Mark Fenton-Jones, The Australian Financial Review - Tuesday 8 April, 2008
Wireless technology and the growing appetite for mobile data is making smartphones more appealing to small business operators.
While none of the major designers and manufacturers of smartphones Nokia, Motorola, Research In Motion (RIM), Sony-Ericsson has Australian SME statistics to illustrate local trends, anecdotal evidence and the ubiquitous nature of the technology would indicate they were increasingly popular for small business owners that want to stay on top of their business 24 hours a day.
"SMBs (small to medium-size business) need to be nimble. They need to be proactive in response to their customers needs," said Gregory Wade, vice-president of RIM Asia Pacific's Optus business unit, which designs and manufactures BlackBerry devices.
"In many cases they are operating under strict timelines. And they're reliant on themselves to drive the business. They need access to information properly and at their fingertips. We see that attraction in the Australian marketplace."
Known as smartphones, these mobile phones offer advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone, often with functions associated with personal computers.
BlackBerrys are essentially a mobile phone with diary, address book and to-do list that can be synchronised with a user's computer. They have web browser and some models have multimedia functions for playing music and video, and a digital camera.
Nokia's E-series has similar functions. According to its product marketing manager for enterprise solutions, Brett Inman, small businesses use his firm's smartphones for email and conference calls.
"Being able to manage conference calls while on the move is very important and gives some small business people, such as consultants, the ability to call in without have to be fixed to a landline," Mr Inman said.
Other uses include web browsing, synchronising calendar and contacts, and Wi-Fi. "(Wi-Fi) provides an additional access option to price sensitive business," he said.
Further services that SMEs will be able to use with smartphones, according to Nokia, include GPS, information and data sharing remote access to internal company information, easier taking and sharing images and videos, and VoIP calls.
Statistics from researcher IDC's fourth-quarter 2007 mobile phone tracker showed that 26.9 per cent of all mobile devices shipped to Australia were "converged devices", also known as smartphones, with predictions the number would grow to 47.6 per cent by 2012.
IDC's 2007 telco survey found that of businesses with 100-499 employees, 41.7 per cent of respondents said their companies used smartphones or planned to use them within the next 12 months. And 18.3 per cent were evaluating smartphones.
While getting email was the first logical step for smartphone use, Mr Wade noted that a whole raft of applications were being developed not just by smartphone manufacturers, but also third parties.
"There is a pick-up in third party applications," he said.
One such development was RIM's involvement with Mint Wireless (AFR, Mar 11, 2008) to provide small business users with a BlackBerry to make portable payments over the Optus 3G network, while Telstra hooked up with Card Access Services to a similar service that works with smartphones.
"With the expected growth in smartphones and BlackBerry devices the mobile phone will become the new laptop for business," said Phil McDermott, head of small business product marketing at Optus.
"Wireless technology supports SME customers to help them be more efficient, and allows them to maintain their productivity whilst being mobile." |
