iPass Open Mobile and Windows 8
Monday, October 29th, 2012 Chris Witeck, Director Product MarketingWe’ve talked about the impact of Windows 8 before on this blog discussing the impact of Windows 8 and the new Microsoft Surface device on the business/mobile worker.
Since that time I’ve had a chance to discuss these points with many of our customers. What I’ve consistently heard is that our customers are not in a rush to support Windows 8 on their standard IT-managed laptops, but I’ve also seen plenty of curiosity on the impact of Windows 8 on tablets, either impacting the organization’s BYOD policies as employees potentially bring in their own Windows 8 device or as competition to iPads and Android tablets for IT-provisioned tablets.
Well we’ve now arrived at the launch of Windows 8/Windows RT and an interesting array of devices, including Microsoft Surface. And to coincide with this launch I’m pleased to announce that iPass has support for Windows 8 with our iPass Open Mobile clients. Any customer who is using Open Mobile today will be able to provide Windows 8 support to users via our brand new Open Mobile client v1.0 for Windows Touch or via our updated Open Mobile client v2.3 for Windows.
Why two client versions? That has a lot to do with the different user experiences Microsoft is offering with Windows 8. I’ll describe the differences briefly below:
The new Open Mobile client v1.0 for Windows Touch is available for devices running Windows 8 or Windows RT and can be found at the Windows Store. This client, screenshot below, provides a brand new Windows 8 optimized user interface and provides connectivity to the iPass Mobile Network along with great user tools such as the iPass Hotspot Finder and Speed Test (which allows users to determine the quality of their current connection).
The upgraded iPass Open Mobile Client v2.3 for Windows is only available for devices running Windows 8 (it is not available for devices running Windows RT) and offers the full connectivity management experience that Open Mobile has provided with previous versions of Windows. This version is not available from the Windows Store and instead is distributed via standard Windows client distribution methods (so basically whatever method our customers use to distribute software to their Windows laptops). A user can launch the Open Mobile client from the new Windows 8 UI, and upon launching the client will see the traditional look/feel for Open Mobile appear.
So no matter what type of Windows 8 device a user is using, iPass has you covered. It will be interesting to see what type of traction Windows 8 gets with mobile professionals, but it is nice to know that if our customers see a bunch of new devices coming in with their employees in the coming weeks that iPass has them covered.
Tags: Microsoft, tablet
Thanks! I will pass your comment on as well – yes – that phone is here and mobile workers are using them!
Adding my desire to have an answer to the question above. Windows Phone is here and this question will only be asked by more and more end users. At the moment, I’m dead in the water at work to access email on my mobile device.
Not at this time…
Hi,
Any chance for Windows Phone 8 support, following Windows 8 support?
As I understand, as they share both same kernel, the transition from Windows 8 designed app to a Windows Phone 8 app should not pose a problem.
Will the iPass Mobile solution be available for Windows Phone 8 users, as exists nowadays for IOS & Android ?
Thanks in advance.