Mobility and Connectivity

by Jon Collins and Dale Vile

During the middle part of 2007, Freeform Dynamics ran a series of Web based surveys looking at
the technology trends that impact mobile behaviour, and specifically what business users are
looking for in terms of mobile devices and service combinations. There were three surveys in total:

1. How organisations are approaching mobile service provision (1143 respondents)

2. Collaboration trends and their impact on mobility (1457 respondents)

3. Expectations of mobility solutions over the short to medium term (694 respondents)

In addition, a number of mobility questions were included in our September 2007 barometer survey.
These surveys together give us a good idea of what‟s driving mobility-related plans and activity
across Europe, in the USA and elsewhere, and in this report we collate some of the highlights.

It is probably worth noting that the main sections of the report were originally written as stand-alone
articles for online publication. We have pulled these together and tweaked them to „smooth‟ the
flow, but have tried to preserve the integrity and spirit of each individual article. We hope you enjoy
the less formal writing style, but also ask you to forgive any joins that may be still apparent.

We should also note that the “self-selecting” nature of Web based surveys used as the foundation
for the report means the samples will be biased towards those with knowledge of or interest in
mobility, and absolute percentages will reflect this. Please therefore be careful about taking the
numbers too literally. As we shall see, however, the limitations do not prevent us from generating
some great insights from relative contrasts and comparisons.

So let‟s begin with some context and a general look at the way we communicate with each other,
which is increasingly leading us into the general domain of „social networking‟.

Content Contributors: Dale Vile & Jon Collins

Dale Vile

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Dale is a co-founder of Freeform Dynamics, and today runs the company. As part of this, he oversees the organisation’s industry coverage and research agenda, which tracks technology trends and developments, along with IT-related buying behaviour among mainstream enterprises, SMBs and public sector organisations.