What CES 2011 Announcements Mean to Corporate IT
Posted on Fri, Jan 21, 2011 @ 08:44 AM
The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held in Las Vegas earlier this month (Jan. 6-9). With more than 2,700 technology companies and 140,000 industry professionals, the show was a whirlwind of activity and announcements that kept the industry a buzz.
Though I didn’t attend the show myself, I tried to stay up-to-date with the news most relevant to MCPc and our clients. Below is a summary of articles that caught my attention, as well as my thoughts on the following question:
What’s new in the consumer electronics industry, and how will these technologies impact the corporate world?
The Tablet War Has Begun
It’s estimated that more than 80 new products were announced to compete with Apple’s iPad. Among those are Motorola’s Xoom, Research in Motion’ Blackberry PlayBook and Dell’s Streak 7.
So, what does this mean for the business world? As we discussed previously in “How IT Pros Can Manage the iPad and Tablet Influx,” more employees will be looking to use their personal devices in the workplace, due to the increasingly robust business capabilities of these devices. In fact, corporate tablet use is expected to double from 2010 to 2011. The result is security, management and use challenges, which IT pros should be planning for now.
Mobile Takes Center Stage
Based on the number of announcements surrounding smartphones, it’s clear that mobile will continue to be a hot market in 2011. Announcements included Dell’s Venue Pro, Samsung’s Infuse 4G and Motorola’s Atrix 4G, among others.
The emergence of these 4G phones signals that “all carriers are investing in more bandwidth and higher speeds, which will at least keep up with the exploding demand for mobile Internet access and may at some point translate into more PC-like interactions,” according to InfoWorld.
This increasing speed is coupled with a powerful app market, where many apps provide important business functionality to mobile users. For example, at CES 2011, Samsung introduced a MobilePrint app that enables users to easily print from their mobile devices to any Samsung printer.
All of this translates into greater smartphone popularity among consumers. According to telecom vendor Ericsson, “the number of mobile broadband subscriptions will reach one billion before the end of 2011.”
A 2010 Pew Research study also found that 71% of technology stakeholders and critics agree with the statement "by 2020, most people won't do their work with software running on a general-purpose PC. Instead, they will work in Internet-based applications such as Google Docs, and in applications run from smartphones.”
While this could provide convenience and flexibility to employees, mobile corporate adoption also comes with its fair share of security, usability, access and ownership challenges. Therefore, IT pros should begin to strategize how mobile devices will be integrated into existing infrastructures and wireless networks, if they haven’t already.
Device Connectivity on the Rise
As device capabilities increase, there was also great interest this year in how end users interact with individual devices, and how the devices interact with each other. With Internet connectivity being added to a wide range of products — 2011 will see numerous cars connected to the web, for example — technologies are popping up that enable these devices (smartphones, TVs, gaming consoles, computers, cars, etc.) to “talk” to each other and create a more seamless end-user experience. Increased device connectivity is also likely to drive mobile adoption even further into the workplace.
In addition, we can assume that similar technologies will find their way into useful cases in the corporate world. For example, imagine hospital beds that text message nurses in case of a problem, or “smart” shelves that automatically order inventory when they start running low on product.
Growing Interest in 3D
The show also saw a range of 3D-based announcements, including 3DTVs, Blu-ray players, AV receivers, PCs and game consoles. For businesses, 3D could enhance “data visualization solutions, and virtual world asset management solutions in sectors that have large and complex physical assets.”
On the business side of this, we see 3D videoconferencing. In fact, Panosonic introduced a 3D videoconferencing solution at the show. This advancement could further improve telepresence, offering an even higher quality experience for corporate meetings. It could also be used for educational and training purposes within organizations. One niche example cited by Panosonic is that 3D “allows medical procedures to be viewed and demonstrated with greater clarity and realism for diagnosis and teaching.”
Your Thoughts?
- Did you attend the show? If so, what announcements and technologies caught your attention? How do they impact business operations?
- How do you see new technologies fitting within your existing IT infrastructure?
- How are you preparing for increasing employee use of smartphones and iPads?
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Ira Grossman, VP, Personal Systems Group, has more than 15 years of technology project management experience and is an expert in lifecycle management and mobile device management for the enterprise, including the iPad. Connect with Ira on LinkedIn.
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Image Credit: Consumer Electronics Show