* News from CTIA Wireless
This week, we’ll report on the CTIA Wireless 2007 conference announcements. As usual, much of the event focused on innovative wireless handsets and consumer services, but several announcements were relevant to the enterprise user in general and to enterprise mobility and mobile convergence in particular.
The first announcement we’d like to highlight is Symantec’s Mobile Security Suite 5.0. According to the security company, the product is “designed to provide customers with the same security and data protection capabilities on their Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs as what has become standard for laptops and other computing devices.” The application will “include antivirus, firewall, anti-SMS spam, and data encryption technologies.
Our analysis: As a leader in desktop security, we’re glad to see Symantec step up to solve security concerns for enterprises that are deploying mobile enterprise applications. As users rely more and more on their mobile handset for increasingly complex “data” applications, they will require security that is at least as good as the protection offered on their PC.
The second announcement comes from Motorola which introduced its MC35 Enterprise Digital Assistant. The EDA provides a platform for voice and data applications people “in the form of a durable and compact handheld mobile computer.”
Motorola notes that the “MC35 combines advanced cellular technology, including built-in GPS capabilities, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with laptop functionality, camera, and bar code reader.” According to Kathryn Weldon, the principal analyst for Enterprise Mobility at Current Analysis, the EDA “defines a new class of device for a growing but underserved business segment, the blue collar manager, which can also be defined as the intersection of ‘task workers’ and ‘information workers’.”
Next time: Two more CTIA announcements related to the convergence in the service provider environment. In the meanwhile, f you’d like to read more about other CTIA highlights – including analysis and information on the cool handsets and consumer services announced at the show, click here.
