Mobile Handset : Making Our Life in Motion

BlackBerry manufacturer, Research in Motion, held the Eighth Annual Mega

Symposium in Orlando, Florida from May 4-8, 2009, to focus on the practical

applications and rewards of wireless technologies. In addition to the many

keynotes and breakout sessions, there were hands-on labs, a demo theater, and

solutions showcased. About 140 exhibitors and 5,000 attendees actively

participated, despite the sweeping recession and spreading swine flu,

particularly in this region bordering Mexico, making the event a grand success.

Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO, Research In Motion, while formally

launching the event on May 5, 2009 said, “At Research In Motion, we have over

12,000 employees dedicated to a single task-providing enterprise grade solutions

with over 2,00,000 servers deployed globally. He further said, “Till today, we

have made shipments of 50 mn BlackBerry units worldwide, and 26 mn units in the

last fiscal alone, which exhibits our remarkable growth.

During the event, Freeny Bawa, VP, RIM India, said, “Even during this time of

global recession, India added 15 mn subscribers in January 2009. It also shows

that India offers a great growth potential for the BlackBerry market. Our

smartphone is a converged device for both enterprise as well entertainment

purposes, and as RIM's CEO says, “BlackBerry is the most expensive cell phone,

but the cheapest plasma TV.”

On the Indian market for BlackBerry, Mike Lazaridis said, “India has English

as a common language and has very strong cultural and academic success. I think

BlackBerry is a natural vehicle to support that kind of culture and success. We

hope BlackBerry becomes an important vehicle to communicate and people stay in

touch with each other.”

Following the keynote address of Mike Lazaridis, user experiences from many

global organization were shared with the audience. Robert J Picciano, GM, Lotus

and WebSphere Portal Software, IBM Software group, shared how his company's

business status improved after using BlackBerry. He made nine predictions for

2009 vis-a-vis the BlackBerry platform. His predictions included universal

access to colloboration, messaging becoming an integrated platform, managing

through human networks, telephony becoming voice collaboration, Linux emerging

on the corporate desktop, and situational applications solving daily problems.

Laurent Philonnenko, VP and GM, Unified Communications Business Unit, Cisco,

said, “ We are in the midst of a major transition, and RIM vision reflected in

BlackBerry will help people sail through the transition smoothly.”

Shane Robinson, executive vice president and chief strategy and technology

officer, HP, spoke on transforming the world's biggest challenges like

globalization and information explosion into opportunities. He said, “New modes

of communications, collaboration and computing have created a new paradigm. HP

and RIM are delivering an integrated ecosystem from infrastructure to services

to devices. Everything as a service will enable a host of new business models.”

BES 5.0 Launched



The major events on the first day were the formal launch of BES 5.0,-the

latest version of the BES series to help enterprises have the required

flexibility while being mobile-security updates, an alliance with HP and the

release of RIM's push APIs to developers. Mike Lazaridis focused his keynote on

the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) 5.0. These latest updates to BES will

help organizations make push services work for them more efficiently, and

ultimately save organizations costs.

Mike Lazaridis said, “BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 significantly raises

the bar for advanced IT manageability, high availability, system monitoring and

reporting. It has undergone testing in real world environments for over a year

and is available now for customers.”

On the utility of this latest version, particularly in the context of Indian

enterprise professionals and individuals, Frenny Bawa, VP, RIM India, said, “It

has many functionalities that enable Indian organizations to use this to launch

many relevant advanced applications for their business benefits by providing

increased mobility.”

Apart from the BES 5.0 launch, during the event, RIM also announced

BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (MVS) Server for Cisco Unified Communications

Manager-a new version of BlackBerry MVS Server that is optimized for use with

Cisco Unified Communications Manager version 6.1 or later. BlackBerry MVS Server

for Cisco Unified Communications Manager can make employees more accessible and

productive, both in and out of the office, and empower organizations with the

management and control of corporate voice services on BlackBerry smartphones.

Yet another important announcement on the same day was on the availability of

a new BlackBerry push API (application programming interface) that will enable

developers to push real-time content to BlackBerry smartphones. RIM is extending

its existing, well-proven push technology from the enterprise into the consumer

space, allowing developers to leverage push technology for BlackBerry

applications targeted at consumers. Push technology provides a proactive

mechanism for developers to deliver data to BlackBerry smartphones as it becomes

available.

It has several advanced features like bringing immediacy to mobile

communications with real-time content, preservation of battery life, and

minimizing data usage by eliminating the need for 'poking' and 'polling'

servers. Apart from this, RIM's unique push technology significantly has the

capability to enhance user experience and provide a proactive mechanism for

developers to deliver data to BlackBerry smartphones as the data becomes

available.

Solutions Showcase



During the four days of the event, about 140 application developers and

vendors showcased their latest solutions available through BlackBerry devices,

providing a great opportunity to see what was new and exciting in wireless

technology and experience it hands on. BlackBerry ISVs, software providers,

system integerators and wireless carriers displayed and demonstrated a plethora

of noteworthy products and services.

Companies including Cisco, HP, IBM, AT&T, Sprint/Nextel, Vodafone Global

Enterprise, Google, T-Mobile, Zenprise, Lenovo, Viigo, Chalk, ISEC7, 20:20

Mobile Group, 3i Consultancy, BMC Software, Handheld PCs, iEnterprises, MobiTV,

RSA, Z-Three, Vivo, Vmware, TeleNav, etc showcased their solutions on the

BlackBerry platform at the solution showcase. It provided an opportunity for the

enterprise professionals who attended the event to get information from

knowledgeable BlackBerry solution partners to make their companies become more

productive, effective, and competitive. Vendors also provided advice about

implementing wireless technologies at enterprises.

WES 2009 was a real confluence of application developers, vendors, operators,

BlackBerry experts, BlackBerry administrators, analysts and pundits,

power-users, unabashed CrackBerry addicts, and IT and business visionaries for

whom it proved to be a special event offering vast opportunity for exchange of

knowledge on how to benefit from BlackBerry in terms of mobility. The

recession-defying success of the event and the enthusiasm of the participants

clearly indicated one thing-the BlackBerry will witness further increase in

adoption by enterprises and individuals, metamorphosing the phrase 'life in

motion' to 'life in the fast lane'.

Kannan K



kannan@cybermedia.co.in


The author was hosted in Orlando, Florida