Smartphone – Rob Tiffany

October 22, 2016October 16, 2022

Convert Your Confusing Win32 Apps to Touch-First Mobile Apps

Migrate confusing Win32 apps with tiny controls to touch-first #mobile apps with large fonts and UI elements while including gesture support and proper spacing.

The advent of a mouse connected to every computer gave users a pixel-precision pointing device. Coupled with ever-growing computer monitors and higher resolution screens, UI elements got smaller and smaller. This wasn’t a problem until mobile devices with their small screens became popular. The developers that crammed lots of small buttons and data grids on big PC screens brought those bad UI habits to mobile.

At first, these new mobile developers got away with it because personal digital assistants (PDAs) like the Palm, Handspring, Zaurus and Pocket PC used a stylus with plastic, resistive touch screens. Until the touchable iPhone was released in 2007, many smartphones used a stylus as a replacement for the mouse’s precision pointing. This facilitated tiny, touchable UI elements that were hard to see.

When developing today’s mobile apps (native + web), touchable UI elements like buttons must be finger-friendly and at least 44 x 44 pixels in size. To prevent the “fat-finger” problem, they must also be at least 20 pixels apart from each other. This will vary based on screen size and pixel density. Implementing responsive design principles is also a must. UI elements must scale smoothly to different smartphone and tablet screen sizes and support gestures like swiping. They must also reorient themselves when a device shifts between portrait and landscape and implement “hamburger” menus to conserve screen space.

Improve user productivity by creating touchable apps that are easy to use to get employees up and running while reducing training requirements and expenses. What is your organization doing to improve app productivity?

Learn how to digitally transform your company in my newest book, “Mobile Strategies for Business: 50 Actionable Insights to Digitally Transform your Business.”

Click here to purchase a copy of my book today and start transforming your business!

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October 10, 2016October 16, 2022

Make your Apps More Personal and Contextual or Risk Losing Customers

Awaken those one-dimensional, client/server applications to all the #sensors found on #mobile devices that make them richly personal.

The desktop apps of the 90s could really only sense mouse clicks. While they could communicate over dial-up modems, those apps were unable to discern the world around them until smartphones arrived and became the most personal computing platform ever. Sensors helped make smartphones disruptive and they will do the same for all the apps you’re migrating:

Barometer: Apps can detect elevation or changing weather conditions
Camera: Apps can take photos, videos, scan 2D/3D barcodes and authenticate via facial recognition
Microphone: Apps can respond to commands via Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, or Google Now
Accelerometer: Apps can measure steps, switch from portrait to landscape, respond to device position, and control in-app, game or drone behavior
Magnetometer/Compass: Apps know direction
Gyroscope: Apps can detect movement
GPS: Apps know where you are and how to get you where you’re going with maps
Proximity: Apps change behavior when your phone is close to something
Bluetooth: Apps can pair with other devices, stream audio and respond to beacons
Wireless radios: Apps can connect to anything
Fingerprint scanner: Apps can authenticate users biometrically and authorize purchases

Improve user experience by taking advantage of sensors that help employees and customers complete tasks more quickly. What is your company doing to enrich its mobile apps?

Learn how to digitally transform your company in my newest book, “Mobile Strategies for Business: 50 Actionable Insights to Digitally Transform your Business.”

Click here to purchase a copy of my book today and start transforming your business!

August 12, 2016October 16, 2022

Reduce Business Risk by Deploying EMM Solutions with Conditional Access Capabilities

#EMM solutions that deliver conditional access to desired services like email, storage and #cloud services motivate #BYOD #mobile users to enroll.

Let’s face it, your BYOD employees aren’t too thrilled about installing an EMM app, agent or container on their device. It feels like an intrusion on one of your most personal possessions and breeds mistrust. That said, the BYOD world is all about gives and gets. Unless your company enforces a corporate-liable policy and buys every employee a smartphone, a compromise must be made to ensure the security of corporate data. This is where the use of the carrot comes into play.

While the BYOD trend was initially about allowing employees to use their mobile devices for work, the trend has shifted. Now you encourage your employees to use their devices because it makes them more productive anywhere, anytime. Whether your company is just allowing or actually encouraging employees to use their devices for work, you have to overcome the “hassle factor” and suspicions of company spying that deters them from EMM enrollment.

First, your Mobile COE must perform exhaustive due diligence to select the most unobtrusive EMM package available with the fewest steps to install that still meets your company’s needs. Next, this system must prohibit access to the systems, apps and data employees want most until they enroll. Some packages even limit access via MAM functionality. Anyway, if you want email, you have to enroll. If you want to access SharePoint, you have to enroll. You get the idea. Gives and gets.

Reduce risk to your business by restricting corporate system access to only those devices enrolled in an EMM solution. What is your company doing to prevent unmanaged devices from accessing sensitive data?

Learn how to digitally transform your company in my newest book, “Mobile Strategies for Business: 50 Actionable Insights to Digitally Transform your Business.”

Click here to purchase a copy of my book today and start transforming your business!

August 9, 2016October 16, 2022

Reduce Business Risk by Enforcing Security Policies on Data with Digital Rights Management

To enforce #mobile data #security policies directly, get an #EMM solution with #digital rights management to protect #data where it flows & rests.

So far, our EMM journey to secure corporate data has dealt with the issue by broadly securing the entire device via MDM or more narrowly securing the apps that deliver the data using various MAM techniques. The application of security can get narrower still.

The use of digital rights management (DRM) allows IT departments to apply policies directly to documents keeping data secure no matter where it flows or resides. Sometimes DRM is clumped-in with the broader mobile content management (MCM) component of EMM. This security applied directly to data is an effective method of DLP using a combination of enterprise directory services, encryption, user identity along with server and client software to keep information in sensitive files from being viewed by the wrong people or systems.

Imagine the scenario where a confidential business document is uploaded to an Internet file sharing provider or emailed to a competitor. Traditional corporate security mechanisms like firewalls or file server access controls lists won’t save you in this situation. If DRM encryption and security policies were previously applied to this document, it would be unreadable by anyone who tried to open it. This is arguably the most difficult of the EMM security components so not many vendors will offer this.

Reduce risk to your organization by keeping sensitive data secure no matter where it travels or where it rests. What is your company doing to protect its critical data?

Learn how to digitally transform your company in my newest book, “Mobile Strategies for Business: 50 Actionable Insights to Digitally Transform your Business.”

Click here to purchase a copy of my book today and start transforming your business!

July 26, 2012October 16, 2022

Windows Mobile Provisioner

In the Spring of 2006, I created a Mobile Device Management (MDM) package for Microsoft called Windows Mobile Provisioner. It was used by Microsoft IT (MSIT) to rapidly provision and manage Windows Mobile devices / smartphones for our employees in the years before we developed and shipped System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008. I drew on my experience in designing, developing, shipping, marketing, and selling the NetPerceptor MDM package for the cloud (Level 3) back in 2003 with my co-founder Darren. Of course, OMA DM and CSPs made creating an MDM system much easier in 2006.

Windows Mobile Provisioner fully integrated with Active Directory to allow the management of policies, settings, and over-the-air (OTA) software distribution based on Microsoft users and groups. As you might imagine, there was a Management and Reporting dashboard as well as a mobile client for user self-service.

The first image below shows the client app where a user could rapidly configure Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) from a single screen:

The second image below shows the client app’s ability to configure the data connections for different mobile operators globally:

The last image below shows how the client app allowed users to change the themes of their smartphone:

Of course, my MDM solution sent health metrics as well as device and app inventory to the server for analysis. Administrators could push out patches, anti-virus definitions, ROM packages, and other software to selected devices. Apps could also be remotely uninstalled. In addition to the features described in the images above, the rich client app that accompanied the MDM agent gave users the ability to view and download apps, ring tones, and other content made available to users and groups via Active Directory security. I certainly hope the MDM solution your company is using “at least” does all the stuff I just mentioned from a long time ago.

It was a great experience being an early pioneer in the Mobile Device Management (MDM) space; and the first to do it in the cloud at the beginning of the 21st century. Back then, I could count all the MDM competitors on my two hands. Fast-forward to 2012, I think there’s over 100 different players in this space. The majority of them are indistinguishable from each other as they all target the identical MDM APIs exposed by iOS and Android. As usual, differentiation will be invented by marketers.

Good Times,

Rob

Sharing my knowledge and helping others never stops, so connect with me on my blog at https://robtiffany.com , follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RobTiffany and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/robtiffany

July 9, 2010August 18, 2016

comScore Reports May 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

ComScore, Inc. released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending May 2010 compared to the preceding three-month average.

The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. according to their share of current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, and reviewed the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone. The May report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.4 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 41.7 percent market share.

OEM Market Share

For the 3 month average period ending in May, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 22.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up one percentage point from the preceding three month period. LG ranked second with 21.5 percent share, followed by Motorola (21.2 percent share), RIM (8.7 percent share, up 0.5 percentage point) and Nokia (8.1 percent share).

Top Mobile OEMs 3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2010 Total U.S. Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	Feb-10	May-10	Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Samsung	21.4%	22.4%	1.0
LG	21.7%	21.5%	-0.2
Motorola	22.3%	21.2%	-1.1
RIM	8.2%	8.7%	0.5
Nokia	8.7%	8.1%	-0.6

Smartphone Platform Market Share

49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period. RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 41.7 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent share and Microsoft with 13.2 percent. Google saw significant growth during the period, up 4.0 percentage points to capture 13.0 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.8 percent. Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.

Top Smartphone Platforms 3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2010 Total U.S. Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
	Feb-10	May-10	Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
RIM	42.1%	41.7%	-0.4
Apple*	25.4%	24.4%	-1.0
Microsoft	15.1%	13.2%	-1.9
Google	9.0%	13.0%	4.0
Palm	5.4%	4.8%	-0.6

*May data does not include the impact of Apple’s launch of iPhone 4, which
became available in June.

Mobile Content Usage

65.2 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device in May, up 1.4 percentage points versus the prior three month period, while browsers were used by 31.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.3 percentage points). Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 30.0 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 2.1 percentage points from the previous period. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs also saw significant growth, increasing 2.6 percentage points to 20.8 percent of mobile subscribers.

Mobile Content Usage 3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Feb. 2010 Total U.S. Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	Feb-10	May-10	Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Sent text message to another phone	63.8%	65.2%	1.4
Used browser	29.6%	31.9%	2.3
Used downloaded apps	27.9%	30.0%	2.1
Played games	21.8%	22.5%	0.7
Accessed social networking site or blog	18.2%	20.8%	2.6
Listened to music on mobile phone	13.1%	14.3%	1.2

– Rob

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