IBM’s India Research Lab is set to kick off a new initiative that aims to bring to the table more features and functions to mobile devices.
The new IBM Research program will be led out of India, but at the same time be incubated in IBM’s eight global labs in six other countries. The projects that will come under this program include:
• The Spoken Web – Voice-enabled mobile commerce
• Instant Translation – Real-time communication between multiple languages through mobile devices
• SoulPad – Enabling any portable device to carry computing applications in your pocket
• BuddyComm – Social networking on-the-go
• Good Samaritan – Mobile healthcare information made available in any emergency situation
According to the big blue, bringing onboard such new, easy to use and rich services to the mobile phone will see an increasing number of people bypass from the more traditional methods of using the personal computer as their primary method for Web-based business and accessing technology and instead use their mobile phone to access the web, conduct financial transactions, entertain themselves, shop and more.
“The world is entering the ‘Era of the Mobile Web’. In many countries, the mobile phone has become an electronic wallet, the window to the World Wide Web, an education device and more, and globally, mobile devices outnumber PCs, credit cards, and TV’s,” said Dr. Daniel Dias, Director, IBM India Research laboratory.
“Today, we are launching projects that will make a mobile device an even easier to use than the PC, allowing you to do everything you can with a PC and much more.”
IBM’s Institute for Business Value predicts the number of mobile Web users will grow by 191 percent from 2006 to 2011 to reach one billion. This proliferation of mobile devices and mobile Web users signals an incredibly lucrative growth opportunity for businesses.
The IBM Research program will examine in great depth the current trajectories of new technologies in the lab and marketplace, concentrating on trends that could be disruptive or the harbingers of change. In many regions, mobile devices are becoming an increasingly viable alternative to PCs. These devices are capable of delivering more types of data, applications and services through advanced wireless networks. This, coupled with the openness and convergence of Web applications, is making a major impact on the global mobile market.
“Today, staying competitive means looking ahead. The rise of globalization is shifting the way business works,” said John Kelly, Senior Vice President, IBM Research.
“Business leaders need to anticipate how these changes will affect their ways of operating and look to new technological innovations to help them succeed in this new landscape.” |
