Introduction
Today, Mobile Phones are not just used for taking calls or sending messages but have been moved beyond the wildest imagination of mankind. The applications that were primarily limited to the desktop/laptops are now easily available on the mobile phones. Mobile growth has introduced mobile applications that allow users to do more than usual on their mobile phones anytime, anywhere.
The mobile program growth is “the next big thing” in the market. The mobile program growth is the pulse of mobile device growth, where programs that may be used on mobile phones are created. These mobile applications supply access to real- time data at will. Besides easy access to real time information, mobiles now provide various mobile applications such as connectivity with GPRS, personal applications, photo auxiliary facilities, videos, sounds, etc. Various mobile applications like high definition camera, xtreme gaming, multimedia applications, use of internet have done mobile program growth critical for entertainment. At present, most of us are primarily using our cell phones to download media and check our email; however there is an abundance of amazing services that we can have hands on access to, through the Mobile Web. Equipped with a smartphone, PDA, or other Internet-ready mobile devices, users can retrieve local traffic information, bus, train, airline schedules and also look up weather reports. As the world of Mobility grows rapidly, the competition of the brands and their offer also grows, which has a marginal variance in each other which makes it difficult to choose the devices. The top 5 competitors in manufacture of mobile devices are as below.
- Nokia
- Samsung
- LG Electronics
- Apple
- RIM(Research In Motion)
As per the subscriptions of the devices below are the operating systems that are popular and have venomous competition for each other.
- Android
- iOS
- RIM
- Symbian
- Microsoft Windows
- Others
Market Snapshot and Comparative Analysis
As the market of the Mobility has steep challenges in the software (Operating System), where the hardware would become of 2 or 3 chips added, there is a marginal difference in what the vendor’s offer, which makes one choose a device over the other. The competition is steep because of the operating system, application, ease of use and even the hardware. The top competitors are presently looking at the future where one can choose the OS for the phone with the best hardware, which is not too long to expect.
Below is the chart that gives the picture of the market share of the devices.
The vendors are having a mix and match of the OS from Symbian to Android. For example Nokia builds all their devices with the Symbian OS, on the other hand Nokia has also made a pact with Microsoft for building up high end smartphones with Windows 7 OS. Samsung which had its own proprietary OS BADA is now tied up with Google and is manufacturing the devices with Android OS which is a hot cake in 2011 sales; LG and HTC are also tied up with Android OS by Google for their smart phones which have become popular for its usability and the service it provides. Apple has its own OS called iOS which is popular for its service and user friendliness.
Features – Smartphone’s
To be precise, not everything that we talk about is accurate or to be made flawless. The smartphones have their flaws too, which accounts in various scenarios to perform the routine actions. Below are some of the flaws that can be noticed easily:
- Small Screen Size: The smartphones screen measure about a few inches wide (Max 2”) and long (Max 4”). This will make the job cumbersome as the user needs to scroll a lot to view the complete mail conversation or to view a document.
- Awkward Keyboard Size: The alphanumeric keyboard or the qwerty keyboard are placed intact to mimic the original computer keyboard which still doesn’t help in typing the words as fast as in the normal one considering a hand holding the smartphone.
- High Cost: The data plan which needs to be activated with the service providers is high which starts from 100 INR to 2000 INR per month. In case of 3G data plans ranges from 300 INR to 3000 INR. While some devices requires long term connection agreement with the service provider with extra data and voice plans.
- Website Access: The websites are viewed on the smartphones using the WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) which compresses data on the website to fit the phone. Not all the websites are WAP enabled which makes the site inaccessible and if they do the contents would not load completely and scrolling the webpage up and down will be a tedious job. In the world of smartphones, where there is a vast varieties of devices manufactured by different manufacturers, Blackberry stands apart as the pioneer or say a highly preferred phone by professionals. What is the reason behind the scenes for this popularity is the question among the customers which even we have.
As we think of blackberry, we think of it as a business phone, because, they are famous for inventing business phones which provide a variety of business applications like Microsoft communicator, CRM client etc. The primary reason for the popularity of Blackberry is the user friendly QWERTY keypad, the internet browser which ranks as the 3rd best mobile browser, multitasking, regular OS upgrades, Blackberry Mail and Messaging capabilities, Blackberry Messenger which is used to share the contents to another Blackberry user who’s Pin is known. The most important feature is the encrypted communication which provides a safest way to communicate. Each Blackberry has a unique PIN, which is used to track the device and also render the blackberry to be useless when stolen. The email client is one of the outstanding features which it provides for the corporate crowd, as email is the important form of communication and represents the person’s presence. The other great feature about blackberry is that it provides Calendar which allows us to synchronize the availability and to mark important dates; it also provides an easy synchronization for the media between the phone and the computer.
Smartphone Market Share – 2011
Below is the statistics diagram of the mobile subscriptions as per Jan 2011.
Blackberry – 3600 view
As discussed above when Blackberry stands for professionals/business people, we will take a tour into what it offers as solution for Enterprise. Yes! Blackberry does provide a solution for enterprise where the Administrators can have control on the Blackberry devices that is used inside its domain or its facility or registered for the enterprise users. There are 2 types of solution provided which is as discussed below:
- Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES).
- Blackberry Enterprise Server Express.
Blackberry Enterprise Server
BES is a middleware software package that connects the messaging collaboration and application software like Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft OCS, Lotus, CRM, etc. on an enterprise network and synchronizes data between the servers, the desktops and the mobile devices i.e. Blackberry. BES consists of a set of Windows Services that carry out the basic function. The services include the below.
- BlackBerry Alert
- BlackBerry Attachment Service
- BlackBerry Collaboration Service
- BlackBerry Controller
- BlackBerry Database Consistency Service
- BlackBerry Dispatcher
- BlackBerry Instant Messaging Connector
- BlackBerry Messaging Agent
- BlackBerry MDS Connection Service
- BlackBerry MDS Services – Apache Tomcat Service
- BlackBerry Policy Service
- BlackBerry Router
- BlackBerry Synchronization Service
- BlackBerry User Administration Service
BlackBerry Enterprise Server provides a number of features which are as follows:
- Support expanded enterprise device wipe and management.
- Support for Microsoft Office Communications Server, Microsoft Lync Server 2010 (IM component only) and Microsoft Office 2010.
- Support for digitally signed attachments.
- Optional firmware upgrades and firmware rollbacks.
- BlackBerry Administration Service, data reporting, including sortable columns and export functionality.
The Blackberry Administration Service is a web based console which provides management, access to deploy, manage applications. IT Policy Updates, Manage User Settings etc. The BES uses Push Technology to deliver messages, which helps in the synchronization of the mails, calendar, contacts and tasks with the device in seconds. The security is the main feature in Blackberry which accorded as one of the best in the world. The BES uses Triple DES or AES standards. The intranet access to the users of the smartphone is provided through wireless using the MDS Service in the BES. The administrator can also administer the applications that can be installed using the IT policies and rules. The most important factor is that the administrator can wipe all the data on the Blackberry device if stolen or lost once it is connected to the internet.
Blackberry Enterprise Server – Express
Blackberry also provides a free version of maintaining the enterprise domain using the Blackberry Enterprise Server Express (BES Express), this version of server is similar to the BES but lacks some features that the later has. The features are:
- Facilitated end-user migration: When the enterprise is going through the upgradation or implementation of a new BlackBerry Environment, it does not require user interaction which BES Express lacks.
- Proactive monitoring: We can monitor the overall performance of the architecture and also troubleshoot which is not possible in the BES Express.
- High availability: Built in high availability architecture in BES, allows us for fast recovery of the environment which is a major feature that BES Express lacks.
Below Chart provides a comparison between BES & BES Express
This is the present version of the smartphones what is that we can expect from the future. The Future phones will have more AI (Artificial Intelligence), better speech recognition, better gesture control, context awareness, and more integration with sensors, increased processing power better energy efficiency, management and also with a Pico-projector.
Authored by Vinay Kumar, Dharmedra S.K and Sameer H
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