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Bluetooth Revolutionises Direct Marketing
Rococo and Prague's Midletsoft Corporation have built a Bluetooth wireless technology solution that is changing the way retailers interact with customers.
Using Rococo's Impronto, a Bluetooth software development tool, Midletsoft has introduced its Jellingspot Data Server, a location-based point server platform. Jellingspot Data Server lets shoppers within a 100-meter radius of server locations to freely access information about a store, its goods and services via mobile phones and PDAs. Customers can obtain both static and dynamic electronic-based content, including text, pictures, music, video and more, directly to their mobile devices.
Users who want to access stores that are Jellingspot enabled can download the free client application for their device from www.jellingspot.com.
Analyst firm Frost & Sullivan predicts that by 2005 some 37 billion advertisements and alerts will be sent to mobile devices in Europe, and that 65% of users will be prepared to receive ads in this way. These messages are expected to be worth $7.4 billion in revenues.
For more information about Midletsoft's Jellingspot visit www.jellingspot.com. To find out how Rococo helps speed the number of Bluetooth applications to market, visit www.rococosoft.com/java.html
UWB standards - footnote
Thanks to Mike McCamon for sending us a link to an amusing blog posted after the recent IEEE 802.15 WPAN meeting: www.pulsepipe.com. Mike has recently become Executive Director of the UWB Forum, who are in a standards fight with MBOA within the IEEE 802.15 Working Group
Holding Your Business in the Palm of Your Hand
On December 1, 2004 at 15:00 GMT, Rococo is hosting a free mobility solutions webinar. Sean O'Sullivan, will discuss how mobile survey software can help your business easily capture accurate data in the field, eliminate manual data entry, remotely manage field reps, speed-up response time and automate business processes.
The webinar will include a full demonstration of Rococo's MobileFrontier Survey software and show how Field Marketing Ireland uses mobile technology to enhance its field marketing business.
Sign-up for Rococo's webinar and your name will be included in a draw to win a FREE PDA. www.rococosoft.com/webinar/
Ultra Wide Band standards
As early providers of Bluetooth solutions, we have been watching the emergence of Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology with interest. The characteristics of this (originally military) technology make it ideal for inherently secure, very low power, very high bandwidth Personal Area Networks that are extremely robust to interference. Bluetooth's 1 Mbps and WiFi's 11 and 54 Mbps are left standing by the potential 480 Mbps of a UWB based standard. This standard is being shepherded into existence by the pithily named MultiBand OFDM Association .
So what? Good question - the pre-standard phase of such a technology is of necessity driven by the techies, but in order to succeed there must be early attention to the commercial possibilities and, just as importantly, commercial limitations. Bluetooth has its own colourful history in this respect - promising too much too early.
Multimedia streaming would seem to be an obvious first application area for UWB. Sony and HP, in a presentation to MBOA, identified 2 categories of application: Cut-the-cord applications that aim to make existing applications wireless, and WPAN applications that exploit new opportunities in ad-hoc wireless networks. In other words, the same as Bluetooth promised - and so far Bluetooth has only delivered on the first of these.
The Register has an interesting article on the politics of the MBOA.
Bluetooth Motorcycle Helmets
I think the title says it all, really! See this article on Bikes in Fast Lane Motorcycle News for a review of 5 of the best Bluetooth helmets!
VOIP links
The convergence of traditional telecoms networks and the internet is a hot topic right now - and it's one that we in Rococo have a particular interest in, because of our work with OSA/Parlay. As an occasional Skype user, I found this Engadget interview with their CEO interesting (found via Slashdot). A more infrastructure-oriented viewpoint is offered in this O'Reilly Developer Weblog entry.
The new developments that they mention, such as SkypeOut (and SkypeIn when it's launched) and "SIP-7" point to what will be the key battleground in this VOIP goldrush: integrating existing landlines with VOIP endpoints. There are many possible approaches to this, of course. It will be interesting to see whether the technology's eventual direction will be influenced more by politics and vested interests or by the dynamics of disruptive technologies
Review of 'Wi-Fi Toys'
Slashdot recently posted a review of Wi-Fi Toys, a new book by Mike Outmesguine (one of the bloggers behind the excellent Wireless Weblog):
Overall the book reads great, even if you're not serious about doing some projects, it's still fun to follow photographs and see what Mike and the contributors have done in terms of wireless projects. Each chapter is presented as a single project, so with the exception of terminology knowledge there's no preceding knowledge that needs to be there, so one could theoretically start with a digital picture frame that hangs on the wall, downloading the pictures via the wireless link and playing occasional videos.
Seems like a pretty decent read, and Mr. Outmesguine has plenty of cred from his weblog.
Some Mobile Solution design tips
It strikes me that the "Mobile Solutions" industry is still underestimating the importance, and complexity, of successfully integrating handheld devices with existing "back-end" ERP systems. These systems range from tailored SAP or Siebel deployments, through ERP systems specific to an industry vertical, all the way to home-grown, evolved solutions used by individual companies. The goal of of a Mobile Solution is to put the power of these "back-end" systems in the hands of the mobile workers. But how?
Here are some things to consider when choosing a Mobile Solution...
Integrate, don't Aggregate. Many off-the-shelf Mobile Solutions mandate an architecture that may not suit your business or your IT systems. Why deploy Yet-Another-IT-System that wants to own your customer data / finance data / field service data etc.?
Design for Occasionally Connected clients. GPRS is not always on. Wireless networks are not always available. That's just how it is! Make sure your handheld application knows this and doesn't stop your mobile workers from doing their job when and where they need to. A web client connecting over wireless is usually not suitable.
Emphasise Data Integrity. Remember that your ERP system encapsulates the rules of how your business data behaves and changes over time. Some of this behaviour may be subtle and even undocumented in your organisation. Providing access to the ERP system via mobile devices must not lead to the business logic being bypassed for the expedient of a fast mobile solution.
Protect your Investment. IT Systems change with requirements. Don't choose the mobile solution that's provided as an add-on to your ERP system because (i) it locks you in and limits your choices and (ii) it may have been written by people that don't understand the complexities of mobile solutions.