Cloud Services Spur Mobile Enterprise Apps

By PCWorld

Mobilizing enterprise apps is nothing new, yet beyond e-mail and a few other horizontal applications, it's still a niche market. But combining the cloud with the newest generation of smartphones is just starting to change that.

Juniper Research expects the total market for cloud-based mobile apps to grow 88 percent between 2009 and 2014. About 75 percent of that market will be enterprise users, Juniper predicts.

An ABI Research study from a year ago predicts that a new architecture for mobile apps based on the cloud will drastically change the way mobile apps are developed, acquired and used. Cloud services can make it easier for developers by minimizing the amount of code they have to customize for each of the phone platforms. "This trend is in its infancy today, but ABI Research believes that eventually it will become the prevailing model for mobile applications," ABI Research analyst Mark Beccue wrote in the report.

Connecting a mobile app to a cloud-based service has other upsides for enterprises, said John Barnes, CTO of Model Metrics, a company that develops mobile apps that work in conjunction with Salesforce.com and Amazon Web Services. "One advantage of these cloud platforms is you can synch from the mobile device to the cloud without intermediate servers or a VPN," he said.

That means deployment can be simpler for companies that don't want to manage in-house servers that support the mobile app.

Salesforce is one cloud provider aiming to make it easier for businesses to mobilize their cloud-based services. "We see that mobile devices are changing how business applications are deployed," said Ariel Kelman, vice president, platform product marketing at Salesforce.com. Salesforce offers APIs and toolkits to help businesses extend applications they've build on Force.com to the iPhone or BlackBerry phones.

Rehabcare is one organization that used those tools to build an application for its workers. Based in St. Louis, Rehabcare owns and operates 34 hospitals nationwide and also operates more than 1,000 facilities on behalf of hospital owners.

The mobile application built on Force.com allows Rehabcare to be more competitive when bidding for patients, Dick Escue, CIO for the company, said. Typically, when a patient is being discharged from a hospital but needs further care, the hospital will put out a broad call to all nearby facilities asking if they want to care for the patient.

Apple drops to 9 in the Green Gadget ranking

By Silicon India

Bangalore: Greenpeace in its latest Greener Electronics guide saw major shifts that most affected Apple. Out of 18 companies on the list Apple fell from fifth place to ninth simply by failing to advance its score beyond the earlier 4.9 score .

Most of the points that Apple scored is based on the usage of toxic chemicals by which their products are made. All Apple products are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) which are very harmful chemicals for the environment. The company has not provided enough information on how it manages chemicals, communication in the supply chain or how it plans to phase out any more toxic chemicals, Greenpeace said.

Apple's drop in the ratings, however, does not mean the company has been lacking in staying clean and green; but more because it didn't provide the public enough information about its future toxic chemical phase-out plans and the fact that other PC makers have showed significant improvements.

HP is among the biggest gainers in Greenpeace's ranking, climbing to 4th place with 5.5 points, up from 8th place with 4.9 points in the previous ranking. The improved score is partly due to new notebook and desktop lines that are free of PVC and BFRs, a PVC free printer, and a pledge to phase out beryllium and compounds by July 2011.

Greenpeace credited Philips in this latest report for releasing the first PVC and BFRs free TV, the Econova, which puts Philips on track to meet its commitment to phase out these hazardous substances by the end the year, ahead of other TV manufacturers.

Among all makers of electronics, Nokia and Sony Ericsson remain the greenest by a larger margin. The two have been making products that are free of most hazardous substances, including PVC/BFRs, antimony, beryllium, and phthalates.

100,000 apps now available in Android market

By Silicon India

San Francisco: The online market of Android, the operating system by Google, now has an app count of 100,000 available for the users. The news was announced in a posting made in Twitter by Google.

Google had launched the Android online market about two years ago and has today become one of the pioneers in the field. But it still has a long ground to cover to match up to the 280,000 separate apps available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

The number of apps available in the Android online store has tripled since March 2010. The Android market is steadily growing with 200,000 Android powered phones selling per day the world over. And so are the apps available in the market for Android with around 270,000 developers engaged in developing the apps.

Spice Mobile launches India's first 3D phone

New Delhi: Handset maker Spice Mobility said that it has launched the country's first 3D display mobile phone, View D, priced at Rs 4,299.
View D will allow users to experience images and videos in 3D without the 3D glasses, making it very convenient for a common user.
"With growing popularity of 3D content and devices, this is one segment we wanted to tap. We have created this new device for people looking for smart mobile phones," Spice Mobility Vice President (Marketing) Naveen Paul told a news agency.

The company is looking at selling 20,000-30,000 units per month of View D, he added.
In the competitive Indian market, handset makers are looking at innovations to drive sales.
"One has to keep innovating to offer the market compelling products, but at reasonable price points as India is a price-conscious market," Paul said.
According to IDC, 38.63 million handsets were sold in India during April-June 2010.
Asked about the lack of 3D content in India, Paul said, "In India, 3D is catching up and soon there would be more devices which support 3D and with that content would also come in."
The handset is equipped with a 2.4-inch 3D display screen, two megapixel camera, FM Radio, MP3 player and expandable memory up to 16GB.
View D's screen is designed in a way that allows the user to toggle between a normal 2D or 3D user interface. It also has a 'remote wipe' feature, which allows users to delete the data stored on their phones remotely, in case of loss of handset.
Targetted at the metros and Tier I cities, the company will also launch a new television commercial along with other promotional activities for the product.
The handset would be available through more than 50,000 retail points, including 750 Spice HotSpot retail stores.

By Siliconindia.com

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