Lately I have seen a lot of buzz around cloud computing. It essentially means that all your digital data (mp3-audio, avi- video, docs, xls-spreadsheets, jpegs- photos and so on) reside in “cloud” meaning you can access them any time with any where as long as you have an internet enabled device. Obviously it is pretty interesting concept and could be disruptive to the current desktop/laptop paradigm. I think for a lot of us, this transitioning is already happening, albeit at a measured pace.

If I were to estimate, I would say this technology will be mainstream in a year or two. When that happens you will no longer be tethered to your laptop on a business trip.Going to be liberating isn’t it! I know my dependence on laptop has already gone down thanks to the smartphone I carry ( yes, I am a loyal blackberry customer!).
I know Microsoft has started working in the space and Google already has various offering in this space. At the end, this technology is going to get mainstream, this seems to be the path of least resistance. Granted, the path towards this would have some barriers, the privacy issues, the bandwidth issues, but I don’t consider any one of these to be a show stopper. At the end, if your competitor is offering this service and you don’t guess what, in this world of razor thin margins and picky customers, your customers are going to jump ship!

>Lately I have seen a lot of buzz around cloud computing. It essentially means that all your digital data (mp3-audio, avi- video, docs, xls-spreadsheets, jpegs- photos and so on) reside in “cloud” meaning you can access them any time with any where as long as you have an internet enabled device. Obviously it is pretty interesting concept and could be disruptive to the current desktop/laptop paradigm. I think for a lot of us, this transitioning is already happening, albeit at a measured pace.

If I were to estimate, I would say this technology will be mainstream in a year or two. When that happens you will no longer be tethered to your laptop on a business trip.Going to be liberating isn’t it! I know my dependence on laptop has already gone down thanks to the smartphone I carry ( yes, I am a loyal blackberry customer!).
I know Microsoft has started working in the space and Google already has various offering in this space. At the end, this technology is going to get mainstream, this seems to be the path of least resistance. Granted, the path towards this would have some barriers, the privacy issues, the bandwidth issues, but I don’t consider any one of these to be a show stopper. At the end, if your competitor is offering this service and you don’t guess what, in this world of razor thin margins and picky customers, your customers are going to jump ship!

I have been watching the developments in mobile computing for some time. Although it has been in the making for quite some time, it seems to have gotten pretty good momentum recently. Google announced its Android platform recently which goes on to prove the importance of this technology. Smart phones are already all the rage- what with the blackberries and now the Apple iPhones everywhere. I have personally used both – the well proven and market accepted Blackberry and the latest iPhone. While I like the tactile feedback from QWERTY keyboard of blackberry, I like the visual voice mail and the touch sensitive interface of iPhone. Browisng the internet on phone was never so fun!
If mobile computing has to become a serious contender to the throne now occupied by PC computing, it has to move beyond web browsing, email and contact management. Actually it needs to go in direction where it has an edge over PC computing, GPS is one area which immediately comes to mind, location specific content delivery is the other thing that comes to mind. To the end user a mobile phone is more accessible compared to a PC which requires patience in terms of booting it up, going to your desk etc. Mobile phones also have a wider reach in developing countries like India and China where a PC is still a luxury whereas a mobile is a necessity. This gives the mobile phones a volume advantage. Let’s hope application developers will come forward and tap into this huge market! This is going to be a win -win for the consumers as well as the software developers for mobile computing. I am looking forward to a better experience in using my smart phones!!

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I have been watching the developments in mobile computing for some time. Although it has been in the making for quite some time, it seems to have gotten pretty good momentum recently. Google announced its Android platform recently which goes on to prove the importance of this technology. Smart phones are already all the rage- what with the blackberries and now the Apple iPhones everywhere. I have personally used both – the well proven and market accepted Blackberry and the latest iPhone. While I like the tactile feedback from QWERTY keyboard of blackberry, I like the visual voice mail and the touch sensitive interface of iPhone. Browisng the internet on phone was never so fun!
If mobile computing has to become a serious contender to the throne now occupied by PC computing, it has to move beyond web browsing, email and contact management. Actually it needs to go in direction where it has an edge over PC computing, GPS is one area which immediately comes to mind, location specific content delivery is the other thing that comes to mind. To the end user a mobile phone is more accessible compared to a PC which requires patience in terms of booting it up, going to your desk etc. Mobile phones also have a wider reach in developing countries like India and China where a PC is still a luxury whereas a mobile is a necessity. This gives the mobile phones a volume advantage. Let’s hope application developers will come forward and tap into this huge market! This is going to be a win -win for the consumers as well as the software developers for mobile computing. I am looking forward to a better experience in using my smart phones!!