Although much of the noise around mobile apps has been about consumer applications which range from the sublime to the ridiculous - iBeer anyone?, mainstream enterprise applications are now being pushed onto mobile platforms. IBM has released beta versions of its Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.1 software for mobiles and the new software will enable synchronisation of Lotus Domino data with Apple's iPhone as well as support for Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSynch.
Google is also making strides in enterprise mobility and has announced plans to release software in July to make its online Google Apps email and calendar services work effectively on Blackberry devices. Currently, corporate users can set up Blackberries to check Googlemail but it only works in a basic form. The new software, to be called Google Apps Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Server will provide tighter integration with Blackberry technology.
Using the technology, Blackberries will be able to access corporate contact information, calendar entries will be pushed to the device and users will be able to 'star', archive and file messages on both Googlemail and their Blackberry.
After a Masters in Computer Science, I decided that I preferred writing about IT rather than programming. My 20-year writing career has taken me to Hong Kong and London where I've edited and written for IT, business and electronics publications. In 2002 I co-founded Futurity Media with Stewart Baines where I continue to write about a range of topics such as unified communications, cloud computing and enterprise applications.