Goodbye 2008, onward 2009

Gregory Wade, regional vice president, Research In Motion

	Gregory Wade, Research In Motion
	Users want to be able to do everything on their mobile device--checking e-mail, surfing the Internet, staying connected with friends and loved ones, or organizing their calendar.

Q: What was an exciting trend for you in 2008?
In the social networking space, new applications for MySpace and Flickr were launched for our BlackBerry phones. Downloads of the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones application surpassed the 5 million mark since its launch in October 2007. In its first week of availability, numbers of the MySpace for BlackBerry smartphones application hit a record-breaking 400,000 downloads.

Are you expecting business to be affected by the recession? The world is certainly facing a period of economic uncertainty. However, we believe that the current economic slump offers an opportunity to compel enterprises to deploy IT to maximize returns from investment while lowering operational costs.

Increasingly we notice a trend towards mobile convergence and collaboration. This trend has been amplified by the current financial situations where some firms have turned to alternative solutions to business travel in order to trim costs without compromising productivity and efficiency.

What technology innovation or product are you looking forward to next year? A key trend facing the industry is that of Unified Communications (UC). This refers to software that simplifies and integrates business communications, allowing messages and data to be sent and received on more than one medium. For example, if an individual received an SMS via his mobile phone, UC allows him to read it in his e-mail inbox.

A successful implementation of UC can automate and unify all device communications into a common user experience. This streamlines business processes and communications, enhancing efficiency and workflow and eliminating device and media dependencies.

We intend to continuously develop and roll out new solutions and products to answer this need.

Another trend is mobile convergence. Consumers are increasingly demanding more applications on their smartphones, both enterprise-grade as well as consumer. This is a result of the larger trend of mobile convergence, in which phone users rely more and more on their smartphones to carry out a number of everyday tasks and functions.

We see more enterprise application providers are developing a mobile strategy and proactively promote their applications to mobile platforms. For example, SAP and RIM have joined forces to enable mobile access to SAP enterprise applications through the BlackBerry platform.

We also see the industry moving towards increased collaboration and mobile convergence in this part of the region where users are very technology-savvy, and smartphone adoption is high. Users want to be able to do everything on their mobile device--checking e-mail, surfing the Internet, staying connected with friends and loved ones, or organizing their calendar.

Unlike their counterparts in Europe and the United States, where it is still common to see people carrying separate devices for business and personal use, users in the Asia-Pacific region want to do everything with one single device.