Latest Tech Trend:  “Mobility”

Also see: Hot Spots | Centrino | Mobile Office | Home Monitoring | Remote Surveillance | T Mobile

As it pertains to the rapidly evolving arena of modern technology, one simple word summarizes the future direction of business in Southwest Florida:  “Mobility”.

As CEO of Naples Technology Inc., I have observed the accelerating “unwired” trend firsthand for many years and have recently noticed a substantial increase in the utilization of technologies that allow business owners and employees to become more mobile, efficient, and organized.  Several integrally related factors are at the crux of this trend.

Portable Products and Technologies

Partially due to an increase in the availability and affordability of products such as tablet PC’s, Blackberries, and wireless mobile phones with E mail capabilities, computer users are now able to roam the planet, armed with the high tech tools they need to gather and manage crucial business information.  As wireless products continue to become more affordable, the option of working from home or establishing a mobile office has evolved from being the subject of a Monday morning daydream, into a cost efficient reality.

Wireless Capabilities

Nothing reflects the current mood of business and PC users around the world better than Intel’s successful new “unwired” Centrino advertising campaign, which shows people on the move using wireless notebook PCs in unexpected places, such as golf course driving ranges and airports.  These images are appealing not only to Florida Snowbirds but also to anyone who has ever dreamed of escaping the confines of their cluttered desk, un-tethered by wires, free travel, and work whenever and wherever they desire. 

The ad campaign was created to promote Intel’s new Centrino Mobile Technology, which enables wireless capabilities in smaller, lightweight PCs, bringing greater mobility to laptop users.  Centrino is comprised of three components - the Intel® Pentium® M processor, Intel® 855 Chipset, and Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 network card. Though the technology is still in the early stages and has some limitations, these three components do allow the user to benefit from substantially lighter weight laptops, extended battery life (up to 6 hours) in addition to more efficient processing.  For more information see www.naplestech.com.

What the ads don’t tell you, however, is that in order to get high-speed, Wi-Fi wireless Internet access for your laptop, you must be at least within 250 ft (100 ft in the real world) of a Hotspot (access point).  You must also sign up for a separate service starting at  $29.99 a month in addition o your ISP (see www.tmobile.com for more information). Although the plan is popular in larger metropolitan areas such as New York City and Chicago, currently, there are only five hotspots available at various Starbucks locations in the Naples area.

Remote Access

With software programs such as PC Anywhere and Remote Assistance (built into Windows XP), computer users can access databases and information from their primary computer, via the internet.  The recent acceleration in technologies such as  RVS. (remote video surveillance) are also reflective of consumer demand for staying connected and aware while away from their business or home.

As a result of recent technological advances in both the computing and security industries, it is now possible to remotely monitor your business via live streaming video, from any internet browser in the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Real time, digital video is captured and recorded to a computer hard drive, allowing for playback and review at any time. The business implications are obvious, as are the benefits to homeowners who travel frequently. 

Speed

Not only are we able to achieve a new level of freedom with the proliferation of affordable high tech gadgets, but as an added bonus, we are able to increase the speed at which we research, process, and analyze information.  As a result of advances such as Intel’s groundbreaking Hyper-Threading technology, which more than doubles the speed of a typical processor, computer users can see immediate gains while multitasking. 

All of these recent technology headlines pale by comparison to what the future holds, however.  It sometimes takes awhile for technology to live up to its press but as anyone who has enjoyed the benefits of being unwired will tell you, once you have gone mobile, you’ll never want to go back.