Managing mobility, making margins: is mobility still high on the activity and revenue agenda for resellers in the UK, especially with the Christmas season approaching? That's the big question Davey Winder has been asking industry players.

Publication: Computer Trade Shopper

Publication Date: 23-NOV-05

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US)

Just how fragile is the mobile economy from the channel perspective? It's an interesting question that tends to elicit a defensive and resounding response from the industry. A typical view comes from Chris Buist, CEO of flyingSPARK, who says the market is far from fragile, insisting its true potential is only now being realised.

"No longer is mobile IT seen as an executive toy," says Buist." The key is to be nimble and able to switch the right products into the right company at the right time."

But there are some signs that although the importance of mobility will continue to grow at an exponential rate, this may not be all good news from the channel perspective.

"The risk is that the large carriers will start to move into this market as the line between the public network and a company's private network begins to blur," says Roberto Casula, technical director at Nortel reseller Apprinet. "We are already seeing this happen with BlackBerry and other similar services."

Indeed, Motorola already has a telephone that is both GSM and 802.11 capable, so the aim is to move seamlessly from the carrier world into the corporate environment. "Carriers will be looking at ways to achieve revenue for this," says CasGa. "Especially as their traditional revenue sources are being eroded by the take up of VoIP."

DRIVING THE MOBILE MARKET

Several factors continue to drive the mobility market. The increase in homeworking, thanks to the proliferation of broadband connectivity, is the most obvious, but the take up of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technologies (phones and applications such as instant messaging and conferencing) is also very important.

"The latter means that the mobility solution is ceasing to be a standalone sell," says Casula," but...

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