Macadamian Blog

Mobility is both a lifestyle and a technology

We're in the midst of some great discussions at Macadamian about which of the industry verticals we serve - healthcare, networking, telecom, consumer, and enterprise software - will most embrace mobile computing. The answer is clear - they all will. We've started to experience huge leaps in mobile technology in the last couple of years, but the best is yet to come.

Virtually every technology company will need a compelling mobile strategy. Those that do, and do it right, will differentiate in the short to medium term. In the long run it will be table stakes. The companies that understand mobile know that it's way more than a technology movement. Mobile is a lifestyle choice, and it's being embraced by billions. I recently heard that there are more people on the planet who own cellphones then there are that own toothbrushes!

Anything that your product does today on the web or desktop, people will expect to do from cellphones, smartphones and tablets in the near future. Think of any technology product or service, and we can think of compelling use cases on mobile, some of which are already in play, few of which are implemented really well: 

• remote desktop - being able to log into your work PC from your smartphone or tablet while you're on vacation to quickly find the soft copy of a file a colleague desperately needs
• CAD software - call up a lightweight version of a CAD drawing to review a design while in the field
• CRM - be presented with a customer's history with your firm when you step into their headquarters
• radiology - review and annotate a digital X-Ray on a tablet device while between patients, and send to a colleague for another opinion
• web conferencing - follow along on on a slideshow from your iPhone while you're on the commuter train on the way to work

Customers will soon see these as must-haves as our lives become more mobile and the lines between work and play become blurrier, and the more you work to understand the context and motivations they have for using your product while mobile, the better chance you have of creating a really compelling product.