Covering All the Bases

Australian IT writes about the challenges trying to "transition from calls, calendars and email to a wider range of applications on handheld computers has proved more complex than expected."

Forrester analyst Carl Zetie said, "Email is easier to adopt from a technology perspective, but its measurable business value can be amorphous at best."

The articles cites mobile device interfaces as one reason why enterprise take up is lagging. Ken Dulaney at Gartner said, "Voice and handwriting recognition are key," and proposes a simple test of handheld utility: "Can a physician in an operating room use a computer without looking up?"

The answer is still no. In the battle for the mobile platforms, Dulaney suggested "If you are on PalmOS for an application, it's probably time to think about something else," while "Symbian as a platform really depends on Nokia; everyone else is kind of irrelevant."

Ellen Daley at Forrester added, "The prospect of Linux on PDAs and smartphones remains appealing in innovation terms, but it has had little market impact in corporations."

While the Blackberry leads in email, Dulaney questioned "its ability to handle complex applications in the absence of a persistent network." He opined, "We don't recommend building offline applications on the BlackBerry at this point."