How 9 Hot Technologies Can Blow Up In Your Face - Smartphones' Growing Risks

InformationWeek (link to article)
June 11, 2007

Smartphones' Growing Risks

Nobody ever got fired for choosing BlackBerry.

It's a reassuring idea that rings hollow. You may not get fired for the "safe" smartphone choice, but one device can't cater to every professional's needs, so expect the complaints to multiply. Even if you play it safe, here are three smartphone gotchas, and tips on avoiding them:

1. Product cycles move at consumer electronics speed. "I've seen plenty of examples of companies getting halfway through a deployment, and then finding that the product is no longer available," says Bruce Friedman, CEO of Movêro Technology, which provides mobile device management services. High-end mobile phones and smartphones come and go, so companies used to three- to-five-year tech refresh cycles find themselves constantly behind when it comes to testing, procuring, and deploying new devices. The answer is simple but not easy: Find ways to compress product approval and testing, such as making sure new applications and upgrades don't harm the phone, operating system, and network connectivity. Plan for a six- to 12-month product cycle--and hop on the treadmill.

2. Application creep. The power of smartphones lies in their ability to run multiple applications, and certain employees will see that as an invitation to load their own. Ban unapproved apps all you want, but human nature says business users will snag them anyway. The better answer: a security protocol (such as Platform Security on the Symbian OS or Windows Mobile's Application Security) that assigns applications a "level of trust" and lets only preapproved ones access the operating system.

3. The taxicab factor. Smartphones are lost, stolen, and damaged even more than laptops. Plan to make real-time repairs, erase critical data, and replace devices. This is where a "managed mobility services" company such as Movêro or Mformation can be worth the fees: If deploying significant numbers of devices, they almost always end up saving you money.

--Richard Martin