The result will be a new market for mobile engagement providers that will grow to $32.4 billion by 2018 (see Figure 1 below). No vendor can do all of this today, but suppliers from six categories — digital agencies, management consultancies, mobile specialists, product development specialists, systems integrators, and telcos — are chasing the prize. The payoff for vendors that make this investment will be to earn a seat at your table as a long-term partner in your engagement success.

Figure 1 Mobile Services Will Soar Globally To $32.4 Billion By 2018

Version one of your mobile app was just a standalone pretty face. But in versions two, three, and four, your mobile app will be the new face of systems of engagement, with a goal of helping people “take action in their immediate context and moments of need.”

Fulfilling this mission – and reaping the benefits of a close service connection to your customers and employees – means solving a much bigger problem than shrinking down your Web site or screen-scraping your SAP system. It means serving customers and employees whose minds have shifted to expect anything, anywhere, at any time.  If version one of the app cost $250,000, it’s not unusual for version two to cost $2 million.

You’ll spend that money deciphering what your customers really want to do on the mobile devices then building dramatically simplified mobile experiences on complex systems of engagement. You’ll also re-engineer your core processes, systems, and products to help people in their “mobile moments.”

This new $32.4 billion market is comprised of three kinds of services:

1. Mobile engagement services: This includes the complex services for building a full system of engagement: ethnographic research, experience design, mobile strategy, business process re-engineering, redesigning middleware, analytics, system consolidation, and upgrades to back-end services. Cloud delivery, third-party services, and platform operations are not included.
2. Mobile device and app management services: This includes the per-device fees for managing devices and the apps that run on them: mobile device management and mobile app management. It could include the setup and management of a corporate app store to manage app and policy updates. It does not include monthly telecom or wireless broadband expenses.
3. Mobile app development services: This includes developing and maintaining native and hybrid apps for smartphones and tablets as well as mobile websites, including responsive design. It also includes using existing APIs to provide connections to the back-end systems. It does not include experience design.Ted Schadler is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research serving CIOs. You can follow him on Twitter @TedSchadler.

The smallest independent mobile network operator in the UK is the only one in the business to sell a “starter kit”, one which offers a USB modem pre-loaded with data that can last for a significant amount of time.

For example, you can get a 12GB pack, which is basically 12 months at 1GB, for a mere £80 from Argos, Maplin and Very (part of Littlewoods), a price that includes a 3G modem that can be used as a memory stick and the knowledge that you won’t need to sign for an expensive contract.

What’s more, Very has a “£30 off £60” promotional code (ZZ450), valid for first time customers, that brings the price of the dongle to a mere £49 excluding delivery.

Get two for £128 and type XV188 in the code section at checkout to delay the payment till May 2011.

Therefore, you get 24 months worth of 1GB broadband for £128 at £5.33 a month; that’s roughly half what you’d pay at O2 for the same data allowance although you get unlimited WiFi from the latter.

That said, you won’t be charged extra if you go over the 1GB limit per month and you can carry forward anything what you haven’t consumed in the past month; just bear in mind that there’s a one-year limit on the package.

Resource:
http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/5/10/forget-o2-vodafone-3-uk-offers-best-ipad-data-plan/