Gartner names top mobile tech trends

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Gartner has identified eight mobile technologies that will evolve significantly through 2010 and impact short-term mobile strategies and policies.

From an enterprise perspective, those technologies likely to have the greatest impact included mobile broadband, near field communications (NFC), Bluetooth 3.0 and a new Wi-Fi standard.

The explosion in popularity of wireless mobile broadband in 2008 has made it viable alternative to Wi-Fi hotspots in many regions. And the analyst firm said availability of mature chipsets would enable organisations to buy laptops with built-in mobile wireless modules that provide superior performance to add-on cards or dongles.

It also said NFC was emerging as a leading standard for applications such as mobile payment and that its wider applications, for example, to transfer data between a handset and digital photo frame or discount voucher offer, would lead to its development in emerging markets particularly.

And, with the release of the Bluetooth 3.0 specification this year, Gartner predicted it would enable the development of new devices, such as peripherals and sensors as well as new applications, that take advantage of features such as ultra-low-power mode, for health monitoring for example.

It also called out wireless protocol 802.11n that, from an organisational perspective, would be disruptive given it is the first to challenge the 100 Mbps Ethernet speeds commonly used for wired connections to office PCs.

“It is, therefore, an enabler for the all-wireless office and should be considered by companies equipping new offices or replacing older 802.11a/b/g systems in 2009 and 2010,” said the analyst firm.

But at the same, it warned: “It’s complex to configure, and is a 'rip and replace' technology that requires new access points, client wireless interfaces, backbone networks and a new power over Ethernet standard.”

In terms of end-user developments, Gartner forecast that new display technologies, mobile user interfaces (MUIs), widgets and location sensing capabilities would also be a focus for development.

Several new display technologies will impact the marketplace, including active pixel displays, passive displays and pico projectors. And new and more-diverse MUIs will complicate the development and support of business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) applications. While the mobile web will emerge as a low-cost way to deliver simple mobile applications to a range of devices.

The analyst added that location sensing would become a key component of contextual applications and enhance systems, such as mobile presence and mobile social networking. But it warned of the new privacy and security challenges associated with its use.

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