miércoles, marzo 28, 2012

Aplicaciones a la nube!!!!

Es cierto que disponemos de un montón de aplicaciones que usamos a diario en la nube: gmail, salesforce, google maps, dropbox, flickr, facebook, twitter... Cada vez son más. Y es legión las que estamos a punto de descubrir. Nos facilitarán la vida, y, lo más importante, ponen a nuestro alcance por un coste nimio o nulo aplicaciones más propias de empresas grandes, con desarrolladores adhoc.



Recientemente he tenido que gestionar las inscripciones a una mesa redonda que estamos organizando desde el Sindicato de Padres. Esta mesa redonda, que versa sobre el uso que hacen nuestros hijos de los dispositivos electrónicos con pantalla, el "Efecto Pantalla" tan temido (se comunican o son "abducidos" por ellas?), necesita gestionar el número de inscritos por temas de aforo y de logística del evento. ¿Cómo se puede hacer de forma sencilla y gratuita? Me puse manos a la obra. Seguro que encontraba cómo hacerlo. Busqué en google, y encontré el siguiente artículo: "6 Free Online Event Management Websites", en el que hacía referencia a: Amiando, Eventbrite, Eventsbot, Eventzilla, Planetreg y uticketit. Los probé todos, y finalmente me decanté por el primero.



La mayoría no son gratuitos al 100%, y no solucionaban un problema muy sencillo: que puedas crear un microsite para registrarse a un Evento Gratuito y puedas obtener un listado de los confirmados.


Amiando lo soluciona, y de forma muy elegante: http://www.amiando.com/efectepantalla


Esta experiencia me ha llevado a escribir este artículo, no sólo para compartir este site, sino también para suscitar este debate: ¿Cuántas aplicaciones se van a escribir en la nube, para hacernos la vida más sencilla?¿Cuál es su modelo de negocio?¿Es sostenible?

Hace años que uso Doodle, para evitar la cadena de decenas de mails que se producen al tomar una decisión entre un grupo de gente, acerca de una fecha para organizar algo o para decidir entre varias opciones. Os lo recomiendo.

Lo que no entiendo tampoco es el modelo de negocio... Me he vuelto muy pragmático últimamente...

miércoles, marzo 14, 2012

Más ancho de banda!!!!

En estas épocas de crisis, recibimos muchas llamadas de nuestros clientes referidas, sobre todo, a 2 puntos: reducción de los costes actuales, y sobre todo, incremento del ancho de banda disponible. Las empresas han empezado a experimentar en sus redes el uso de dispositivos Smartphone y tablets, que conmutan a WIFI para ahorro de costes, utilizando como transporte la red de la empresa e internet.
El nuevo iPAD (3 o cómo se llame), va en esta línea: video de alta resolución 1080p HD, iCloud (almacenamiento del perfil y datos en la nube de Apple), cámara de 5 Mpixels... ¿Y si, aparece un nuevo release de iOS -el sistema operativo de los dispositivos Apple- y casi todos los usuarios de la red deciden descargarlo al mismo tiempo? ¿Qué sucederá con la salida a internet corporativa? Pues un colapso. Y, haciendo números, si unos 15 usuarios de iPAD decidieran actualizar su iTunes al mismo tiempo, colapsarían una red de 2Mbps simétricos garantizados (nada que ver con un ADSL, por cierto, sin garantía la mayoría) durante varios minutos. Es la comoditización de la informática, el uso de dispositivos domésticos para usos profesionales. Y es una tendencia imparable. ¿Estamos preparados en España? Pues ya contesto yo: Ni de broma.

jueves, marzo 01, 2012

Mobile Global Congress 2012

Pues ya está, ya ha pasado. Hemos visto mucha innovación, muchos nuevos terminales (potentísimos todos, 4-quad, etc), tablets hasta en los lavabos, LTE, Femto-cells, android omnipresente (tanto que RIM y Windows mobile parecían arrinconados en el pabellón "Apps Planet")... Aunque luego anexaré un artículo que me ha gustado, como resumen de la feria, yo lo veo así:


  1. Las nuevas aplicaciones móviles están colapsando las redes móviles. Urge desplegar LTE y utilizar las actuales redes fijas (con WIFI) para descongestionar. Algunos, cómo Cisco, apuestan por el nuevo mercado de las Femto-cells. Veremos.

  2. Tablets por todas partes. La mayoría android. ¿Dónde está Apple?

  3. Terminales con una capacidad de proceso y gráfica espectacular. Destacamos el nuevo Samsung note, la gama Ascend-D de Huawei o el Lumia de Nokia.

  4. LTE ready para despliegue, y muchos vendors ofreciendo tecnología para desplegar una BTS en el sitio más inhóspito del mundo.

  5. El mundo de las aplicaciones explotando everywhere. Barcelona tiene, realmente, una gran oportunidad que debe saber aprovechar.

En fin, mi sexta edición ya, y esperando la siguiente...Y anexo el artículo prometido de "Mobile Europe":

It's been a riot...

By general accord this has been a very productive Mobile World Congress. Exhibitors, never slow to point the finger if booth traffic is down, have almost universally said that they have had more meetings with potential and actual customers than ever. The GSMA had trailed the fact that this would be its biggest ever show, and it certainly felt like it on Monday and Tuesday as the halls filled up, and the Conference sessions played out to packed houses.The Association also managed to negotiate some kind of last minute deal with the Transport Union not to strike, and on Wednesday evening successfully evacuated 30 thousand odd attendees out the "back door" of Congress as Barcelona's Mossas did their best to turn a protest into a riot out the front.
Also rioting was the EC's Steely Neelie Kroes, who picked a Twitter fight with Vodafone's CEO, Vittorio Colao. To use the playground jargon that seems appropriate, Colao started it, when on Monday he said in his operator keynote: "Does Europe need employment or does Europe need rate cuts? We should stop having this continuous intervention on prices and let the industry reinvest the money," he said. But on Tuesday, Digital Agenda Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, said, on Twitter, that she would not be intimidated."Message to Vittorio and Vodafone: I call your bluff. I take the side of the Vodafone customer. Remember, if consumers lose their fear of using their smartphones and tablets when traveling across Europe, operators will benefit as well," said Kroes.
This Twitter intervention made a change from her tactic a couple of years ago, which was to hold an impromptu press conference on the steps of the Congress, efectively gatecrashing a GSMA-managed press event (featuring the top industry CEOs) that was not proceeding to her liking. What has she planned for next year? Perhaps a Mobile World Live streamed Keynote: going toe to toe for 12 Rounds in the Ring with Mr Bernabe?Bluff or not, the operators tend to get their party-line in place before MWC, arriving with a top line message. They say they want to invest, and they seem to be doing just that - giving some serious buying signals in the areas of small cells, WiFi control and integration, backhaul, customer analytics and in high capacity platforms that will allow them to apply security, policy and charging in real time, at massive scale. And what is more, the vendors have turned up with some actually quite interesting products and developments. Alcatel-Lucent, for example, is on the warpath with its lightRadio cube and network products. We saw a glimpse of its product path, which included a dual radio metrocell, supporting LTE and 3G, as well as a high power metrocell for rural use (a ruracell?). Very interestingly, there was also talk of an extreme broadband Cube, that is being thought about in terms of operators sharing the radio. This would be transformational, and have a real economic impact in the small cell market. Alcatel-Lucent had also placed 8 lightRadio picocells around the Fira, operating LTE in 2.6GHz spectrum from Telefonica along with two macro cells. We saw a speed test on one LTE device show 35Mbps throughput, and vanishingly low latency. The handset vendors were also in a weapons race, arming themselves with 40 megapixel warheads, and quad core missiles. Samsung probably won the "cute marketing" race with its Galaxy Note, employing artists to sketch caricatures of attendees on the tablet. Huawei unveiled a shiny black horse in front of the fountain to publicise its Ascend D phone range. Placed in front of the slightly fascistic towers at the top of the Avenue, it looked vaguely threatening, as if about to trample a rioter underfoot, rather than aspirational. And speaking of threatening, we heard from one exhibitor whose stand was visited by some "phantom" operator representatives who didn't seem quite right. (Big clue, they weren't remotely from the country they claimed to come from). When challenged, they fled quickly, having offered Googlemail addresses as evidence of their operator credentials. Espionage is live and kicking, still, at MWC. Next year the event will be in the new Fira location, which is bigger than the grand old dame on the Avenue. We're already hearing that the major vendors have booked up large amounts of space, putting a premium on booth space for the rebooking of smaller vendors. It's a shake-up, which is not a bad thing, but it's giving the vendors a bit of a headache at the moment.
So we might have quite a different looking exhibition next year, it seems. Bring it on. But for now, it's time for some sleep and reflection.We'll back next week catching up and following up on more news and analysis from the event, as well as a whole clutch of videos. Then our post-show round-up digital issue will be out very soon after, putting all our content into one place.
Adios.
(By Keith Dyer, Editor, Mobile Europe)