access CRM solutions remotely? Based on this you can align your technologies to support objectives by creating a detailed roadmap on how you can achieve these objectives, this also means you have to plan your risks and budgets accordingly. And finally, execute, either with an in-house or an outsourced team or a combination of both.

Enterprise mobility and InfoStretch

Join our Director of Enterprise QA, Ashok Karania on June 26^th where he co-presents a session with Forrester to talk about the need for an enterprise mobility strategy. Ashok will talk about the past, present, and future of enterprise mobility and what NASSCOM is doing to proliferate this trend in India. Ashok will also help you to understand how InfoStretch can help to create and execute on a mobile strategy for you based on your specific mobility goals and objectives. This session will be hosted by NASSCOM as a part of their Enterprise Mobility Initiative.

About Ashok

Ashok Karania is an entrepreneurial leader with more than 10 years of experience in sales, marketing and strategy. He is spearheading InfoStretch’s strategic and business development initiatives in the Enterprise Mobility world. Previously, Ashok was the MD & CEO of Magnet Technologies, where he shared the responsibility for day to day operations and led company’s strategic planning, management, organization building and marketing efforts. He is the Founder of Mobile Monday Ahmedabad, which aims to promote mobile technology, networking and knowledge-sharing. Ashok graduated from Mumbai University’s N M College with specialization in Accountancy & Computer Applications, where he was awarded the Jamnabai Narsee Shield for Best Student. He holds an MBA Degree from S P Jain and is currently pursuing his PhD from Mumbai University. He is a Self-Proclaimed Writer, Travel Freak, Voracious Reader, Film Enthusiast and Mentor!

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