We’ve recently had two amazing technology birthdays. The iPhone is now five years old. Prior to its initial release, we did have the Blackberry, which many people thought was a smart phone. However, as soon as the iPhone was launched, we realized, “Wow, the Blackberry really isn’t a smart phone; it’s a dumb phone!”
Of course, we now know that to be a smart phone you need a lot of things: You need Internet access, a browser, and the ability to stream video, take pictures, listen to music, and run apps. You need to be able to do all of these different things, as well as use the device as a phone.
Today, just five short years later, it’s hard to imagine not having all these capabilities in our pocket, in one device.
And then, there’s another birthday: the iPad is three years old. And, of course, the iPad was another Apple game-changer. Just three years ago we didn’t have any real tablets. Sure, there were a few companies that played around with devices that were kind of like a tablet, but they didn’t get the combination right. They didn’t get the user experience right. They didn’t get the ergonomics right. Looking back, they didn’t get a lot of things right.
But Apple did get it right, and the iPad has changed how we think about computing. In fact, in a recent survey of tablet users in general, 58% of them said that they are using their tablet as their main computing device. And in a survey of specifically iPad users, 41% of them use it as their main personal computer.
This shift from a desktop or laptop being our main computer to a smart phone and tablet taking that role occurred in just three short years.
What does all this really mean? It means smart mobile devices are rapidly transforming how we live, work and play.
From a business point of view, mobility is providing a platform to transform all business processes, including how we sell, market, communicate, collaborate, innovate, train, and educate. As such, we have mobile apps, mobile ads, mobile search, mobile web sites, as well as the increasing growth of text.
Knowing this, the main question you need to ask yourself, regardless of the size of your company, is, “Do we have an enterprise-wide strategy to transform all business processes driven by mobility?”
Have you really thought that through? Or, are you looking at these things in an isolated way? From what I’ve seen, most companies are taking the latter approach.
So as we celebrate these technology birthdays, let’s also acknowledge the fact that the gift of mobility is giving us the ability to transform business process in ways that were previously unimaginable. And then, let’s blow out the candles, eat our cake, and rather than just look forward to many more technology birthdays, let’s also plan our companies’ futures through the lens of mobility. That’ll be the best gift you can give yourself and your organization.
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