The Future Is (Starting) Now

If the writing wasn't on the wall before it, it certainly is now. IDC numbers published Thursday show that sales of wireless devices without voice communications capabilities slid for the seventh quarter in a row. Given that much of corporate mobile use rose up almost organically, with individuals increasingly using their personal wireless devices for work-related communications, this trend toward consolidation almost certainly mirrors the trend in the enterprise toward employees relying on single wireless device to handle all of their mobile communications.Increasingly, vendors are consolidating functions that run the gamut from basic voice to conferencing (including some video) to email and some other office applications such as spreadsheet handling with some newer features like GPS into single devices. Reaction to these has been positive and the message to systems administrators is crystal clear: the future is happening right now.

Remember hearing about a day when users would have a single device to handle all their communications? Well, it is almost here. Of course, most knowledge workers still depend upon more traditional wired devices as well as their mobile systems but we are getting closer to a time when maybe we all depend upon a single device. Or not. We will have to wait and see what happens but in the meantime, some fascinating developments are taking place in mobility that will have a huge impact on how you manage your enterprise resources.