It’s been fun to finish up this special Products Issue just days before the debut of the Apple iPhone. I can’t remember ever hearing so much talk about phones. My friends want the Helio Ocean, made by Samsung. Others want to know about the new RAZR. And some colleagues are considering the BlackBerry Curve. It’s made the last few weeks feel more like summer, actually, with the iPhone in the role of long-awaited, big-money blockbuster. And like everyone else, I’m up for a tub of popcorn, a cold Coke and a good view of how all of this hype shakes out. (How will it fare in the enterprise? Consultant Chris Versace shares his thoughts on page 28.)

While consumer shoppers have the luxury of indulging their device lusts, enterprise purchasers, of course, have to be much more savvy. Or as the Yankee Group’s Gene Signorini phrased it, in a recent Mobile Enterprise Web seminar, the newest wave of mobility is encouraging users to choose more strategically and make purchases that are “opportunistic, strategic, holistic.”

The right solution never begins with a device. The catalyst for mobility is the information needs of your mobile workforce. These needs will dictate the information architecture, and the right device follows from there. Likewise, we’ve followed up each feature story in this issue with a sampling of relevant tools. Consider them a shopping starting point—a gague of what’s available.

And in other news, by the time this issue reaches your hands we’ll have re-launched MobileEnterpriseMag.com. We’re making it a nicer place to visit, and I hope you’ll treat it as a quick portal to all of our online resources, such as white papers, research reports, events information, blog entries, current and archived issues and our free Web seminars, which are available for download anytime. These summer days tend to fly by, but I hope you’ll come visit us soon.

 

Michelle Maisto michellem@mobileenterprisemag.com