VDC Research: Enterprise & Government Mobility Market Blog

BIG Again! NRF's 2012 BIG Show Brims With Traffic

National Retail Federation Expo 2012 took place in NYC this week and highlighted the future of retail. The attendance from solution providers including hardware, software and services providers was highly significant as well as visitors. Following a strong 2011 performance complemented by the holiday sales, the general outlook for retail remains strong, while the pace is expected to be slower than 2011. Nevertheless, NRF is projecting retail industry growth of 3.4% in 2012 to $2.5 trillion.

Members from VDC's Mobile and Wireless Practice spent Monday at the show meeting with a variety of established and emerging vendors. Some of our early impressions include:

Apple exhibits at NRF!

While Apple does not do tradeshows, based on the bevy of iOS devices on display at the show it clearly does not have to. A perhaps not so outrageous prediction of ours for 2012 was Apple's (and specifically iOS's) continued expansion into the retail market. Much of what we saw at NRF certainly confirmed this expectation. From customized sleds that convert the iTouch or iPhone into a secure mobile payment platform to sophisticated business intelligence applications designed for iPads, Apple's presence was widely felt. Secure payment solution providers such as Ingenico and VeriFone introduced their solutions targeting the iOS platform which are capable of processing both credit and debit cards, making them usable globally. While the mobile vendors typically selling into the retail segment continue to debate the Windows vs. Android scenario, Apple/ iOS - with no major push of their own - is establishing itself as a strong retail mobile platform. This only confirms another trend we are tracking in that Chief Marketing Officers are usurping power from traditional IT decision makers when it comes to which mobile solutions to deploy for highly visible and customer facing retail applications.

Are tablets right for retail?

The uptake in tablets appears to be noteworthy given that small form factor devices have traditionally dominated retail. In addition to small form factor vendors like Motorola which has been among the leading vendors in retail with their rugged handheld solutions debuting their ET1 tablet, rugged large form factor vendors such as Panasonic and Motion Computing are also going after the highly promising retail market with their recently introduced rugged tablet solutions. While tablets clearly have a role to play in retail operations - especially for customer facing applications and for solutions such as interactive displays - retailers are still evaluating the true potential of these devices. A recent survey did not perceive store associates equipped with tablets as providing superior service in comparison to those equipped with other mobile computing and communications solutions. While we expect tablets to represent a strong platform for certain retail workers and workflows, 2012 may bring more pilots and evaluations rather than large scale rollouts.

Consumer WiFi, mobile payments and mobile scanning providing more immersive retail experience

Similar to themes we have been discussing throughout 2011, customer engagement is expected to play a huge role in this move. More and more store associates are being equipped with mobile devices in order to lookup customer and product information during their interaction with customers. Most retailers we spoke with also talked about public WiFi for their shoppers to drive a more interactive experience while evaluating next generation presence applications.

Likewise, mobile payments and mobile POS solutions were in high demand during the show as many solution providers introduced their newest products. Not only answering the customer's product-related questions but also completing the transaction at that point of contact is becoming highly valuable for retailers as the traditional in-store environments which may have limited number of POS machines can result with long lines and lost revenue for these organizations. Thus, this enables the associates to not only sell the inventory in a particular store but to also order an out-of-stock product through their online/ mobile site and have it ship directly to the customer or the store based on the customers' preference. Hence, the up-sell and cross-sell opportunities that can be achieved through this interaction are very significant. Tracking how traditional retail POS vendors respond to this trend will be especially interesting as many of these have the most at stake. One interesting solution was from Wincor Nixdorf - a leading brand of traditional POS solutions. They are extending their mobile capabilities with their TP Application Suite, which provides two hardware independent modules: TPiSCAN supports all self-service solutions in the checkout area. TPiSHOP offers the possibility to implement mobile self-scanning either on retailer-owned devices or on individual smartphone of the customer.

Following a dynamic 2011, expectations for retail technology solutions - especially customer facing mobile solutions - remain robust in 2012.

Google to Compete with Dropbox

Google revamped Insync - its version of Dropbox - and made it available for public by removing registration limits. Insync has now moved past beyond beta stage and is available with its sync and file sharing capabilities. With this move, Google has become a clear competitor to Dropbox, SugerSync and Box; allowing Insync users to automatically sync, update, manage and share their files. While the main and most obvious target group appears to be the Google Docs users, Insync can also access files that are stored in your PC or Mac.

Despite the growing user base of Google Apps, Insync is targeting small businesses as well as many individuals that are not currently using a file sharing service and/or the ones that are using competing products; along with its pricing and "8x cheaper than Dropbox" marketing campaign. Dropbox is charging $120/year for 50 GB storage, while Insync is priced at $20/year for 80 GB; making it a viable alternative in today's cost conscious business world.  Even though many companies remain to be skeptical on file sharing platforms and Google Docs as a result of the security and privacy concerns, both Open Office and Google Docs; along with Dropbox and its competitors are expanding their user base. 

These products boost collaboration in today's increasingly mobile world with their easy access and permission levels (i.e. read and write or read-only). While it is too early to tell the performance, accessibility and security of Insync in comparison to other publicly available applications, the product is lacking mobile support as well as a dedicated mobile app. Considering Google's commitment to the mobile industry; mobile Insync app or the added Insync functionality to the company's current mobile apps would land on the app stores shortly. If the company is able to achieve the seamless integration with its Google Docs apps and provides support for any mobile device, Insync and Google Docs could be a very powerful productivity suite.

Can the FDA Regulate Mobile Device/ Applications Without Stiffling Innovation and R&D Spend?

The increasing number of smartphones and media tablets deployed to the health care environments, has resulted in an influx of mobile apps targeted for patients and health care professionals. While the success of Apple's iPad is the main driver for tablet deployments in the industry, multiple mobile OSes for smartphones and tablets have also flooded the market. Based on our end-user study that we fielded in 2011, 36.9% of health care respondents stated that their organization has evaluated and decided to deploy media tablets, with an additional 42.3% planning to evaluate. As a result of the rapid mobile device proliferation occuring in the health care industry, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently proposed a draft guidance to regulate mobile medical apps. With this proposal, the FDA sought to solicit input on some of the mobile medical apps that may represent a potential risk to patient health in case they do not work as intended.

While the general consensus is that the FDA should be regulating some of the mobile medical apps that are specifically designed and used for diagnosis and clinical treatment purposes; the gray areas that have been identified in the proposal could cause potential disruptions in the industry. The agency encourages the technological advancements and further development of mobile medical apps that can provide health care professionals with highly valuable patient information. Hence, some of the mobile medical apps related to medical devices have already been cleared by the agency prior to the proposal. However, it remains to be seen whether the FDA can actually keep up with the latest developments in mobile technology and ensure patient safety without stiffling innovation and R&D spend.

More information on the impact of the FDA on mobile developments can be found in our Research Note that will be published in the next couple of days. In the meantime, please click here to access our most recent QuickCast  - Taking the Pulse of Mobility in Health Care.

Cyber Monday Sees Many Retailers Drop the Ball on the Wrong Holiday

Each year, Black Friday draws an increasingly sharp contrast between the die-hard shopper happy to camp for days outside a local brick-and-mortar store and the shrinking patience of web surfing and increasingly mobile surfing consumers, who flip from one store to another with the click or swipe of a button. While retailers nationwide have declared this past shopping weekend a tremendous success, a closer look at many companies’ online performance tells a very different story.  

This year’s Cyber Monday raked in an estimated $1.25 billion in sales – officially earning 11/28/11 the record for the heaviest day of online commerce in history (Wall Street Journal).  Unfortunately, many retailers were ill-equipped with the necessary infrastructure to handle this incredible spike in online traffic.  Catchpoint, a company that analyzed the sites of the top 55 internet retailers, discovered that Brookstone’s site was down for nearly 7 hours, PC Mall for over 2 hours and even Toys ‘R’ Us for about 42 minutes on Cyber Monday.

This year also saw a 371% increase in the number of customers shopping on mobile devices, where sites are expected to be “as fast or faster” than other sites, according to Leah Manz of Akamai (a Massachusetts-based internet content delivery network).   In today’s economy, retailers cannot afford downtime in mobile/web-based sites – these frustrated customers will likely be driven to the sites of competitors.  Mobile/web-acceleration companies such as CDNetworks, Mirror Image Internet, HighWinds and Cotendo (rumored to be an acquisition target for Akamai) offer solutions for these companies that will enable them to close the performance gaps that many of their mobile customers experienced last week. Most importantly, these solutions will help with customer satisfaction.

We will continue to track the mobile acceleration space as we see it becoming increasingly important as mission-critical and enterprise-grade mobile applications continue to evolve/emerge.

The Changing Face of Mobile Health Care

The increasing capabilities delivered by mobile solutions are causing health care organizations to evaluate the role of mobility in their organization and their interactions with medical professionals and patients. Organizations are not only aligning their mobile initiatives with their overall strategies but they are also evaluating whether they have the necessary resources to develop mobile health care solutions internally or whether they need to look for outside help. As the adoption of mobile health care solutions accelerates, some of the primary questions health care organizations must answer include who they would like to target with their mobile applications (i.e. health care professionals or the patients), what kind of capabilities they would like their solutions to have, and what types of problems they envision solving.

Based on our end-user questionnaire that we fielded in Q2 2011, the primary business initiatives that impact mobile computing solution investments include improvements in process efficiencies and customer service and satisfaction. Given the busy work schedules of physicians, clinicians and nurses, they not only would like to access the necessary information/ records anytime anywhere but they would also like to be able to have portable mobile devices that allow data input at the bedside. For the past couple of years CIOs and IT departments at health care organizations have been struggling with health care professionals bringing their preferred devices to work and asking for support. Demand for robust mobile security solutions continues to rise, and the numerous regulatory issues that impact the health care industry make ensuring the safety of patient records critical. While the BYOD trend has been picking up fast in other industries, more and more health care organizations are implementing mobile policies to gain visibility and control over costs, compliance, and the operational impact of their mobile assets.

Likewise, organizations see an opportunity in adopting next generation mobile solutions as they believe that they will offer them a competitive advantage in attracting the best physicians and nurses. Thus, the availability of patient-facing mobile applications is helping organizations to improve their customer service capabilities, as patients are eager to use tools that will allow them to enter and track their key health information and have their health care provider alerted should conditions that require immediate attention arise. Additionally, many health care organizations (such as Mayo Clinic and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) are extending their existing web sites and/or newsletter to enhance communications among their patient community. The capabilities of mobile applications have grown from tracking closest ER locations and wait times into allowing remote access to patient care, recording vital health care information and providing access to reference information all of which are speeding care delivery to patients. We see evidence that solution providers such as WebMD, Allscripts, Epic Systems and Epocrates are gaining traction with their mobile solutions both among patients and medical professionals.

Health care organizations are hoping to reach more patients and consumers while building awareness for conditions that could affect their health with mobility solutions. By investing in mobility solutions to improve customer service and satisfaction, health care organizations are hoping to engender loyalty, increase efficiencies and realize bottom line improvements. VDC believes that the increase in patient-health care professional communication and collaboration among health care providers can help in reaching these goals since demand for timely and high quality health care is on the rise.

More information on the developments in mobile health care solutions can be found in our EMOB 2011 Health Care Vertical Market Report that will be published next week.

BYOD Has Arrived

Organizations are getting used to the idea of individual-liable mobile devices in the workplace. As the advancements in technology made mobile devices (i.e. especially smartphones) a lot affordable for everyone, IT departments had to deal with the issue of protecting corporate information on the personal devices that happen to be outside their "control". Along with time, organizations and internal IT departments are becoming more welcoming towards these mainly consumer-grade devices, however, our data indicates that they are now putting mobile device policies in place to ensure the protection of sensitive information.

Based on our end-user survey that we fielded in Q2 2011, the majority of the organizations we surveyed stated that they have a mobile device policy specifically centered on smartphones in the workplace. In terms of industries, health care organizations came in with the highest % that have a mobile device policy (yes, even higher than government organizations) while field mobility organizations came in lowest. VDC believes that this number will only increase going forward as more organizations realize the possibility of sensitive information falling into wrong hands with a lost or stolen device, potential malware attacks directed to mobile devices, employees moving on to other jobs with your company's information on their mobile devices and not being able to control the use of unauthorized software on the personally-owned devices.

As for anticipated changes to the policy, we see organizations are getting stricter in terms of the mobile platforms and brands. While many organizations are accustomed to securing devices running on BlackBerry OS for the past couple of years, they are now being forced to provide support for multiple ecosystems (i.e. Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7). In addition to getting more specific in the list of eligible devices being provided to employees, organizations are moving towards the BYOD trend and away from the more traditional corporate-liable trend. Primary drivers to the BYOD model include achieving higher efficiencies and lower costs with partial reimbursement. Even though corporations were able to negotiate better rates with company-liable deployments, the number of employees that had mobile devices was a lot fewer since the devices were being assigned based on role in the organization.

The improvements made in mobile device and security management solutions enable more and more organizations to join the BYOD bandwagon. With the availability of these solutions, organizations are not solely relying on the common sense of their employees but can put encryption and technology enforcement into place which can include anything from written policies to remove wipe and lock. Thus, VDC believes that providing more education to the employees to raise awareness on device-specific security would be key to success to moving forward.

Also worth noting, is a topic we've written about recently on this blog is the dual persona solutions like Enterproid's Divide or BlackBerry's Balance that have emerged and may prove to be a very effective way of sandboxing work and personal mobile device profiles.

Underlying Concerns are Shaping the Future of Mobility Solutions in Retail

Retail is among the industries where the changing end-user requirements in enterprise mobility solutions are becoming clearer. VDC Research's most recent end-user study highlights an increase in cost consciousness among retailers. In the fieldwork that we completed in Q2 2011, cost and ease of use came in the first and second respectively among the top 3 shortcomings of the recently deployed mobile computing solutions. The shortcomings associated with both of these requirements appear to be much greater in comparison with other industries.

 

 
 

While the cost sensitive nature of the market has been an ongoing theme for some time now, the advancements in the technology have made mobility more "affordable", both in terms of hardware and software solutions. With the shopping season approaching, retailers would like to reduce their cost structure as much as possible as they would have to equip at least a portion of their seasonal employees with mobility solutions. Since the increase in revenues is the primary driver for retailers to invest in enterprise mobility solutions, seasonality plays an important role for the industry. The concerns associated with the ease of use in mobility solutions, are not only applicable to the current employees but are also very critical for the seasonal staff. VDC believes that minimizing the cost and time required for training on the deployed solutions can be a crucial and key benefit for retailers. The improvements made to the UI functionality and user experience on some of the current and next-generation solutions coming to the market make the learning curve much less steep for new employees.

With the deployment of mobility solutions in retail environments, in-store associates are not only having more time to interact and engage with customers, but they are more empowered with extended mobile POS capabilities and the inventory and returns management applications. The issues that might arise in the integration with existing enterprise applications is concerning for retailers as they prevent the employees from spending more time on the retail shop floor assisting customers. VDC Research believes that the next-generation solution offerings will be more suitable for retailers with thin margins (e.g. big box and office supply retailers) as mobility vendors are beginning to introduce lower cost solutions to the market.

Outlook for Mobile Devices is Bright - Continued Uplift Expected Through 2015

VDC's Mobile and Wireless Practice recently published our annual report on Mobile Devices for enterprise and government mobility applications. We have been publishing this annual report for almost 10 years running and it represents the keystone of our annual Enterprise and Government Mobility Research Service. The past 18-24 months have exposed some of the most volatile and difficult to predict market conditions and we do not expect the next 18-24 months to be any different. From rugged solutions supporting line of business applications, to enterprises enabling access to a variety of corporate assets and platforms (ERP, CRM, etc.) on smarpthones and next generation tablets being trialed for customer-facing applications, we see the level of investment and sophistication of solutions within enterprise and government organizations continuing to scale.

Some of the key findings from the 2011 report include:

• Rugged mobile market rebounds. Although this is perhaps not news anymore, the fact that most segments of the rugged mobile market will reach the prior highs established in 2008 by late 2011/ early 2012 is an astounding feat, considering the severe contraction experienced in 2009. In 2010, the global rugged mobile computing market exceeded $4.6 billion and we expect it to grow by just over 10% in 2011 to $5.1 billion. Much of the recent growth was driven by pent-up demand in the retail distribution sector and for field mobility solutions. In 2011 and 2012/13 we expect transportation and logistics to pick up - especially mail and courier - and drive growth. The outlook in the large form factor market - primarily the rugged notebook market - is slightly more uneven due to its large exposure to military and public sector markets.


• However, downside risk increasing. Although demand in the first half of 2011 has been strong and the outlook is positive, the downside risk in these markets is increasing due to the uncertain economic outlook in several country markets. We are beginning to hear about deals being postponed to later in 2011/ early 2012. Too few to call a trend at this point but certainly something we will be following.


• Rugged competitive environment undergoing change. Although still massively fragmented, one recent trend among rugged mobile vendors has been to more actively explore private label/ rebranding opportunities to fill gaps in line cards/ portfolios. Although this presents a low-risk/ moderate reward opportunity for vendors to expand their footrpint there are some potentially dire consequences specially as they relate to brand erosion and IP position/ value-add (real AND perceived) of vendors pursuing these tactics.


• Rugged handheld devices - Microsoft's predicament? It is well known that Microsoft is having a hard time scaling opportunities for its Windows Phone 7 OS. However, in the rugged handheld market, Microsoft remains the clear leader with over 80% market share for its Windows Embedded Handheld/ Embedded CE platforms. Although there is a fair amount of dissonance regarding this platform and its road-map - largely emanating from ISVs determining their future OS support strategies - enterprise end users (and handheld OEM/ ODMs) remain committed to the stability of this platform. Although Android does loom as an alternative, the more relevant discussion may be regarding the migration of HTML5 browser-based solutions.


• Smartphone growth (and tablet adoption) showing no sign of slowing. In contrast ot the rugged market which is discussed in the millions of units, the smartphone scale is in the hundreds of millions. Smartphone unit growth - although slowing - is expected to exceed 25% per year through 2015. In terms of enterprise adoption and support (of both corporate liable and individual liable devices) we expect shipments to near 500 million by 2015. With today's growing mobile workforce, the smartphone increasingly represents a key solution for enterprises to connect and engage with their employees. That means enabling access to a variety of enterprise assets (ERP, CRM, HR, etc.) and workflows (expense reporting, approvals, etc.) on these devices. Overall VDC expects that by 2015 the smartphone access to mobile applications (beyond email and messaging) will exceed 50%. The smartphone market is also increasingly challenging - and potentially eroding - the lower-end/ entry class segment of the rugged handheld market.


• The tablet wrinkle. The tablet computer market - traditionally supporting niche line of business workflows - has undergone a renaissance following the introduction of the iPad in 2010. Enterprises are exhibiting strong interest in these devices - and renewed interest in legacy solutions - to support a variety of applications and workflows. One development has been that application strategies within organizations are changing and often shifting from smartphone-centric solutions to ones that leverage the greater display real estate of the tablet.

The published report expands on these issues and addresses many others. Please click here for more information. We look forward to your feedback!

Is 2011 Really the Year of the iPad?

The iPad 2 rumors finally came to an end at Apple's event earlier today and we all learned that the iPad 2 is thinner, lighter and faster when compared to the original iPad−but is that going to be enough for Apple to maintain its lead that it has established with the original iPad? Only time will tell. The stats Steve Jobs presented are definitely noteworthy as selling 15 million devices in ~9 months and having nearly 65,000 native apps would be every competitor's dream.

Another improvement to the polished and revamped device includes a front and a back camera enabling FaceTime−and surprisingly, the device will be hitting the market sooner than many expected (March 11th). Hence, what does it mean for the enterprise market? Based on the keynote speech, it is clear that moving forward, Apple’s tablet strategy features a sharper focus on B2B markets. The video that was shown at today's launch event provided powerful examples of real business scenarios for the device. The HDMI mirrored video-out capability brings a lot to the table for industries like healthcare and education. Other application areas that appear to be the primary targets include retail and hospitality, professional services (i.e. financial services, construction, etc) and field sales. We have already seen traction in various enterprise market segments with the original iPad (such as the SFA applications from SAP, and field service application from ServiceMax). We believe that this trend will continue, and we anticipate that ISVs and developers will continue to develop tablet-specific business apps.

So has Apple met expectations with iPad 2? Probably not in this rapidly evolving mobile ecosystem. One glaring feature omission from today’s launch event was the screen. There was a lot of speculation that Apple would match its display superiority (iPhone 4’s retina display) with an updated similar screen for the iPad 2–it is now certain that this update won’t occur until the next refresh. We fully anticipate that application innovation, and continued technology advancements will help to push tablets further into enterprise environments–this will require enhancements around areas such as device and security management and currently is a market that we see as a greenfield opportunity for Apple and other hardware manufacturers with tablet offerings.  However; the improvements appear to bring the device to par with the current competition in the market. Apple’s timing of it’s iPad 2 launch is right on time, considering that Motorola’s Xoom was recently released (February 24th), and that RIM’s PlayBook, Samung’s Galaxy Tab,  and HP’s TouchPad will all become available for sale in mid-to-late Q2. Likewise, it will be interesting to see how the competition responds to Steve Jobs’ last remarks on his keynote where he differentiated Apple by underlining that the company views these devices in the post-PC market while the competitors perceive it as the next PC market.

"This is worth repeating. It's in Apple's DNA that technology is not enough. It's tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities. Nowhere is that more true than in the post-PC products. Our competitors are looking at this like it's the next PC market. That is not the right approach to this. These are pos-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC, more intuitive."

As was widely circulated today, with the iPad 2 launch event behind us, it’s time to bring on the iPad 3 rumor mill! Will iOS 5 be Apple’s first OS designed for the iPad?

So, is 2011 really the year of the iPad−possibly, its certainly the year of the tablet.

HP's Hurd Inserts Foot in Mouth at Tech Summit — or did he?

HP CEO Mark Hurd spoke to the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch technology summit earlier this week, and caused somewhat of a media frenzy when he very directly proclaimed that HP acquired Palm just for its IP and OS:

“We didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business. And I tell people that, but it doesn’t seem to resonate well. We bought it for the IP. The WebOS is one of the two ground-up pieces of software that is built as a web operating environment. . ."

Walking it Back

Journalists jumped all over Hurd's comments, forcing HP to respond quickly to correct Mr. Hurd's "gaffe". In less than 12 hours, Mr. Hurd released the following "clarification":

“When we look at the market, we see an array of interconnected devices, including tablets, printers and, of course, Smartphones. We believe WebOS can become the backbone of many of HP's small form factor devices, and we expect to expand WebOS's footprint beyond just the Smartphone market . . .”

There is no shortage of opinions on HP's acquisition of Palm — there was consensus that HP would enter the tablet market (with WebOS) to compete with the iPad, but no speculation that HP would ditch its Smartphone ambitions. Earlier comments from Hurd on the acquisition weren't overt on his company's Smartphone intentions either; in mid-May, Hurd was quoted as saying:

"[The Palm acquisition] isn't precisely a smartphone play, as I've seen some people write . . .”, and, “. . . for us, strategically broader. We expect to leverage WebOS into a variety of form factors, including ‘slates’ and Web-connected printers."

These types of messaging stumbles are uncharacteristic of Hurd, who is highly regarded in the IT industry, and for his success in turning HP's PC business around. To be fair, the context of the “we didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business" quote is important. The quote came in response to a question posed to Mr. Hurd about the rationalization for HP's recent acquisitions (3COM and Palm). Hurd was speaking at a high level and about a long range view of HP's business — WebOS gives HP a means of lowering its cost of goods sold on all of the interconnected devices it makes (and has plans for). The range is broad, and currently includes Smartphones, printers, tablets, and other net- connected devices. By owning the OS, HP can avoid spending money on licensing (much to Microsoft’s dismay), and achieve what Mr. Hurd describes as, ". . . a consistent experience across all of these devices connected to the same back-end services". This makes sense.

Smartphone Strategy is Key

The IP, OS, and engineers that HP is getting from Palm are unquestionably significant elements of the rationale for the acquisition (as can be evidenced by the interest in Palm from a number of HP's peers that were vying for these assets) — however, going forward, the handset business will be critical for HP to be able to offer end-to-end mobility solutions. Palm's handset failings were not attributable to its feature set, functionality, or capabilities — the company made several mistakes (primarily the carrier exclusivity deal it entered into with Sprint) with its current products (the Pixi, Pre, and Pre Plus). Additionally, Palm's marketing efforts were also widely perceived as falling short.

It is our view that with Palm, HP has a "vehicle" to compete with the likes of Apple, Google, RIM, and others — this is primarily due to the strengths of WebOS. The variety of applications available for WebOS pales in comparison to its rivals, but there is a loyal base of developers (albeit small) available to broaden the range. The battle for the mindshare of developers has begun, with companies promoting contests, offering prizes, and considering partnerships to grow their developer ranks.

While HP has been successful at increasing the ranks and capabilities of its services arm (primarily through earlier acquisitions of Compaq and EDS), HP is still a hardware company. They are aiming to release a tablet running WebOS in time for the holiday season — and are likely working on several printers featuring WebOS as well. Along with these releases, there will undoubtedly be some new apps; if these products are a success, rest assured that WebOS will be around for some time . . .