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Q6 Why Are Mobile Systems Increasingly Important? 143

Hardware Software Data Procedures People
Impact of mobile Many, many more Compact interfaces; More data, but Always on, always Ability to thrive
systems growth mobile devices new technology for more information? at work. Employee in a dynamic
will be sold. active users; Less device real lifestyle becomes environment
application scaling. estate means fewer hybrid of personal more important.
ads possible. and professional.
Industry changes PCs less important; html5, css3, and Loss of control. Personal mobile More part-time
high demand JavaScript increase Ad model in devices at work. employees and
(and requirement) capability of danger? independent
for innovative thin-clients. contractors.
devices as well
as cheap copycats.
Career Jobs for mobile New technology Reporting and data Innovative use of Independent
opportunities device sales, levels the playing mining even just-in-time data. contractors
marketing, eld for html5. more important. Need for adjusting (and some
support. Business expertise Design of e‹ective business processes employees) work
needed for mobile mobile reports. gives another where and when
requirements. New premium to non- they want. What
companies! routine problem is this new social
solvers. organism?

Figure 4-22
Five Components of Mobile
Change and Opportunity

from the very smallest to the very largest, while providing a user experience appropriate to
the device’s size.
Rapid technology change in mobile software continually levels the playing field. Today,
for example, expert programmers in Objective-C better not relax. html5 and css3 are gain-
ing popularity, and they will reduce the need for Objective-C expertise. Further, as you
learned in Q5, while languages like Objective-C are difficult and time-consuming to learn,
html5, css3, and JavaScript are less so. With the reduced barrier to entry, hordes of less ex-
perienced and less educated new entrants will appear as competitors. You might be one of
them.
Not a computer programmer? Are you a business analyst? Do you want to be Drew at
AllRoad Parts? If so, Jason, Kelly, and Lucas will rely on you to provide requirements for AllRoad
Parts’ mobile applications. The capabilities of mobile software in two years will be drastically
different from those today. How do you, as Drew, respond? Maybe an html5 application is all the
company needs. Maybe it need not even consider a native app. AllRoad Parts and many other
organizations will need employees with the skills and abilities to assess the contribution that
mobile technology can make to their strategies.
Additionally, continually evolving software means new and exciting entrepreneurial
opportunities. Are you sorry that you missed the early days working at Facebook? Right now,
somewhere, there is another Mark Zuckerberg starting . . . well, what? Because of the con-
tinually changing software environment, new opportunities abound and will continue to do
so for decades.

Data

Many more mobile systems mean an incredible amount of new data, data that professionals can
use to create much more information. But, as you learned in Chapter 1, more data doesn’t nec-
essarily mean more information. In fact, many business professionals believe they’re drowning
in data while starving for information. What can be done with all of this mobile-systems data
to enable humans to conceive information of greater value to them? Data mining and better
reporting are possibilities for you that are discussed in Chapter 9.