It seems like daily there is news out about mobile computing and communications that confuse and confound.  The mobile environment has so many different facets; the communications networks and their voice and data architectures (3G/4G/LTE/WiMax/etc.), device manufacturers creating devices that are hard to distinguish (Android tablets, anyone?), and software offerings that seem to be all over the map (applets, Software as a Service, Cloud-based, etc).  What does it all mean and how does anyone make sense of all this noise?

In researching for a speech that I gave on the future of mobile computing I realized that there are three fundamental ‘pillars’ driving the mobile computing and communications world and they are dependent on each other and inter-related in many, many ways.  These pillars have one added dimension which affects them; the geographic and international differences that exist for each of these columns.  For example, wireless network capabilities are at different stages of capability and readiness in different parts of the world.  The number of internet-enabled users in Asia far outnumber the North American internet-enabled user base and this has dramatic impact on application targeting.

The three key ‘pillars’ are Wireless Networks (both in-building and wide-area), Application Delivery (SaaS, Cloud, local, etc), and Mobile Devices (tablets, smartphones, netbooks, ultralight notebooks).   Each of these are directly impacted by geographic differences – either by the state of the technology environment in those geographies or by the sheer number of users and potential users in those geographies.

My intent with this blog area is to try to apply the impact of new anouncements based on the framework of the three pillars or geographic ramifications.  Hope that you find them interesting.