I ran across an interesting
article by Robert X. Cringely. In it he basically makes the case that Apple is slinking towards what Ubuntu
tried to do earlier this year: give us one device for the pocket and the desktop.
This is what I've been waiting for, and so far it's the best justification I've found for 64 bit processors in phones. Apple is (perhaps) getting its code base and app ecosystem ready for not only 64 bit apps, but apps with variable display sizes.
There's a ton Apple could do to make this easier for themselves, restricting display sizes for one thing. Just about everything is already in place. (A notable exception is mouse support.)
I work with a number of government agencies, and I can easily see substantial groups of users being issued a single device with productivity apps (perhaps the COPE model described below). They'd use them at work and home with larger screens, keyboards and mice, yet have everything with them on the go as well.
In addition to the device supporting this usage model, the enterprise work flow would need to support applications, data and documents in the cloud. Some of the agencies I work with have already moved strongly in this direction, but of course it's not suitable for everybody. Private or on-premise clouds may close this gap.
This approach has the potential to turn both the desktop PC industry and mobility on its head. Mixing metaphors, rather than being the poor stepchild, mobile would take the front seat.
Can you COPE?
Employee ownership of devices has all sorts of complications for the enterprise, with Government more than most. An alternative model is COPE, or Corporately-Owned, Personally-Enabled. The enterprise purchases the device, the employee purchases the service plan, and selects personal applications to install and use (subject to enterprise Mobile Device Management restrictions).
