My day on mobile

For the last two days, I have been at offsite away from my desk.  It's times like that when I realize how much more I have become dependent on mobile phone.  Now I have been so used to getting access to information on my fingertip, it is to the point where I cannot imagine walking around without my iPhone.  It almost feels like when I first started to realize computer is useless unless it's connected to Internet.

Connected devices are allowing me to respond to requests at any time.  It also keeps me online so that anyone can reach me at any time.

Let me share the several use cases of my iPhone just today:

• Checked email, found out an urgent customer request, and had a call with support rep
• Texted my colleague to ask him to let me in when I got locked out of conference room
• Logged on to Socialite and posted a content from Content Library
• Approved pending review message by replying to a system email
• Received a text from my wife
• Took some action items from impromptu meeting to prepare for tomorrow schedule
• Reviewed a PowerPoint file shared for a quick scan
• Got a turn-by-turn direction from Apple Maps
• Took a photo and tweeted with #Actiance tag

When I look at these use cases, most can be done by opening up my laptop and starting up an application.  But I did not because I had my iPhone the whole time.  It takes me flick of finger to wake up my phone, and do one of these tasks.  Sometimes I don't even have to unlock the phone because notification gets displayed on the locked screen.

That's the power of mobile.  We can carry it around anytime anywhere, and it takes almost no time to start using it.  Imagine if any one of them were not true.  If so, then mobile devices would not have been as disruptive as is to all of us.

Thanks to my iPhone, I did not have to boot up my laptop unless I was editing the PowerPoint slides or doing a task that involved multiple screens.  I found myself using my phone for doing simple single-screen tasks.

I think that is the key.  Connected mobile user population will increase, as everyone projects.  In order to meet the users' mobile use case the mobile app must be 1) focused, 2) task-oriented and 3) fast.

Soon connected mobile devices will be required of all workers to be effective.

Panorama action at #actiance holiday party twitter.com/jaeho9kim/stat…
— Jae H. Kim (@jaeho9kim) December 13, 2012