Archive for the ‘Industry’ Category
Thursday, May 2nd, 2013
Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
Business travellers may be picking flights dependent on Wi-Fi availability, yet they are not willing to pay for it, nor accept the slower speeds, in the article, Craving Wi-Fi, Preferably Free and Really Fast.
Travelers expecting Wi-Fi during travel will get frustrated. Carriers haven’t completely rolled out Wi-Fi, won’t publicize which flights have Wi-Fi, or even if the flight has Wi-Fi, it could be broken or running at very low speeds.
A new Web site, Routehappy.com, is helping travelers find out if a flight has Wi-Fi — information many airlines do not reveal until after a ticket is booked. Airlines are still rolling systems out, but complaints still come in on every system on both the quality and the cost.
And business travelers don’t seem sympathetic to the costs of inflight WiFi, not willing to pay for Wi-Fi as carriers try various payment options.
In the overall travel experience, airports and hotels are also under fire as travelers expect better quality at lower prices. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the nation’s busiest, is upgrading its infrastructure before going free. And, as we will report next, hotels are offering more Wi-Fi, but it tends to be free at the less expensive hotels.
Read the article >>
Business travelers picking flights, still complain about speed >>
Monday, March 25th, 2013
Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing
Today iPass released our Q1 2013 Mobile Workforce Report. In this report we interviewed 1,600 mobile workers across the globe to learn more about the mobile devices they use, how they use them for work and personal reasons and the impact that mobility has on their lives.
In our quarterly reports we are always looking at the latest statistics and trends regarding mobile devices and BYOD to see what’s changed from previous reports. In this quarter’s report there were a few items that jumped out to me as really interesting.
The first point I wanted to touch on is in regards to how many devices people carry with them when they travel. Previously we had noticed that the number of devices people carrying was tracking upwards, meaning that even with the advent of increasingly powerful devices, mobile workers were not consolidating devices. In this report we did see this trend stop. In 2011 Mobile Workers carried on average 2.7 devices (spanning tablets, laptops, smartphones, netbooks, etc.). In 2012 that jumped to 3.5 devices. For the Q1 2013 report that dropped to 3 devices (2.95).
Where was the drop? Slight drop across laptops carried (not surprising as increasingly powerful tablets can suffice as a laptop replacement in many instances) but also a slight drop in smartphones. My take on that is that with BYOD policies increasingly popular and accepted across the enterprise, many users no longer are traveling with two or more smartphones (their work issued device and their personal device) and instead are traveling with a single device that is used for work and personal reasons.
It will be interesting to monitor this trend going forward to see if it continues to decrease. I’m expecting the laptop number to keep to a downward trend as tablets and laptop/tablet hybrid devices allow users to leave that heavier laptop at home.
The second point is looking at tablets themselves. We asked mobile workers what tablets they currently own or intend to purchase in the next six months. No surprise that the iPad continues to be the tablet form factor of choice. But it is interesting to see a few other tablets work their way into the hands of mobile workers. 65% of mobile workers have or plan to get an iPad, along with 25% owning or planning to get an iPad Mini. However 28% of mobile workers have or plan to get a Samsung Galaxy tablet and over 17% plan have or plan to get a Windows 8 tablet. So this is another trend that will be fun to watch in coming quarters to see if Android and Windows tablets continue to gain traction as a serious iPad alternative.
We also in this report continue to find that most tablets in the hands of mobile workers are personally owned vs. work issued. In 2012 we found that 74% of tablets were personally owned (yet used for work and personal purposes) and in 2013 that number increased to 79%. That is interesting in that we have seen more organizations issuing tablets to their workers. I’m thinking that both personally owned and work issued tablets are growing markets, we are just seeing the market for personally owned tablets growing faster.
The last point I will touch on in today’s blog post is in regards to the cost of mobility. We asked mobile workers how much data they consume on their smartphones. In 2012, 30% answered “don’t know” or “don’t care”. That number dropped to 17% in 2013, showing that people are definitely paying more attention to their data consumption. That is expected as less and less mobile workers have access to unlimited data plans and more are using their own personal device- so are more likely to focus on the cost than if someone else was paying the bill.
This definitely can have performance impacts, if a mobile worker starts to bump up against a data limit, they will use that device less for work related purposes. This is something for the enterprise to consider as part of their BYOD policy, making sure BYOD doesn’t inadvertently limit productivity because of data costs borne by the employee. How much data is being used? We found that 30% of mobile workers are consuming more than 1GB per month. I expect that number to rise as we continue to see the proliferation of applications and services that are data hungry- things like video streaming and calling being used for work and personal reasons.
This is just a small sample of what is in this quarter’s report. To learn more be sure to download the entire report. Also, be sure to check out the information on iPass Open Mobile on our website. As organizations look to balance the requirements of BYOD and corporate issued devices while making sure employees stay productive on the go, iPass Open Mobile can serve as an effective way to make sure your employees stay connected without having to worry about data roaming costs and having to expense back Wi-Fi day passes.
Q1 2013 Mobile Workforce Report: BYOD and costs impact productivity >>
Friday, March 15th, 2013
Tom Truong, Product Manager
Which device did I covet the most at MWC 13? While I admit to being tempted by Sony’s latest designs, the star of the show had to be the LG Optimus G Pro. I’m glad to see LG get back into the smartphone game last year, and with the Nexus 4 selling very well, I think this is LG’s prime opportunity to prove itself as a top-tier player in the high-end device market.
Without a doubt, the best thing about the Optimus G Pro is the magnificent 5.5″ 1080P IPS display with a respectable 400 pixels per inch (the HTC One tops the charts with its 460 PPI screen). Unlike other “phablet” devices, the performance on this device was super smooth and instant response. It could be the quad-core Snapdragon 600 cpu, or the 2GB ram that is making this a beast of a performer.
And you cannot do a screen like that justice without an upgrade on the camera: how about a 13MP camera with more scene and timer options than you could ever imagine. As an owner of a Samsung Galaxy Note, I liked how this behemoth of a phone was actually narrower than the Note while increasing the screen size.
Finally, the killer feature for me is always battery life–how did the Optimus G Pro fare? Well, it’s hard to say now, but LG gave it a good start with a 3,140 mAh removable battery. Based on my experience with the Galaxy Note’s 2,880 mAh battery, this device should easily last 1-2 days with real-world usage. Would I miss the stylus on the Galaxy Note? While it’s a cool technology, I honestly have not pulled the stylus out of my Galaxy Note but a few times, and that was to demonstrate to people who’d ask.
So yeah, even with the 7-8 devices I already juggle everyday, I’d definitely make room for this one. I can’t wait to see this phone in a US store some time this spring.
My most coveted phone of MWC 2013 >>
Wednesday, March 13th, 2013
Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
The adage “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door” doesn’t apply when it comes to mobile apps. There are thousands of productivity apps for business travelers. How can anyone find that better mousetrap in the overwhelming pile of options? That’s why our team came up with 10 essential apps that will make your traveling employees happier and more efficient. Your iPass solution provides the essential connectivity for all of these apps. And, if you have a mobile device management (MDM) solution in place, you can easily distribute and manage them.
Here’s the list of 10 that we just featured in our user newsletter.
1) iPass Hotspot Finder – Lets you easily find Wi-Fi hotspots anywhere, including the more than 1.2 million iPass Mobile Network hotspots in 113 countries where your users can use iPass to connect. Features include Geotracking directions, and ratings of hotspots, among other mobility tools.
2) Here on Biz – Networking on steroids! It locates, identifies, and alerts you to any nearby LinkedIn users, and provides a secure, real-time chat client. A great app for networking at conferences.
3) Evernote – A personal assistant in your pocket. It stores and lets you search photos, memos, video, typed notes, and almost anything else you want to capture to work on or review later. A built in OCR even lets you capture and search handwritten notes.
4) Dragon Dictation – Talk, don’t type. This voice recognition application lets you speak and instantly see your text or email messages. You can dictate tweets, IMs, emails, and notes.
5) Expensify – Eases the pain of expense reporting by tracking expenses and filing expense reports right from your mobile device. It uses the camera to scan receipts to capture the date and amount. It also tracks mileage and imports expenses from other sources.
6) OfficeDrop – A scanner in your hand. It converts captured images and saves them as text-searchable PDFs that can be easily shared with coworkers.
7) RingMindMe – The “Doh!” killer app. How many times have you turned off your ringer for a meeting, forgot to turn it back on, and missed important calls? RingMindMe will alert you at a set time to turn your ringer back on, so you will never again miss a call.
8) CrowdCall – Conference calls made easy. It lets you launch conference calls simply by selecting members from your contact list and pressing “Call.” No PINs, no dial-in numbers.
9) EasySign Mobile – Electronically sign documents. You won’t have to print out a form, sign it, and scan it back in. Just use your touchscreen to write your signature, size it, and place it electronically in any document.
10) Hootsuite – The social media app for social media. It manages all your social interactions from one interface, and offers a wide variety of features to manage your schedule, and track clients and contacts.
Here are a few more:
- HotelTonight – Only released this year, the app has moved from the US and now covers some cities in Europe as well. You can book hotels, up to 70%, very last minute.
- <a href=”http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/play/appy-traveler-373984″ target=”_blank”>Splid – A photo and audio app, that does not allow files to be edited or changed in any way. You can record terrible travel experiences and have backup proof – photos with times and dates.
- Xe Currency – Not just an accurate currency conversion app, but it provides the historic rates for the currency and can be used offline. Nice for when returning to the office after a long trip.
These are just ten among those millions of better mousetraps out there. Do you have any great apps that help your users ben extra productive?
Any others that you would like to share?
10 Essential Mobile Apps for Business Travel (plus 3) >>
Monday, March 11th, 2013
Tom Truong, Product Manager
For those curious about my prepaid SIM snafu earlier this week (see Part 1), it turned out the plan I was sold was not the one that I was on.
The takeaway for me was that not even the local phone dealer would know all the different mobile plans and feature permutations. Add on top of this all the technology and alphabet soup standards like GSM, CDMA, LTE, MP4, SIM, Mmicrosim, and I now have a better appreciation the next time I hear our CEO at iPass remind us that “Wi-Fi is the new lingua franca” for connectivity.
Yes, I’ve been back on Wi-Fi and I’ve been able to stay connected with colleagues and family without running up a lot of roaming fees. So how did I do it?
Here’s my setup:
- Google Voice account with US phone # used to route voice calls to wherever I am
- Free VOIP phone # set up through a service called SipGate (can receive calls free)
- Laptop, smartphone, or tablet running a VOIP client configured for SipGate
That’s it. There’s a great LifeHacker writeup of how to get all this working. With this setup, I’m able to point my Google Voice number to my free VOIP # and continue answering calls with the number I’d been using. Calling out is free too since Google Voice can be set up to call the VOIP # before connecting you to your dialed number. At the moment, Google Voice is mostly limited to North America, but there are some pretty cost-effective solutions such as Skype where it’s more straightforward, albeit not free.
During the all the activity of Mobile World Congress, I was able to use LogMeIn to finish some tasks on the corporate intranet, interview a candidate back in the U.S., and continue using GroupMe (a group text messaging service that I’ve found great for teams to stay connected while traveling).
One last note on leveraging Wi-Fi while traveling—I was able to use Apple’s FaceTime video chat with my family back home. No matter how wonderful the places I visit, it’s always gratifying to be able to connect with loved ones.
Dear Wi-Fi (part 2) >>
