TMCnews Featured Article

With ITEXPO West 2011 just around the corner, TMC CEO Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) reached out to a few of the speakers and exhibitors to talk to them about recent trends in the market and to give attendees a better idea of what they can expect at the show, which officially kicks off on Sept. 13 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

Tehrani recently caught up with Sam Liu, VP of Marketing at Partnerpedia, a provider of private label marketplace and enterprise app store solutions, to get his opinion on how mobility is changing the enterprise market.

Liu believes that the explosion of mobile enterprise users will necessitate the creation of an internal corporate/enterprise app store, which will help address the specific needs of mobile workers. He sees corporate apps being integrated more to backend cloud services, rather than existing as standalone offerings.

After catching up on Partnerpedia’s role in helping to create mobile strategies for enterprises, Tehrani and Liu discussed a few trending topics in the technology and communications market, including the futures of HTML5, Google (News - Alert)+ and voice.

Liu also forecasted the winners and losers in the ever-escalating mobile operating systems war. He envisions iOS and Android will continue their strong run, while Microsoft and Research in Motion will maintain their poor form.

Liu will be taking part in an ITEXPO (News - Alert) West 2011 panel discussion titled, “Managing the Deluge of Third-Party Devices and Apps in the Enterprise.” The talk with focus on how enterprise IT departments should manage their employees’ mobile devices and their associated applications, especially when the devices have a broad spectrum of manufacturers, operating systems, platforms and carrier networks.

Check out the complete interview below.

How has your market evolved over the past year and what trends have fueled those changes?

Companies are viewing enterprise mobility as a significant change in the way mobile professionals will be working in the future. They’re recognizing the need to address this through strategic planning, and not just operational tactics such as risk mitigation.

What do you see as the next disruptive force in technology and how will it impact your market or business?

The emergence of an internal corporate/enterprise app store as the new application and content delivery paradigm to empower mobile users.

How has the acceptance and adoption of the cloud model influenced your development cycle and process?

There is a strong relation between Cloud Services, Apps and Mobile Devices. Unlike consumer apps (that are largely standalone), corporate apps will integrate to backend Cloud Services.

What is the most common request you are seeing from your customers? How is your company addressing these demands?

Enterprises are trying to map out their mobility strategy with regards to apps and devices. We help them sort out the different approaches and provide a framework and solution for near and long term strategies.

There has been talk of Facebook coming into the mobile marketplace with its own devices, and LinkedIn just rolled out a new HTML5 mobile app. Do you expect we will see a push towards universal solutions or customized mobile devices as we move forward in social media?

Unlike laptops, I think we’ll see more variance in mobile devices and apps. It is simply not feasible (or necessary) to create rich client apps on every device, so we’ll see a combo of rich client and HTML5 based apps. Style and design will factor just as importantly as simply app functionality.

Besides phone calls, mobile is now sharing bandwidth with video and machines. What do you predict will be the mix of traffic in the future?

Communications via voice is declining as a proportion of other styles such as VM, chat, SMS, etc. When voice is used, it is starting to be used in conjunction with video, especially in parts of Asia. Communications will be a mixture of voice, data and video more and more in the future.

Data and especially video traffic will far outstrip voice traffic and will continue to grow over time as a percentage of the overall traffic mix.

Will Google+ become bigger than Facebook and Twitter (News - Alert)? Why or why not?

Do not know yet. Since both Facebook and Twitter have significant installed bases, what is the compelling reason to switch? That is the question.

As businesses continue their move toward virtual workforces, how are you meeting the need for increased mobility?  What barriers are keeping others from adopting mobile strategies?

Expect that “mobile” workforce will be using a variety of end-points – phones, tablets, laptops, desktops. We need to think in terms of the user and what’s most convenient and effective for them given a particular context. Instead of tying apps to specific form factors, organizations may need to take the view of apps that may have multiple entry/exit points from the view of the user. Forcing the old computing paradigm onto mobility will not work.

How do you see the mobile operating system war (iPhone vs. Android (News - Alert) vs. RIM vs. WM7 vs. HTML5) playing out?

iOS, Android, Windows, BB in that order. With an increasing gap as you move down the chain. Is HTML5 an operating system? I see that spreading across multiple operating systems.

Is HTML5 the game changer many predict it will be?

Too early to tell, but many IT folks we’ve talked to are looking into that to “mobilize” traditional apps.

What are you most looking forward to at ITEXPO West in Austin? What do you see as being the biggest trends at the show?

To get a better sense of what customers are doing regarding mobility. How they see the impact to the way they currently do business, with both near and long term plans.

What issues will you be addressing during your ITEXPO session and why should attendees be sure to attend?

Helping companies sort out and manage the “deluge of mobile apps and devices” bound for the enterprise.

To find out more about Sam Liu and Partnerpedia, visit the company at ITEXPO West 2011. To be held Sept. 13-15 in Austin, TX, ITEXPO is the world’s premier IP communications event. Sam Liuis speaking during “Managing the Deluge of Third-Party Devices and Apps in the Enterprise.”

Don’t wait. Register now.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO… follow us on Twitter.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell