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By Mel Duvall
IBM announced plans Wednesday to pump $100 million into research over the next five years to develop advanced mobile service capabilities for business and consumer applications.
The company says the research effort will be aimed at creating technology that brings simple, easy-to-use services to the millions of people who have bypassed using the personal computer as their primary means of accessing the Internet. In other words, the company is targeting the young mobile market as well as emerging markets in third world countries where people increasingly are using their cellphones and smartphones to shop, conduct financial transactions, and be entertained.
"Mobile devices are gradually becoming ubiquitous and helping us transcend many boundaries – geographical, economic and social, among others," Guruduth Banavar, global leader of mobile communications research for IBM, said in announcing the initiative.
IBM says the three focus areas for its research will be in mobile enterprise enablement, emerging market mobility, and enterprise end-user mobile experiences. Other sub-areas of research will include analytics, security, privacy, user interface and navigation.
It is now estimated there are more mobile phones in use around the globe than traditional land-line phones. And further growth is expected. According to IBM research, the number of mobile users will grow by 191% between 2006 and 2011 to reach one billion users.
As an example of the types of research to be conducted, IBM pointed to a pilot it recently launched utilizing its "BlueStar" technology. Under the pilot, BlueStar was used to develop automated mobile applications for insurance claims processing. The application made use of GPS technology to allow the insurance company involved in the pilot to automatically dispatch a claims adjuster based on geographic location of the accident and the location of an adjuster and their availability. Once the adjuster was selected, BlueStar assisted with preparing and formatting necessary claims case information for the specific mobile device used by the adjuster and securely transmitted data to the device.
As an example of the type research that will be conducted for the 83% of the world that does not have easy access to the Internet via a PC, IBM pointed to a program in southern India. There it developed applications that allow farmers, repairmen, small business owners and consumers, to post, retrieve or exchange information by voice via their cellphones.
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