Total Immersion

Back at IT Forum in November, Microsoft gave me one of those snazzy new Palm devices to evaluate. It felt a little weird on the way home, given it was in the middle of the advertising blitz, to have in my bag the same thing that was appearing on the hoardings (and indeed, cleverly projected from the Heathrow Express onto the walls of the tunnel - not seen that before). Anyway, a couple of months have passed so its about time I wrote up my findings.Working back from the conclusion, Microsoft and Palm have indeed come out with a device that should be more acceptable to the mobile masses than previous incarnations of Windows Mobile. There’s a lot in that statement - so let’s see if we can cover it off.

Microsoft has had a bit of a rocky road since it first caught onto the megalomaniac “Windows Everywhere” idea. At the time (so we were told), Windows was going to replace, well, just about everything. Anything was possible, indeed the kool-aid powered propeller heads at Redmond thought nothing of porting core elements of Windows to portable devices and setting out their own hardware configuration to support the “new” operating system. To cut a long story short, it all went horribly wrong: the pesky competition refused to roll over and play dead in a whole number of sectors, the open source movement was unwittingly catalysed (if not spawned) and, well, it turned out to be a lot harder than first thought to develop an interrupt-driven device OS.

We’ve seen several generations of Microsoft’s mobile operating system, and several renaming strategies, leading up to “Windows Mobile”. What we haven’t seen up to now is Microsoft clicking onto the fact that mobile devices are not computers. Up to now, I say - because the Palm device does exactly that. I have been using it in parallel with, and lately instead of my Blackberry 8820. To summarise the positive findings:

- It functions like a phone. There’s a lot in this statement: notably that I could give it to an 8-year-old to make a call, and they could get on and do it as easily as any of these new-fangled devices. The keyboard keys are a bit small, feel a bit cheap and make a funny clicky noise which is slightly off-putting, but they are usable.

- It doesn’t need rebooting. Why on earth I should have to write this at all, is an indication of where Windows Mobile has come from (I would say and how far, but no-reboots should be true off the starting blocks). Still, it’s a good thing.

- It is straightforward to navigate. Straightforward-ish - but I need to add the caveat that I was looking for things from previous incarnations in a way that I probably shouldn’t have. Games, for example, are there but harder to get to; ActiveSync also needed some finding (but perhaps I shouldn’t have needed to look)

- It doesn’t lock up, crap out, put up strange messages etc, or at least it hasn’t for me. I used to have to clear out running programs on a regular basis as they would crowd each other out of the memory - perhaps this is down to more memory, or more clever management, as a user I’m not sure I care.

- It’s an acceptable size. Notice I don’t say “small” - you could put it in a jeans pocket, but you wouldn’t want to sit down. I agree with “chunky”.

To put it bluntly, it works, “does what it says on the tin” etc. The second question is how well it functions as an email device, which needs to be treated separately as it is here that Windows Mobile diverges from other platforms, in terms of how it connects to the server. Some devices allow access to POP email, and Blackberry adds to this with access to Microsoft Exchange, through the Blackberry Exchange Server (BES). One thing I’ve always liked about Windows Mobile is the fact that it integrates very smoothly with Exchange, reflecting exactly what I have on the server: more so than BES, which just doesn’t deal with my email the way I want it to (example: when I move a mail from my inbox to an offline folder, I want it to be deleted from the Inbox: true in Exchange, but not synchronised for some reason to the Blackberry handset. I have other examples around synchronisation). Equally, I prefer the fact that Windows Mobile presents individual inboxes, whereas the Blackberry munges them all together. So, given the fact I’d prefer a Windows Mobile device for email anyway, it was unsurprising I quite liked how this one functioned.

Returning to the handset, then, what about the negatives?

- Battery life is still, to my mind, atrocious. I need to be able to go away overnight, forget my charger cable, and still be able to make calls the next day - not unreasonable I think, but not guaranteed with this device. Sure, I could be less forgetful, but that’s hardly the point.

- No GPS. While I have been coping without this as a nice-to-have, it was very useful when I was out and about to flick over to Google Maps and get directions. There’s still the maps, but no understanding of current location. GPS should be standard issue to mobile employees.

- It’s not perfect - “deep” configuration menus aren’t that easy to navigate, and its not always totally intuitive where to find things, and tehre’s little niggles about all the different beeps and buzzes (why can’t these all be turned off in one go?). The same could be said for Blackberry, however.

There are other downsides, but these are more a reflection of my geeky side than anything. I was disappointed (particularly as I’d forgotten mine) to find that I couldn’t use the Palm as a Bluetooth microphone for my laptop, for example; I can’t install everything I wanted to (notably the freedom keyboard driver); and also, the device isn’t really designed to be used as an ultraportable computer. Tis a bit ironic really, given that Microsoft and Palm have clearly put such effort in, to be castigated for a design feature - but I did like to have something with a screen and keyboard big enough to be typed on. For most people however, this will not be an issue, just the opposite!

So, there we have it. In this world of iPhones and the impending Android OS from Google, there will always be plenty for the geek. I am reminded however, of colleagues, acquaintances and passing strangers I have seen man-handling eminently unsuitable, brick-like smartphones, when all they want to do is acknowledge a mail, send and SMS or simply phone someone. A Blackberry killer? No - but for such mainstream business users, who need to be able to make calls and access their corporate email simply and without a device that needs a week’s training to use, this might be just the ticket.

When I was a kid, once a year we used to go and watch an ice show. For adults perhaps, it might have been an excruciating panto rescued from the brink of despair by a few spangled costumes and tight-fitting lycra; but to my childish eyes, it was sheer magic. Every year, the centrepiece of the show would kick off with a few people, rotating slowly but steadily and largely keeping their positions, in the middle of the rink. Gradually more and more skaters would join them until eventually the whole troupe would be involved, apart from one solitary figure who was yet to join. Of course, by then the end points of the spiral would be moving so fast, the poor chap would have to sprint like a billy-oh to catch up.

And so, to BT. Back in July, the company announced it would be launching a new transformation and innovation process, which is now 100 days in. At yesterday’s progress meeting for analysts, hosted by execs Al-Noor Ramji, Roel Louwhoff, Paul Excell and Dina Matta, topics included the usual crowd pleasers such as “customer service is our number one priority”, through to genuinely interesting examples of how BT’s customers are working with the company to drive innovation.

It’s difficult to know how to judge this, latest initiative from BT. Certainly in the UK, we have consumer-based experiences (not all of them good) which can colour our opinions; meanwhile, over the past 5 years the global company has been through a number of other change programmes - in terms of both internal restructuring and application rationalisation, and incorporating technology infrastructure transformations such as the 21st Century network, currently in mid roll-out.

Perhaps the crucial axis upon which BT’s future rests, is its stated goal of delivering software-based services. This could mean multiple things, some of which (”Is BT taking on SAP now?”) might be seen as a step too far for the company - so it’s important to stress that BT isn’t going to be ditching its core, platform-oriented business. When asked, the panel explained how it would be building on top of its service provider heritage with said (software-based) services, in a way that can be integrated (or “mashed-in and mashed-out” in Al-Noor Ramji’s terms) with both the enterprise environments of its corporate customers and the burgeoning new era of Internet-based software.

Rather than mucking around too much with the company’s product and service portfolio, the plan is to do similar things as currently, but far better and more efficiently than in the past. “The ‘what’ will stay the same, but the ‘how’ will be different,” said Roel Louwhoff. Improvements to the “how” will (so we were told) enable the company to be far more innovative, or at least, far quicker in how it brings its innovations to market.

What’s going to prevent such a transformation? Perhaps the main challenge to BT remains the company itself, as defined by its staff. There can be no papering over the cracks here, as it will undoubtedly be a challenge to get all of the company’s employees moving in the same direction - please do note that this is not a comment on the quality of the people, but more on the fragmented nature of BT’s historical structures.

The proof of the pudding will only become visible in a year or so, as BT becomes able to offer demonstrable evidence that this latest change and innovation programme is making a difference. Like the big wheel of skaters, BT doesn’t want to move dramatically from where it is now, but it does want to be able to turn faster, whilst keeping everyone involved on board. In people-centric terms this means balancing the momentum being driven from the centre, with appropriate bottom-up activities such as training, personal staff development and so on. Sharpen the skates, if you will, rather than sharpen the saw.

Overall it’s a laudable initiative, and on paper at least it sounds practicable. It is still early days however. Of course success will need to be judged in terms of metrics such as time to market reductions or increased customer uptake of new, software-based services - and the consequent, directly attributable impact on the company’s bottom line. However, perhaps the real litmus test will be the ability to go to any of BT’s 110,000 employees and get a clear understanding of what the company stands for. Like the guy at the end of the ice-spiral, for this to work, BT can’t afford to leave anyone behind.

It was with initial trepidation that I read the news that mobile phones might be allowed on plane flights around Europe. After all, along with the metro/tube/subway, churches and libraries, Antarctica and deep space, there are few places left that have managed to avoid the encroaching wave of over-loud teenagers, ringtones and sales reps.

But then, here I am on the train. There’s a guy opposite me calling his missus to check on childcare arrangements, the occasional ping of SMS and, somewhere in the background, an ongoing conversation that could be on a phone but I can’t tell. Realistically, perhaps it won’t be so bad.

A major upside is nothing to do with voice at all of course, but with data. Plane travel is both a sanctuary and a frustration, particularly given that it’s an ideal time to catch up on email etc. At least this provides a choice.

The downside is mainly to do with cost - unlikely the operators (or airlines - the system is based around on-board picocells) will feel under to much pressure to offer this as a low-cost facility. Ironically, this could also be to its advantage if it means that the louder-mouthed talkers are more likely to be in the upper class decks.

We’ll have to see how it pans out.

Anyone who thinks modem speeds are a thing of the past (hi Joe, not a criticism) can’t spend much time working mobile, using GPRS, throttling back the arrival of the 4Meg file in Outlook so that he can get onto the Web and post a blog. 56Kbps doesn’t seem all that distant, because that’s pretty much exactly what I’m on right this minute. In central London, no less.

Quite beside all my other experiences and insights derived from spending 3 days in Mumbai last week, I did have a good try with mobile technologies. Here’s a quick summary:

- mobile access via Blackberry - check (though I am feeling a bit nervous about what the bill is going to look like). Roaming service was EDGE provided on the most part by Hutch, now part of Vodafone

- mobile access on laptop via HSDPA modem - check, but I rarely dared use it for fear of roaming charges.

- there was no Internet access at my hotel despite it having been advertised. Indeed, the only Internet within walking distance was a computer in a nearby shop. I had to travel to get full-speed Internet on my laptop.

- many businesses had a “Walky” telephone, which was essentially a mobile phone for office use. Looked like a desk phone, no wires, big aerial.

I did purchase a local pre-pay SIM, so I now have my own Indian phone number which is a bit cool. Setup was straightforward for calls, and pretty cost-effective, about 2 rupees per minute for international calls, as long as I took out the international calling card option - which I did. Topups could be done just about anywhere, retailers who lacked terminals had a clever scheme where they could top up my phone from a phone of their own - now that’s what I call mobile! Strangely, despite being with Vodafone, the service showed up as “Orange” on my handset.

Unfortunately GPRS access could not be set up in time before I left the country, due to the time needed to process my ID. Oh well, hopefully this will be working for next time!