In a May article eWeek envisioned a mobile workforce in the near future, where employees were issued images rather than hard drives, and could get most, if not all, of their work done on the go, using a laptop or a smart phone.

With the recent high-profile smart phone and netbook releases, plus the growing interest in cloud computing and Google Apps, are we any closer?

Is Microsoft Office an undeniable fact of life?

Apple, Google and other companies who hold a stake would like you think we are, but the analysts are weighing in with a big, fat “no.” For now, that is.

Exhibit A, cloud computing is still a lofty idea: Judging by the way cloud computing has been covered in the press, you would think Office was ready for a spot in the Computer History Museum. But the cloud isn’t gathering quite that fast.

In a recent study, Forrester Research Inc. found that 80 percent of respondents were still supporting MS Office, while a scant 3 percent were supporting Google Apps. What’s more, researchers found that almost 80 percent of respondents had no plans to use non-Office applications in the future.

Perhaps it’s a learning curve, or maybe, as one blogger suggested, “[The real world] is one in which Microsoft Office is an undeniable fact of life.”

Exhibit B, it’s neat but…: June 8, 2009, was bigger than Christmas and Oprah put together. That’s the day Apple debuted its latest iPhone, the 3GS, and a passel of other tech tchotchkes. The 3GS scores points for novelty and speed, but is being panned for its impracticality as a business tool. As expected, though, there’s plenty of room for debate.

Here’s what some of the publications had to say about it:

• Computerworld’s Matt Hamblen says: “What iPhone 3GS still needs is a system, run by the enterprise IT staff, to verify – and to provide an audit trail – that the encryption is turned on, and to allow IT to conduct a remote wipe if the device is lost or stolen.”
• InformationWeek paraphrases source Dan Hoffman, CTO of SMobilesystems: “While Hoffman is encouraged by features like remote wipe and the phone locator service, he said the lack of antivirus and firewall make iPhones not as secure as rival platforms like BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian.

Exhibit C, mobile’s great, but what if I don’t know how to use it?: We’re still in a recession, and CIOs aren’t looking to expand anything. According to a June Gartner report, four out of 10 CIOs slashed their budgets in the first quarter of 2009.

Sadly, one of the first items to be cut or eliminated is seemingly “frivolous” costs like software support. That translates to little or no help for employees using these revolution-promising devices. What good is a smart phone to an employee who cannot even sync it? (Jen Darr)

MORE INFO IN: Mobile Device Support | Coverage of PC Helps’ iPhone support in Computerworld.com | Contact PC Helps

admin Cloud Computing, Mobile Devices, iPhone Christmas, Cloud Computing, Computer History Museum, iPhone, netbooks, Oprah, SaaS