Most of us have cell phones these days in technology. While the iPhone has captured a lot of attention lately, and I'm even getting one, there are a lot of smartphones out there that people care using. My wife loves her Blackberry, I've enjoyed my Android G1, and lots of my friends in the Microsoft IT world swear by their Windows Mobile devices. Especially with the Windows Mobile 6.5 enhancements. Maybe I'll consider one when Windows Mobile 7 comes since Windows 7 has really impressed me.

This past week I saw a great piece on the state of mobile BI that struck a chord with me. Phones are fundamentally getting more and more advanced, and it's becoming less likely that many people need to keep a laptop with them when they are out of the office.

What does that mean for software developers and database professionals? I think it means that we might need to begin learning to work more with small applications, such as those sold in the iTunes App Store, Google Marketplace, or Blackberry AppWorld. It seems as though we might be getting back to the need to build multiple applications for different platforms, and I hope there are lots of great tools for making this easier. Browser based applications just don't seem to work great on these mobile devices

However there's a need to ensure that more of our data is accessible remotely, especially from small interfaces like a cell phone, and we allow the business workers to continue to get work done, like viewing reports, analyzing data, or even approving actions on our systems.

I hope that Microsoft recognizes that there's a big need for access to not just data, but also applications on these small platforms. I'd like to see them support not just Windows Mobile, but also Android, the iPhone, and Blackberry's in Visual Studio for developers to extend their work (easily) to these platforms. I'd also like to see things like small applications for SQL Server, especially the BI pieces (like ProClarity) that were available on these other platforms.

If they don't want to do the development, then they ought to make the SDK's and APIs open enough so that someone else can support these other platforms.

It's a highly connected world, and it becomes more so all the time as cell phones advance. Microsoft needs to be sure they keep up, on all platforms.

Steve Jones

Pick of the Week

How Google Manages Data Across Data Centers - A one hour video presentation from a Google engineer about how Google handles syncing data across multiple locations. Includes the phrase "wicked smart."