My neighbor works for a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate and he grumbles because his only choice for a mobile device is a BlackBerry and they require him to use Lotus Notes. In contrast, at Telizent Communications, our leadership team alone uses no less than 5 different mobile operating systems (iPhone, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Palm and Nextel) and they run on 3 different carriers (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint)! We have standardized on Microsoft Exchange and Skype in our organization because both applications run seamlessly on each of our mobile devices, as well as on our Windows and Mac OS PC platforms.

While standards help organizations leverage economies of scale and reduce overall usage costs, IT groups within large companies are realizing that the “one-size-fits-all” mentality is no longer acceptable.

It seems that every day a new article is published about which carriers have the best networks, which mobile devices have the best user interface, or what mobile applications have the most downloads. Of these three areas, which do you believe is most important?

Though I don’t use an iPhone personally, I have to take my hat off to Apple with regard to their now famous slogan “There’s an app for that”. I too believe that the mobile application is the most important piece to the mobility movement, especially if it runs on multiple mobile platforms. Network World’s Mitchell Ashley, refers to these mobile apps as “micro apps” – a narrow, targeted, mobile app that performs a specific task at the very moment you think of it or need it. Mitchell believes that users would rather download an app to perform a discrete tasks rather than searching for them in Google, navigating to the right website, and then having to use a website interface. I agree.

Do you support multiple mobile devices and/or applications within your organization? BlackBerry has been the dominant smart phone in corporations because of how well it has addressed security requirements; however they have limited apps for their users and are therefore at risk of losing market share. In fact, two highly regarded analysts think that Apple and Blackberry will be in the rearview mirror of both Android apps and Microsoft Mobile apps as early as 2012. Gartner believes that Android will grab the No. 2 position in market share in 2012 while iSuppi analyst Tina Teng predicts Windows Mobile will be the #2 OS in 2013.

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