Let's step back a little to look at the '90s when technology was focused very much on the personal computers. The devices didn't connect very much. They had the green screen monitors earlier, then the character mode interface called the Microsoft Disk Operating system (DOS). Comparing a Personal Computer in 1983 to one in 1993, you will find many key differences.
The 1983 Personal Computers had right around 16-bit/8-bit hybrid 8088 processor; then, at that time, nearly about one-third of the Personal Computer-compatible machines had no hard drives or disks, computer networking almost did not happen, then the mouse devices were virtually unknown. At that time, almost half the systems may not have the ability to handle graphics, and the mass storage at the time was, well, the 360KB floppy disks.
Many of us were not involved in the Information Technology industry in those days, around that time between, 1992 and 1997/98, I was personally studying and working on academic design projects for futuristic digital electronic communication systems in area of Electrical/ Electronic Communication Engineering that made those things happen at the Hardware Level. By 1993, the average PC then had a 32-bit processor, very much more memory, graphics capability, a mouse, and a huge ubiquitous Graphic User Interface. Nearly, more than 90 percent of business-owned systems were now networked, and CD-ROM burners were around but not yet common. It also happened that all of those hardware changes demanded and needed support, and the older Operation Systems and applications lacked that support.
In studying businesses, I observed that this generation, now between the age of 6 and 26-35, and some of the Older Generation "IT Veterans" has a different perspective, thinks a lot differently, and currently demand, aggressively, big changes in the way business, society and individuals interact. Is your work environment prepared for the imminent changes? One of the things to note is that Technology Solutions is at the center stage of all the changes that is happening and the older people who do not listen will be victims, not this younger generation. Some of the key aspects is in areas of social skills that people five to ten years younger has.
They tend to work a lot more in groups; in peer groups, prefer GUI (Graphic Users Interface) to text, a lot more dynamic to the demands of changing environments where the use of Instant Messaging, Unified Messaging Systems (UMs), and Streaming-Multimedia may not be in harmony with the traditional office culture. Older workers tend to do a lot more of individual work and take a lot of time to digest information prior offering an opinion. The idea is to understand and integrate with the best of the other generation's style.
It is important to understand that several things work a lot more efficiently than most of the older generation realize. The people of this new generation grow with the trend and have different expectations from companies, and one of the things being that things have become very Transparent; the idea of Transparency, in that companies will not be able to hide anything from the people, the society, both as consumers and employees.
Mobility has become a high-speed moving target. Wi-Fi chips are making it into the handheld devices - (handheld devices are things we used to call cell phones) so, now the internet connectivity will be everywhere, and the kids like that. In countries like the Singapore, almost everyone uses SMS - SMS is the Short Message Service. Most kids cannot be reached by email, so parents and grand parents learn to use email and SMS to keep in touch with them.
We shall briefly X-ray the mobile-wireless connectivity space, including overviews of the role of the major players in Software, Hardware and Systems Integration. Some of the systems that will be used in highly mobile computing include the Tablet PC, .NET Compact Framework, Smartphones, Pocket PCs, and SPOT Technology, and how they take advantage of technologies like XML Web services (the Program Software Platform), Wi-Fi (Long Range Wireless System), GPS (Satellite Communication System) and Bluetooth (Short Range Wireless System).
SPOT (Smart Personal Object Technologies) - wrist-sized device it's more like paging than it is like two-way data. Now, it's very effective for some things. It has enough capacity to send down some instant messages, send your calendar, things that are of broad interest, like sports, news, those work very well. Citizen and Fossil, Santo are involved in building this device shipping in the fall time frame of 2003.
SmartPhones - Mobile phones w/ voice, text and video messaging capabilities as well as internet access and PDA functions built-in. 20 vendors are currently demonstrating new Smartphone-based products that range from games to productivity applications and a few of the vendors include Samsung, Sendo Ltd., Compal Electronics Inc. and HTC Corp. The Mobile operators including AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Telefonica Moviles, Telstra Corporation, Vodafone Group, WIND, Hong Kong CSL Limited, Singapore Telecommunication Limited and Starhub Pte Ltd
Tablet PC - Tablet is an explosive PC form factor, because things like annotation and reading, note taking, have not really been possible. The pocket-sized device is a little small for those things, and yet the portable PC is unnatural to sit and read with, because it's a fairly large device. Microsoft today has partnerships with Compaq, Acer, Fujitsu, Sony, Averatec and Toshiba for manufacturing and building hardware solutions for the Tablet PC.
We presently have the relatively less mobile computer systems such as: Laptop - Notebook or slate sized Personal Computer. The Desktop PC - Desktop Personal Computer System are much less for mobility.
The Servers- Serves files, applications, programs and software for connectivity between PCs and the devices. Many would run the .NET software for networks and the internet.
These devices and systems would not become a replacement or option against the other where you would have to choose which one to buy as the media will depict them. Each of the these devices would have unlimited connectivity and interaction with each other and each one of them will be in a class of it’s own.
There has been a lot of rich innovation and growth in the PC industry. Now, you might say that is kind of surprising thing considering that the economic climate has become really very tough. The technical dreams, the prophecies and promises and dot com of the 90’s have proved to be quite blown out of proportion. Globrocks believes that this is the time that the real scenarios get put together, the hard work gets done, and we shall persevere and focus on the right things, and especially on the things we do best.
In the emerging wireless networking technology area, we have major players such as Bluetooth for short area connections and Wi-Fi for fairly long range within and between buildings and the pervasive data networks, the GPRS, 1XRTT, IPv6 (The Next Generation Internet!) and the third generation approaches are being made and coming together so that neither the user nor the systems integrators would have to deal with a lot of the complexity, and right now that complexity is showing through for work to be done at the software layer.
Microsoft Windows platform as being one of the leading platforms that runs on these devices. Microsoft has shown deep commitment to it, and that is what the .NET Programming platform is designed to do.
The connectivity challenges of the late 90's to 2000 was solved. The wireless and physical networks connect seamlessly with each other, with appplications software and the newer Mobile Devices anywhere in the world. They combine to give you a networking and virtualization of unlimited and reliable connection to the residential, home office, small business and your workspace, using VPN (Virtual Private Network), Remote Desktop, Citrix MetaFrame and Terminal Services or your choice of connectivity software for instant access to your personal and professional information. It offers a complete personal computing experience and networking for the “Technology-Inspired Family”.
Microsoft is actually stronger in the devices that are the more powerful devices, where you get the nice color screen, where you're connected up to data services. On Sep 26, 2005, Palm and Microsoft Joined to Bring the Palm Experience to Windows Mobile!
