IBM to invest $100 Million in mobile research
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 18 June 2009, 16:07 IST   |    7 Comments
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IBM to invest $100 Million in mobile research
Bangalore: IBM announced it plans to invest $100 million investment into a research effort aimed at advancing mobile services and capabilities for businesses and consumers worldwide in the next five years. The investment is to create technology that brings simple and easy-to-use services to people who have bypassed using the personal computer as their primary method of accessing the Internet, and instead use their mobile devices for managing large forces of enterprise field workers, conducting financial transactions, entertainment, and shopping. Through this, IBM is aiming to drive new intelligence into the underpinnings of the mobile web to create new efficiencies in business operations and people's day to day lives. The three focus areas for IBM's research investment include emerging market mobility, mobile enterprise enablement and enterprise end-user mobile experiences. Analytics, security, privacy and user interface and navigation will be concentrated on across the research effort. "In today's interconnected world, mobile device are gradually becoming ubiquitous and helping us transcend many boundaries," says Dr. Guruduth Banavar, Director of IBM Research - India and Global Leader of IBM research mobile communication initiative. "With high penetration, simple user interface, and significant cost advantage for end users, mobile telephony holds the future of communication and exchange of information for the enterprise." For the 83 percent of the world that does not have easy access to the Web since via PCs, IBM is helping mobile phone users become more productive. In one such project, IBM Research India has established a pilot program that allows people, including farmers, repairmen and consumers to post, retrieve or exchange timely information via voice on cellphones. Content such as weather and ocean conditions, grain prices, advertisements and available services appointments is created and updated by entrepreneurs and municipalities. According to IBM's Institute for Business Value, the number of mobile users will grow by 191 percent from 2006 to 2011 to reach around one billion users. "Mobility and the associated analytics will change virtually every enterprise business process," said Paul Bloom, Chief Technology Officer, IBM Telecom Research. "It will change the relationship between enterprises and their customers, their employees and their partners."

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