"What's IBM Doing at a #Mobile Conference, Anyway?"
That was a tweet that went out at Venture Beat's Mobile Beat conference in San Francisco. Amidst mobile industry shakers, sponsors and speakers like TapJoy, Kontangent, New Relic and App Annie was a glaring standout: Big Blue.
A surprise for some, but it shouldn't be. Three years ago Forbes reported on IBM's "Under the Radar" mobile activity clearly stating, "IBM will never sell a phone, but it most definitely does have a mobile strategy." Despite several organizational changes, acquisitions, and divesting, IBM has held steady as the fourth largest company in terms of market capitalization.
Technorati had the opportunity to interview IBM's Director of Mobile Enterprise Marketing, Ed Brill to learn more about IBM's MobileFirst initiative. According to Brill, IBM launched MobileFirst in February this year to "help clients embrace the business of mobile." A few months ago, IBM also announced IBM MessageSight, designed to complement and extend IBM MobileFirst solutions. Built on the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) technology, IBM designed it enable organizations to manage and communicate with the billions of mobile devices and sensors found in systems such as automobiles, traffic management systems, smart buildings and household appliances.
The company recognized the evolution of consumer behavior early on, and set-out to expand the power of the mobile user.
Now, as part of the collaboration between Sprint and IBM, Sprint becomes the first mobile carrier to use IBM MessageSight. "Sprint chose IBM MessageSight to enhance its customized services by quickly routing information from the thousands of sensors in each car, while connecting and infusing that data with intelligence to improve decision-making," Brill reports. The solution, we're told, enables automakers to more easily and economically connect maintenance and operational sensors back to dealers, or interconnect mobile devices, security, navigation and locking/unlocking capabilities.
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