Mobility Evolution

The following graph shows the Monthly Active Users for Facebook since mid 2011. The emerging dominance of the mobile venue is abundantly clear. If the  1.2 billion  monthly Facebook usage is not a bellwether I am not sure what is. You decide. Since the first quarter of 2012 a new category of 'Mobile only' has emerged. This category's increasing popularity is an indication of eventual total domination of mobile platform in computing usage patterns. Enterprises with a lagging comprehensive mobility strategy are doing so at their own peril. This is not just a conjecture. There is an over-abundance of empirical evidence that supports this assertion.

In enterprise mobility today, a roadmap that properly lays out your fundamental approach to app implementation is not only essential but absolutely imperative. Approaching enterprise mobile efforts without guiding principles can lead to poorly received and functionally subpar apps that fall well short of accomplishing your intended objectives. In this article featured on the Appcelerator site, five principles for successful enterprise mobile app implementation have been outlined. These five principles address key aspects of any new or ongoing enterprise mobility projects: Rapid and frequent release cycles: the velocity of business needs should be driving your release cycles not your technical capacity or competency. MVP approach: release Minimum Viable Products to keep the focus "on creating single-purpose, first-class experiences” as Mark Zuckerberg has aptly put it. Utilize analytics: to get timely feedback on end-user acquisition, engagement and usage. Optimize mobile API

The four tiers within enterprise mobile platform put forth by Forrester Research represents the latest emerging trend on enterprise mobility architecture. The key emphasis is on the Aggregation Tier as the primary mobility engagement tier and its importance in federating and aggregating internal services data. One key benefit of implementing this tier is reducing latency on the mobile device when it accesses back-end data from internal data sources. An aggregation tier is utilized to house data in its most optimal consumable format for mobility. The aggregation tier serves as a data staging area designed specifically with the intent of improving back-end data connectivity performance for mobile devices:

I came across two diagrams put out by Kinvey  depicting the big picture in the mobility landscape. One diagram was put out in 2013 and another in 2014. It is interesting how these diagrams were fundamentally altered in a single year to reflect the shifting landscape in mobility. Here is 2013 diagram: And the transformation presented in 2014: The single most interesting differential between 2013 & 2014 maps is the shifting emphasis to Enterprise. Where in 2013 we were looking at the entire mobility landscape, 2014 has brought about a singular focus on the Enterprise segment due to its overarching importance.

Fine tuning mobile apps comes down to looking at how the apps are being utilized once they are implemented and are in the end-users' domain. App analytics provides information that can be used about how any given app performs regarding its end-user acquisition, engagement and usage. Once an app is installed in users' devices, it communicates key information to back-end servers that enable the vendor to monitor the usage patterns. This data, gathered anonymously, assists in the fine tuning process of the app in the upcoming releases. MBaaS (Mobile Back-end as as Service) vendors such as Appcelerator are increasingly incorporating analytics into the tool chest of services they are providing for their customers enabling them to track this critical decision support data. In this featured blog post (click on the image to load), Jeff Haynie, the CEO of Appcelerator outlines some critical mobile metrics and looks at how to interpret them. It is a high level view but also a good