Mobile Devices Find A New Home

Following my colleague Andrew Jaquith's eloquent post, I thought it fitting that I add a post about changes in coverage and how they'll affect me. Before I do, however, I want to lend my voice to wish Natalie all the best in her new endeavor, it will be fun to run into her on the "opposite side of the table" in briefings in the future, and I'm thrilled that I'll be able to maintain professional ties with Natalie as she moves into the next phase of her career.

So, what's going to change for me and my coverage at Forrester as a result of Natalie's move? Well, as some of you know due to some communication I had with you last week, as a result of coverage shifting around, I'm very happy to announce that I am taking over Enterprise Mobile Device research for the Infrastructure and Operations team at Forrester to provide Ben Gray with some bandwidth to take on some of Natalie's virtualization coverage, details of which I'll leave best shared by Ben.

What's in store for my research?

• Mobile device hardware: As a an area of intense personal interest for me (ask anyone on the team, I should have a holster belt I'm always toting so many various devices) mobile device hardware is an area of research I can't wait to embark upon. I think we'll see many interesting things over the course of 2010, namely a continuation in the growth of the type of mobile devices enterprise IT departments support and the solutions that are made available to users on those devices, which brings me to the next element of new coverage for me...
• Mobile device operating systems: If there's a battle afoot for the hearts and minds of users - both enterprise and consumer - it's among the various operating systems Android, RIM BlackBerry, iPhone OS, Palm WebOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile and others. I'll be leading Forrester's enterprise IT user-focused coverage on this space.

What's not on my plate?

• Mobile device management: While I'm likely to be looking at mobile device-specific management tools as a the analyst covering mobile device use in the enterprise, the convergence of PC and mobile device management is a topic Ben Gray will be focusing on. In short, Ben and I will be playing roles of primary and secondary analyst, respectively, on this very important area of innovation for IT users.
• Mobile device security: As Andrew noted in his post, he will be taking on client security, which will deal with the anti-virus, anti-malware protection of all client devices and I'll leave matters of security in his more-than-capable hands. 

I will maintain my coverage of Wireless LAN, Remote Access, and Branch Consolidation/Optimization, however, stay tuned for some exciting developments in the networking space over the coming quarter!

Please reach out to me directly with any questions you have.

By Chris Silva

Check out Chris' research

You can follow Chris on  here

Comments

[Ed Gillespie]

Chris: One of the more interesting aspects in mobile technology is the increase in location intelligence, GIS and spatial analysis -- and how organizations can leverage this intelligence to cut costs, strengthen relationships and grow revenues. Doesn't sound like that will fall on your radar screen -- is anyone at Forrester monitoring this space?

[Andre Stegplatten]

The increase in location intelligence, GIS and spatial analysis -- and how organizations can leverage this intelligence to cut costs, strengthen relationships and grow revenues.