Specialized Mobile (1980s to 1995)
Three key infrastructure-related milestones occurred between the mid-1970s and early 1990s to set the stage for specialized mobile:
1973 First call made with a mobile phone 1974 First SMS is sent 1991 GSM’s initial rollout in selected geographies
With these key technology components in place, specialized mobile’s first deployments could begin. In this era, mobility was used in highly specialized environments by a workforce that scanned bar codes to collect data about goods’ movements through the supply chain. “Rugged” devices, which were specifically designed for use in harsh industrial settings, debuted. IT found itself in charge of mobile and took the lead in mobile decisions, managing deployments and offering support through established Help Desk operations. In this era, enterprise mobile was a “one size fits all” technology operating in a largely static environment. Changes to operating systems and the mobile infrastructure’s underlying building blocks were few, minimizing disruption to corporate processes and procedures.
In addition to these specialized usages, the introduction of wireless standards, such as GSM and SMS, represented the first foray into creating a foundation for enterprise mobility that would enable rapid growth in subsequent eras.
In the second era, mobility leapfrogged, creating one of the largest and most compressed transformations ever seen in technology. Rugged devices took a back seat to a whole new generation of “smart” phones and tablets. Unlike the majority of technologies that made their way into the enterprise via IT’s sponsorship, enterprise workers were the ones who brought consumer devices through corporations’ front doors. Mobility in this timeframe underwent one of the largest transformations of the high-tech industry as mobile devices moved into the hands of business professionals for the first time.
Consider these milestone introductions of the Enterprise-wide Growth Era:
These major technology achievements heralded an explosion in the demand for connected mobility. Corporate employees pushed for their devices to be able to access corporate backbone networks – unofficially at first and later as part of the BYOD movement. Even “grey collar” employees, who blur the distinction between Operations and Corporate staff, turned to mobile for “always on” access to data in real-time. As a result, IT departments were quickly overrun with deployment and support demands for an increasingly complex array of mobile capabilities.
