Over the years we’ve seen the mobile market change dramatically and the rugged handheld PDA along with it. In the beginning only specialist companies used rugged pda’s, usually ones who were specifically looking to scan barcodes or were early adopters of a mobile solution. They were £2-3000+ in price, lasted for years and people were happy!
However jump forward 10 or 15 years and we see a very different mobile market. These days pretty much everyone has a smartphone, and thus an opinion on mobile. Everything’s cheaper, with even the most rugged devices now rarely costing much more than £1200-1500 and everything changes so much quicker. This has given rise to new products hitting the market every week, to a multiple OS environment and multiple technology choice which in turn fuels innovation in the mobile devices we use.
In the past ruggedness meant mission critical, the ability to freeze change and lower risk and it still does. However these days I think we’re seeing the mobile market change where the ability to innovate far outweighs the need to reduce risk. We visit companies who perform software updates every day over the air, who want the best and most up to date technology in order to be better than their competition and who’s users demand the same experiences as they get from their iPhones or they’re just not coming in to work!
Whether it’s the fact that everyone’s desktop solution is going mobile these days or whether its the users or the way companies think about their innovation and ability to compete, we’re seeing the dawn of a new era in the rugged and mobile market. There’s no doubt of that!
Dave @ rugged and mobile
