IN THIS ISSUE

Adopting a MobileEnterprise ApplicationPlatform ................................1

Delta Technology and South Africa's Energy &Combustion ServicesDemonstrate Mobility in Action ................................3

Sybase Unwired Platform:Integrated Approach toMobile Applications............4

Gartner Research:Magic Quadrant for MobileEnterprise ApplicationPlatforms, 2008 ..................5

Issue 12009

Adopting a Mobile EnterpriseApplication PlatformIt wasn't so long ago that mobile devices were cool – objects of envy among those who weretied to their desktops.As cool as they were, as these devices began to appear in the workplace,they were not immediately welcomed by IT departments and not considered part of theenterprise. In fact, in many organizations, the devices were considered rogue elements – more acause of consternation than of celebration.

Fast-forward just a few years and the mobile enterprise is now mainstream. Not only are mobiledevices ubiquitous in most organizations, but the approach to dealing with these devices isevolving from administering siloed, one-off, tactical deployments to managing strategicdeployments that are integrated into the overall enterprise.

According to Gartner,“by 2010, 50 percent of enterprises will have migrated away from tacticalmobile application silos (supporting a single application) to strategic platforms capable ofsupporting multiple applications, managing devices and securing data and transport.”1

This is certainly a believable assertion – perhaps even conservative. Historically, new technologyappears on the scene and is employed tactically.As the benefits of the technology grow moreapparent, implementation increases – most often via departmental deployments, which ultimatelyforce the issue of integration to achieve manageability, security and cost-effectiveness.

What begins as a fascination with neat, new technology quickly evolves into a strategic solutionthat conveys a competitive advantage and presents a challenge to IT departments.

Tactical Deployments Don't Address Strategic ConcernsMobile devices first appeared as cell phones and PDAs with fairly straightforward functionality -wireless communication and contact management. It wasn't long before these devices gainedemail capabilities. From there, the obvious next step was to enable them to run businessapplications. For some time now, it has been common for a broad range of mobile devices to runCRM, HR, sales and field force automation and other business-critical applications.

The problem is that as various departments deploy their tactical mobile solutions, complexity,security and cost begin to rear their unwelcome heads.These concerns grow especially acutewhen departments begin running multiple applications that require access to various back-endsystems and databases on a small group of devices.The problem gets even stickier asdeployments expand rapidly across multiple departments, leaving an exponential increase in thenumber of disparate systems running independently.

That's the situation many organizations face today. So, what's an already beleaguered IT managerto do?

Featuring research from

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An Architectural SolutionWhat's needed is a strategy to addressthe entire complex scenario – not merelya slice of it.What IT managers, applicationdevelopers and systems integration firmsalike want is a single, strategicarchitectural platform that provides a setof comprehensive services that alloworganizations to mobilize appropriatedata and business processes using anymobile device.

More specifically, the platform shouldfurnish:

• Data services to allow a uniformway to access heterogeneous datasources, ranging from structuredand unstructured data to pre-packaged applications

• Mobile middleware services toprovide the bridge betweenenterprise data and mobile devicesin development and deploymentenvironments

• Messaging services that support theuse of SMS/MMS services foralerting, messaging and datatransport

• Device services that present auniform interface, enablingapplication development anddeployment across a range ofdevice platforms

• Development tooling that plugsinto existing developmentenvironments and provides end-to-end easy and quick development ofmobile applications

• An administrative console thatgives IT a single view throughwhich to manage, secure anddeploy mobile data applications anddevices

By enabling strategic mobile deploymentsinstead of the tactical or siloed approach,organizations can realize significantbenefits including a reduced total cost ofownership, easier applicationdevelopment and deployment, simpleback-end integration with enterpriseapplications such as SAP and Remedythat leverage databases or ServiceOriented Architecture, and centralizedmanagement and security, even as theorganization's mobile user populationcontinues to grow.

Adopting a MobilePlatform StrategyMany organizations today are still tryingto address these issues at thedepartmental level.After all, this is wheremany mobile deployments originated.Andmany IT departments are content to letthe folks in various departments attemptto tackle these issues.

Most mobility experts, however,recommend that IT departmentsrecognize the inevitable and step up todeal with mobility challenges by devising acorporate-wide mobility strategy.

Gartner provides the “Rule of Three,”which states that “multichannel gatewayapproaches offer significant advantages in

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted December 2008 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission.The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace atand for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does notendorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quad-rant.The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, withrespect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Strategic Mobile Deployments is published by Sybase. Editorial supplied by Sybase is independent of Gartner analysis.All Gartner research is © 2009 by Gartner, Inc.and/or its Affiliates.All rights reserved.All Gartner materials are used with Gartner’s permission and in no way does the use or publication of Gartner research indicateGartner’s endorsement of Sybase’s products and/or strategies. Reproduction and distribution of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden.The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacyof such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof.The readerassumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results.The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

three situations: (1) when there are threeor more applications, (2) when there arethree or more targeted OSs or platforms,and (3) when they involve the integrationof three or more back-end systems.”1

How to BeginSo, how should your organization goabout selecting and deploying a mobileenterprise platform?

First, consult with the industry leaders inenterprise mobilization – vendors,consultants and other experts specializingin managing and mobilizing informationfrom the data center to the point ofaction, wherever that may be.

Also, understand that the most effectivemobile enterprise platform is not likely tobe a brand new product built fromscratch. Instead, the most effective mobileenterprise platform will integrate existing,industry-leading components that havealready proven their effectiveness indemanding real-world environments.Tohandle all of an organization's mobileapplication requirements, a mobileplatform should combine toolingintegrated with standard developmentenvironments for quick development,deployment across heterogeneousdevices and device managementcapabilities.

Once deployed, the benefits will accruequickly. IT will be freed to devote theirresources to revenue-generating activities,such as new application development.

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(within reason), and organizations will beable to monitor and manage largenumbers of devices, ensure enterprisesecurity, protect sensitive information andcomply with pertinent regulatoryrequirements.

And, of course, mobile employees will beable to deliver better customer service,anytime and anywhere.

Source: Sybase

Application developers, including 3rdparty application providers, can focus ontheir core competencies without havingto concern themselves with buildingmultiple interfaces. End users will retaintheir freedom to choose mobile devices

1Magic Quadrant for Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms, 2008, Publication Date: 18 December 2008, by William Clark and Michael J. King, ID Number:G00162969.

The rapid proliferation of mobile devicesand solutions across enterprises begs forproven, strategic solutions that can facilitatemanagement, support and continuedgrowth. Here are just a couple examples ofhow companies are using Sybase mobilesolutions to gain those capabilities.

Managing and Future-Proofing MobilityIn the current business environment,operating a commercial airline has grownextremely challenging. Delta Air Lines, withservice to more worldwide destinationsthan any other carrier, is under enormouspressure to increase productivity andefficiency, and contain costs, whileoptimizing customers' experiences.

To address these issues, the airline recentlyturned to its Delta Technology subsidiaryto develop a Field Engineer MobilitySolution to increase its field engineers'efficiency by enabling them to accesscritical back-end systems and receive emailanytime, anywhere.That would allow thefield engineers to identify and resolveproblems, often before the problemsaffected frontline employees or customers.

Delta wanted to create this application ina way that would allow it to develop anddeploy future mobile applications withouthaving to start from scratch each time.That meant building it on an enterprise-wide mobile infrastructure that wouldallow Delta to manage and support anydevice, any wired or wireless connection

Delta Technology and South Africa’s Energy &Combustion Services Demonstrate Mobility in Action

in either synchronous or asynchronousmode, and integrate easily with its existingback end applications and databases.

“We selected the Sybase mobility platform,”explains Rich Meurer, advisory systemengineer for field operations at DeltaTechnology “because it furnished us with adevelopment and management environmentin a single offering, providing the secure,scalable mobile software platform, and thecore integration, synchronization, messagingand mobile data management capabilitieswe needed to address our immediateneeds, while positioning us to deliveradditional mobile functionality quickly andcost-effectively in the future.”

The Field Engineer Mobility Solutionprovides Delta Technology's 220 fieldengineers with anywhere, anytime accessto business-critical information, incidentand asset management systems, andintegrated mobile communication tools.The solution enables theseengineers to receive, report and resolve

incidents in real time, wherever theyhappen to be – in the terminal, at thegate or in an administrative office.

Mobile Information SystemIs Key to Managing FuelCostsWhen it comes to improvingoperational efficiency and reducing fuelconsumption and emissions, energycompanies are not exempt.According to Mark Lilje, businessdevelopment director at the SouthAfrican energy company, Energy &Combustion Services (ECS), any businessthat operates a fleet and that is notmanaging its fuel consumption verycarefully is literally throwing money away.

“With the high fuel costs, smart companydirectors are looking for ways to cut outlogistics costs to remain competitive andprofitable,” Lilje explains.“Information iskey to achieving this goal where fleets ofvehicles are concerned.”

Harnessing the required data, however,has proven to be more easily said thandone in the field where data collectionhas traditionally relied on paper-basedcollection methods dependent on driverinput.“Drivers come back withhandwritten sheets containing a multitudeof errors. Even simple errors such asinconsistent spellings of locationsinterfere with the ability to leverageinformation effectively,” says Lilje.

“In addition to enabling us to achievethe objectives we had for the FieldEngineer Mobility Solution, the Sybasemobility platform has really helped laythe foundation for future mobiledeployments,” says David Tyler, themanager of middleware frameworks atDelta Technology.“It will be the basis ofour mobile solutions going forward.”

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To automate data collection to make itmore accurate and more quickly availablefor management review and analysis, ECScreated a mobile application calledeFLEET, using Sybase mobile technology.

“eFLEET,” says Lilje,“includes twocomponents – a Web-based back-end

system and a mobile solution, which is builton the Sybase mobility platform.” He addsthat all of the mobile development workwas done by Sybase professional services.

Using eFLEET, all workflow information iscaptured electronically and passedautomatically to ECS' back-end systems

for reporting and analysis purposes.Thisprovides real-time visibility into criticalsupply chain processes including resourceutilization, fuel utilization, vehicleemissions, and more, enabling moreeffective management and analysis.Thatleads to significant cost reductions,increased operational efficiency andimproved customer service.

Source: Sybase

Sybase Unwired Platform: Integrated Approach to Mobile ApplicationsSybase Unwired Platform is a mobileenterprise application platform thatsimplifies the development, deploymentand management of mobile enterpriseapplications. It addresses the difficultmobile application challenges of backoffice integration, secure access formobile devices into the enterprise,reliable push data synchronization, andsupport for multiple device types.

An integrated graphical designer is usedto define Mobile Business Objects whichefficiently connect mobile devices toenterprise Web Services and databases,or to applications such as SAP orRemedy through plug-in applicationconnectors. Sybase Unwired Platformprovides market-leading devicemanagement, tooling, and integration withVisual Studio and Eclipse environmentsfor quick development and deploymentof smart client mobile applications onheterogeneous devices across theenterprise.

About SybaseSybase (NYSE:SY) is the industry leaderin delivering mission-critical enterprisesoftware to manage, analyze and mobilizeinformation.The company holds marketleadership positions in mobile devicemanagement, wireless email, mobilemiddleware platforms and database andsynchronization technologies. Sybaseprovides a comprehensive platform andset of solutions to mobilize data andbusiness processes.

Source: Sybase

Key TechnologyDifferentiators

• Out-of-the-box integration- Databases (Sybase, Oracle, IBM,

Microsoft)- Enterprise apps (SAP, Remedy, etc.)- Web Services

• Support for heterogeneous deviceplatforms- Windows Mobile,Windows 32

(Laptops/Tablets), BlackBerry

• RAD tooling- Data source integration - Device application development

• Mobilization of multiple applicationsand business processes

• Integrated device management and security

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• Many organizations aredecentralized, so dictating a singlemobile enterprise platform isdifficult. In many cases, tacticalplatforms/tools will augmentstrategic ones.These organizationswill often be driven to third-partydevice management and securityvendors, or move toward a morearchitectural approach in the future.

• Gartner's multichannel "Rule ofThree" states that multichannelgateway approaches offer significantadvantages in three situations: (1)when there are three or moreapplications, (2) when there arethree or more targeted OSs orplatforms, and (3) when they involvethe integration of three or moreback-end systems. Gartner'sobservation is that this multichannelRule of Three is not met today in asignificant number of instances.Therefore, organizations that arepredisposed or need to build mobileapplications are opting for tacticalmobile (rather than multichannel)development. Others are choosingpackaged mobile applicationplatforms that offer varying degreesof customization capabilities. Ourfact base (size of deployments,vendor annual revenue, buying anddecision patterns of the enterprises,and increased competition on price)indicates that this market hasmatured to a point where thevendors that have platforms but areprimarily focused on applicationscan be split off into a separateMarketScope - packaged mobileapplication platforms.

We've renamed the multichannelaccess gateway market to themobile enterprise applicationplatform market, reflecting itsmaturation, Apple's entry, andthe move of mobile tools andplatforms to the applicationdevelopment mainstream. More-stringent requirements havenarrowed the number of vendors.

WHAT YOU NEED TOKNOWGartner has broadened this MagicQuadrant to consider the strategicmultichannel tools and gateways, as wellas the platforms and tools that can beused tactically to implement andsupport mobile enterprise applications.This is in line with our observationsfrom 2006 to 2008:

• Most significantly, Microsoft,Appleand Research In Motion (RIM)have developed broad mobileapplication development (AD)toolkits that are focused on single-platform development rather thanmultichannel development. In thecases where a simple approach(such as a single, complexapplication for a single target) isrequired, these represent viablelong-term choices.We estimatethat this approach ranges from40% to 70% of deployedenterprise applications, dependingon industry. Gartner believes thatthis percentage will decrease asmore enterprises facemultichannel requirements tosupport greater device andoperating system (OS) diversity.

Magic Quadrant for Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms

Accordingly, we have split the market usingmore-stringent technology, financial andgeographic criteria.This is reflected in theupdates to the criteria for the packagedmobile application platform MarketScope.The vendors remaining in this MagicQuadrant are focused on enterprises andindependent software vendors that wantto build their own thick-client mobileapplications with a strategic multichannelviewpoint or in tactical situations.Withmore-stringent requirements, the numberof vendors has narrowed, leavingcompanies with end-to-end mobileplatform functionality and balance sheetsmore likely to withstand the currenteconomic conditions.A set of theseremaining vendors also offer packagedmobile applications, which may increasetheir attractiveness in some situations.

The offerings in this Magic Quadrant willcontinue to grow in importance toenterprises during the next three to fiveyears. Mobile seat deployments grew twiceas fast as the overall application market in2007 and through the first three quartersof 2008. Enterprise adoption ofmobile/multichannel platform functionalitywill slow somewhat with the economy, butwe expect that investments driven by costoptimization of business processes tocontinue due to the high return oninvestment (ROI) and relatively quick (lessthan 12 months) break-even paybackcycles.We anticipate that this will continueduring the next five years and lead tomore-sophisticated, context-awareapplications, especially when deployed inconjunction with unified communicationsplatforms to orchestrate presence, as wellas location-aware voice and line-of-business applications.

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Large enterprises with significantpopulations of mobile employees shouldstandardize on one or two mobileenterprise application platform (MEAP)vendors.Those who have diverseapplications, networks and devicerequirements need to strongly considerthe multichannel capability of the MEAPthey choose; those who do not havediverse requirements can focus on asmaller set of target devices and may findthat narrower offerings suffice.

As the criteria significantly changed, so didthe number of vendors in the MagicQuadrant - dropping from 23 to 11.Tosummarize:

• Several vendors moved from thisMagic Quadrant to the packagedmobile application MarketScope.

• Some are strong best-of-breedvendors that focus on applicationsand associated value propositionsrather than platforms.

• Three vendors left the marketentirely as they and/or theirinvestors struggled to see value inremaining as the premium forwireless seats dropped andcompetition increased.

• Several other promising vendorsfailed to meet the criteria for thisMagic Quadrant or the newpackaged mobile applicationMarketScope.

STRATEGIC PLANNINGASSUMPTIONThe combined MEAP and packaged mobileapplication platform markets will top $1billion by 2010.

MAGIC QUADRANTMarket OverviewThere are fundamental, unchangingchallenges in delivering multichannelbusiness applications, whether to mobiledevices,Web clients or point-of-salekiosks. Unlike PCs, the target devices havediffering OSs, screen sizes, resolutions,

input mechanisms and output media (voiceand data), and may attach intermittently(sometimes causing their IP addresses tochange) and/or operate over multipletypes of networks that have varyingbandwidth and latency characteristics.Thisscenario requires not the fixedclient/server architecture of the PC world,but one that adapts dynamically to eachscenario.The PC world has traditionallysought lower upfront-cost softwareinvestments followed by relatively few, butmajor, upgrades.

Because of the requirements of constantlychanging groups of users and the rapidlyevolving device environment, mobilityrequires more-frequent application upgradesand additions. Multichannel software

addresses these more-frequent upgrades byproviding (for a larger upfront investmentfor software) the promises of lower costsand greater agility as the target deviceschange by necessitating only changes tosmall, isolated components of software.Mobile AD remains just as complex as inprevious years as it moves into themainstream because of diversity andmultichannel considerations. Enterprises thatattempt to support a range of mobiledevelopment platforms face these issues:

• Higher development costs, becauseskills must be maintained formultiple platforms, tools and, insome cases, programming ordatabase languages

Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms

challengers leaders

niche players visionaries

completeness of vision

ab

ility

to

exe

cu

te

As of December 2008

Sybase

Antenna Software

Dexterra

SAP

Oracle

IBM

Apple

SycloResearch In MotionMicrosoft

Spring Wireless

Source: Gartner (December 2008)

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• Each has separate software stacksand delivery methods for datatransport

• Complexities with testing

• An increase in software defects:• When applications must coexist

on client devices• Conflicts with managing network

connections on mobile devices• An inability to administer security

and devices from a central pointof control

• Reduced battery performance asapplications use divergent deliverymethods/paths

• Higher support and services costs

Security and management concerns, drivenby regulatory requirements and high-profiledata breaches, have driven businesses tolook at IT for standardized and more cost-effective methods to ensure the securityand the management of mobile devices.

These factors suggest that IT organizationsneed to evaluate MEAPs for AD,deployment and management capabilities inthe future. In cases where enterprises needto support complex approaches (multipleapplications across multiple back-endsystems targeting a range of mobiledevices), more-sophisticated multichannelfeatures will weigh more heavily. From 2002through 2007, the market for mobile ADplatforms was served by three types ofofferings - application-oriented multichannelaccess gateways (MAGs), infrastructureMAGs and third-generation language (3GL)integrated development environments(IDEs). However, during 2006 and 2007, webegan observing changes in offerings and inhow enterprises were selecting mobile ADtools.As background, let's examine ourthree predictions from last year.

• The MAG market will top $1 billionby 2010.

• By 2010, 50% of enterprises will havemigrated away from tactical mobileapplication silos (supporting a singleapplication) to strategic platformscapable of supporting multipleapplications, managing devices, andsecuring data and transport.

• By 2012, half of the application-oriented MAGs willrefocus solely on applications,fail, merge or be acquired.

The first prediction is still holding,although growth slowed slightly in 2008 ascompared with 2007.We will refer to thisas the MEAP market from this point on.

The migration in the second prediction ishappening as expected, as smaller vendorsare becoming more pluggable and asmainstream development tools, such asMicrosoft Visual Studio and OracleApplication Development Framework,added more mobile capability.

Developments around the third predictionare the most striking. In our analysis,application-oriented MAGs have reducedtheir emphasis on tools and platform byfalling behind in R&D and tooling, or inovert choices of integrating componentsfrom MEAP partners.At the same time,infrastructure MAGs have bolstered theirefforts at forming ecosystems forapplication-oriented MAGs. Because of thisshift, we are changing our coverage slightlyof this area and will shift the application-oriented MAGs into the packaged mobileapplication platform MarketScope.

These shifts are in three areas:

• Broad mobile AD frameworks -notably Microsoft, RIM and Apple -will be assessed across all facets ofmobile development, rather thanjust for their multichannel capability.

• As we expand our criteria toprovide a single view around mobiledevelopment, we are not changingour position on the value ofmultichannel access capability, andwe will grade vendors according totheir ability to support it.Multichannel capability is becomingmore important as enterprisesexpand their mobile applicationcapabilities to users. Enterprises areincreasingly mixing solutions frommultiple vendors, each with separatesoftware stacks for data transport(which results in poor battery life).This also leads to conflicts withmanaging network connections onmobile devices, an inability toadminister security and devices,complexities with testing, an increasein software defects, and higherservice and support costs.As coding-centric approaches have improved,the gap in total cost of ownership(TCO) has shrunk between themand multichannel approaches, downfrom an average of 40% in 2006 toaround 15% to 20% by 2010.Multichannel provides benefits by:- Providing code reuse for multiple

device, multiple OSs and multiplenetwork support

- Reducing and collapsing theamount of transport and networklayer software needed forincremental solutions

- Providing prebuilt user interfacesfor small form-factor devices (thisis significant because of thenuances of building optimal userexperiences, which are key touser adoption)

• Reducing or avoiding testing andintegration costs by reusingsubsystems of the aboveelements and, in the case of MAGvendors, using 4GL techniques, byimproving the productivity of andtargeting programmers whosecost basis is lower

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• Reduce the risk, project-by-project,of organizations making the mistakeof placing an over-reliance on thin-client or Ajax architectures insteadof multichannel architectures.

• MAG functionality will be a part ofthe MEAP criteria, and we willrecognize that some packaged mobileapplication vendors will providemultichannel access as well. Becausethese offerings are complex andintertwined with client- and server-side management, development andapplication offerings, it is imperative todiscuss your technology and skill base,as well as industry-specific, geographicand application needs, with an analystbefore finalizing shortlists.

• For MEAP vendors that provideapplications that are bundled withtheir platforms, we will factor thoseapplications into their rating.

MarketDefinition/DescriptionMEAPs provide tools and client/servermiddleware for mobile (targeting any sortof mobile application) and multichannel(highly device/OS- and network-adaptive)thick (offline) enterprise AD. Beforeconsidering MEAP vendors, organizationsconsidering mobile AD in 2009 andbeyond need to consider the use caseslisted before beginning the selectionprocess. In addition to MEAPs, there arethree other approaches possible:

• Open-source approaches using high-level languages, such as Python

• Java Platform, Micro Edition (JavaME) approaches where enterprisesstandardize on Java and then createtheir own libraries and techniquesto handle the extremefragmentation of Java support

• Emerging toolkits (such as NokiaQt, formerly Trolltech) that abstracta wide range of OS features,including the user interface

However, the number of enterprisesadopting these approaches is limited - only

of database, application programminginterface, XML-based tools and SQL-based tools. Prepackaged librariesfor application suite support werealso considered.

• Device Integration andperipheral support - Weconsidered the range of devicessupported, and the ease ofintegration and porting of businesslogic to the devices.

• Application client runtime -We considered the suitability andperformance of client runtimeenvironments.

• Device/OS platform support(including smartphones,ruggedized PCs, tablets,notebooks and kiosks) - Weconsidered the range of targetdevices and OSs supported by thevendor.

• Packaged mobile applications- We considered the breadth anddepth of the mobile applications thatare integrated with the MEAPand/or multichannel platformcapability.

• Hosting - Some MEAP vendorsalso host significant numbers ofinstallations, so we consideredcustomer feedback regarding howwell vendors performed.

• Architectural flexibility -Additional credit is given for MEAPsthat can be configured so thatbusiness logic can run across thin-client, rich-client or thick-clientarchitectures without recoding.

We consider these critical capabilitiesacross these use cases to come up with aportion of the execution and vision scores.

Use Cases

• Single application, singleplatform - The mobilization of asingle business application targetedtoward a single device/OS

• Multiple applications, singleplatform - The mobilization ofmultiple business applications to a

consider these if legacy investmentsdictate. Gartner will monitor theseapproaches, but none have matured intomainstream MEAP options.We believe thatmore than 95% of organizations will bechoosing MEAP or packaged mobileapplication vendors as their primarymobile development platforms through2012. Multichannel (also known as MAG)functionality will be explicitly reviewed as apart of MEAP and packaged mobileapplication vendor offerings.

The MEAP Magic Quadrant is designed fororganizations intent on building mobile ormultichannel solutions; the packagedmobile application MarketScope isdesigned first for organizations that wantto buy platform-based applications.Gartner often sees a mixture of thesetypes of vendors on shortlists and, inseveral cases, there is cross-licensing ofofferings among vendors.We anticipatethat trend to continue.The criticalcapabilities that we consider in ratingvendors in this market are:

• IDE and tooling - We consideredcode development and debugging,and pluggability into PC-focused ADtools, including what you see is whatyou get (WYSIWYG) editors andforms builders.

• Multichannel developmentand debugging (client andserver) - We considered explicitsupport for devices, peripherals andnetworks within the provided tools.

• Management and security(all kinds, such as applicationand device) - This included theability to manage all aspects ofdeployment, such as applicationmanagement and updates, securitymanagement and updates, and devicecapability management (for example,power consumption andnetworking).

• Enterprise applicationintegration (tools andlibraries) - Because compositeapplication integration and supportis often a requirement for mobileapplications, we considered the type

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single platform independently - thisuse case mirrors organizations thatmay have independent project teams

• Multiple applications,multiplatform - The need tosupport many different applicationsacross a spectrum of OSs

• Single application,multiplatform - The need tosupport a single application acrossmany platforms

• Composite applications,single platform - The need tointegrate multiple back-end (server-based) functions into a compositeexperience on a single mobileplatform

• Composite applications,multiplatform - The need tointegrate multiple back-endfunctions and to present acomposite experience across arange of mobile platforms

For those considering MEAPs, within ITorganizations, two distinct job functionsare addressing mobile AD:

• Traditional developers whodemonstrate leanings toward Java or.NET programming languages

• Technical business analysts whoprefer high-level languages

To address both segments, many MEAPvendors are providing higher-level languagesand application templates to easedevelopment time. Increasingly, lessprogramming expertise is required to bringforth solutions.Although the infrastructurevendors have stayed focused on traditionalprogramming techniques, the success of thehigher-level language and template approachoffered by the leading MAG specialists willeventually cause the majority of MEAPvendors to offer this second method.

In some cases, MEAPs are seen onshortlists with tactical vendors, becausemost of the 300-plus vendors tracked byGartner that offer mobile software aretactical in nature.Tactical vendors includethose that offer mobile e-mail; thin-client

mobile application servers; mobileplatform, tool and point solutions; mobiledevice management (MDM); CRM(including field service management andsales force automation); ERP (includingenterprise asset management and IT assetmanagement); supply chain management(including warehouse management); andsupplier relationship management.

Gartner estimates that the overall size ofthe MEAP and packaged mobile applicationplatform market was $625 million to $750million in 2007, and that it grew at a rateof about 20% since 2007.

Software sales in the mobilesoftware/platform market are difficult toestimate for five reasons:

• The software-to-service ratio on aper-deal basis varies.

• Mobile middleware and applicationpricing are bundled into coreapplication or toolkit pricing byvendors.

• Revenue claims from privately heldvendors are difficult to corroborate,while the larger software vendorstypically do not break out revenueassociated with mobile software ormiddleware.

• In some cases, MEAP platformsand/or multichannel-based softwareis often "given away" by largersoftware vendors to sell traditionalproducts.

• Sales channels tend to muddy therevenue waters.

Gartner projects that the mobileapplication platform and packaged mobileapplication market will top $1 billion by2010.This figure includes server licensing,tool suite licensing and client softwarelicenses, including device management,built-in security, databases, prebuiltapplications and connectors.There is also aconsiderable service market tied to mobileplatform deployments, which is slightlylarger than the mobile software market,but relatively small compared with overallenterprise spending on mobile projects.

By 2013, the market for unifiedcommunications platforms, whichcomplements MEAPS and multichannelcapability, will begin to overlap, with themobile development and platform marketas the distinction between voice- and data-centric applications narrows. Competitivesituations are arising where voice-centricunified communications approachescompete with data-centric applications -for example, when integration of voice-enabled front ends for enterpriseapplications such as warehousemanagement or healthcare complement orcompete with MEAPs. However, for thepresent, these platforms can be chosenseparately. Gartner is not seeing as muchoverlap with wireless e-mail platforms as inthe past. RIM and Microsoft dominate theintegration efforts of e-mail on the serverside, and interest in e-mail clients, such asGood, that may offer rich client capabilityhas diminished.

MEAPs are continuing to slowly evolve fromtoday's offerings, which are, for the mostpart, database-synchronization-centric.Theywill become composite-transaction-oriented. Note the distinction betweencomposite applications (where there is oneuser interface blending data from multiplesources into a unique view) and compositetransactions (which might not only spawn aunique view, but also a related summary e-mail to the end user or to colleagues).Mobile portals and thin-client mobileapplication servers complement existingMAG functionality - a limited set of MAGsalso offer thin servers.The best MAGarchitectures treat thin clients as justanother transaction medium.We do notanticipate MEAPs that are OS-centric - suchas Microsoft, RIM and Apple - to makesignificant progress on multichannelapplications in the near term to midterm.

Inclusion and ExclusionCriteriaInclusion CriteriaThe inclusion criteria changed from 2007to 2008.As a result, the number ofcompanies meeting Gartner's criteria for

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the revised Magic Quadrant shrank from23 to 11.A summary of the vendors in themarket and how Gartner is covering themis included in the inclusion/exclusionsection.To qualify for this Magic Quadrant,a vendor must:

• Have more than 100 employees.Thisis an increase.We see a group ofvendors distinguishing themselves bycreating and participating inecosystems that have expandedtheir breadth.We also requireMEAP vendors to have significantpresence or operations in at leasttwo regions worldwide.

• Show financial viability.A vendormust have more than $20 million in2007 revenue and must beprofitable or have sufficient sales inthe pipeline and cash reserves toguarantee viability for 12 months.

• Provide a stand-alone mobiledevelopment environment ortoolkit, or have a specific database,integration or design capability formobile composite applicationswithin a broader softwaredevelopment suite.

• Offer developer support (stand-alone or within the context of anencompassing solution developmentplatform) and be visible to Gartnerin the marketplace. MEAP vendorsneed to provide 10 referencecustomers that have used theplatform in production environmentsfor six to 12 months.Those thatdidn't received a lower executionscore and were included only on thebasis of independent observation oftheir platform in production.

• Support application integration formultiple commercial enterpriseapplications (such as those fromSAP or Oracle), as well ashomegrown applications throughcommon interfaces, such as Java,XML, SQL and BizTalk.

• Show support for composite AD,specifically the ability to updatedisparate data stores, based on onetransaction by a mobile user.

• Support a wide range of devices,preferably at least two of thesecategories: smartphones, PDAs,tablet PCs, notebook PCs,ruggedized handheld computers andspecialized platforms, such asvehicle-mounted devices, set-topboxes, point-of-sale terminals andkiosks of various form factors.Additional credit is given to vendorsif they support transformation tosub-Video Graphics Array screenresolutions and nonqwerty inputformats. Fewer supported platformsresult in a lower vision andexecution scores.We have droppedthe requirement to support at leastone Microsoft and one non-Windows OS.

• Support for disconnected (offline)application functionality for thecategories of devices it focuses on,and preferably some form of rich-or thin-client for others. Offlineaccess can include partial (cached)or full access to application data.Gartner expects partial or cachedsupport to become the maintechnique for MEAPs by 2013.

• Have strong system integrationcapability, directly or throughpartners.

Gartner has more criteria for whenenterprises need to select MAGs, as wellas desirable criteria that cover advancedMAG functionality.

Multichannel is optional, but limited devicediversity support, limited applicationexamples and below-par device/applicationmanagement capabilities will adverselyaffect a vendor's score.

Exclusion CriteriaReasons for excluding these vendors are:

• There is lack of support for a rangeof application architectures.

• They do not allow enterprises tocreate composite applications.

• Most do not enable managementand security of devices.

• Most do not enable offline access tothese applications and data.

• Most do not market and sell toenterprises.

Companies excluded from Gartner'sMagic Quadrant for MEAPs includevendors of thin-client mobile applicationservers that support only browser orapplet-based applications,AD or formstoolkits, terminal server products, mobilevirtual private network (VPN) products,and carrier-based or thin-client mobileapplication servers.

Examples of Vendors NotMeeting Criteria

• Vendors of thin-client mobileapplication servers, mobile VPNs,carrier-based platforms andconsumer mobile applicationplatforms or gateways - forexample,Air2Web, IBM ServiceProvider Delivery Environment,InfoGin, Motorola, Motricity,Openwave and Volantis.

• Vendors of AD, forms toolkits,business-to-consumer (B2C)-focused tools or open-sourceproducts with mobile support - forexample, Qualcomm's BinaryRuntime Environment for Wireless(BREW).

• Vendors providing field serviceautomation back-end systems (suchas Astea) or sales force automation(such as salesforce.com). Mobilecapability is considered when ratingthese vendors, so it is not duplicatedin the MEAP Magic Quadrant orpackaged mobile applicationMarketScope. salesforce.comcontinues to cultivate its mobileplatform with the goal of providingrich-client experiences for salesforces, but focuses on its own back-end systems.Thus, salesforce.com iscovered in the sales forceautomation Magic Quadrant.

• Terminal server products - forexample, Citrix and MicrosoftWindows Terminal Server.

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• Packaged mobile application andmobile point solutions - forexample,Agentek,Anyware MobileSolutions,Appear Networks,Flowfinity Wireless, Global BayMobile Technologies, Mobile DataSolutions and Trimble.

• Companies providing elements ofmultichannel functionality that don'tappear in the Magic Quadrant or inthe packaged mobile applicationMarketScope.

Packaged mobile application vendors havevarying degrees of toolkit andmultichannel functionality.Three vendorsstand out as having or developingsignificant mobile AD functionality, but donot meet the inclusion requirements foreither report:

• MobileFrame has a solid toolset,excellent vision and a growing list ofreferences.

• Sun Microsystems is adding offlinesynchronization support throughSynchronia, and its service deliveryplatform contains elements that canbe used as a MAG.

• Formotus provides a forms-basedapproach for mobile AD.

AddedCompanies added:

• Apple

• Spring Wireless

DroppedCompanies dropped:

• Apacheta did not meet employee orfinancial criteria.

• Countermind did not meetemployee, geographic or financialcriteria.

• Fujitsu Consulting did not meetemployee, geographic or financialcriteria.

• MobileAware refocused thecompany and droppedmultichannel/thick-client platformsupport.

• MobileFrame did not meetemployee criteria; it is rapidlygrowing and Gartner continues toobserve interest in its platform.

• Nokia dropped out of mobileenterprise software business.

• TrueContext did not meetemployee, geographic or financialcriteria.

• Vettro ceased operations inNovember 2008; its assets wereacquired by Antenna Software.

Companies MovedThese companies were moved to thepackaged mobile application MarketScope:

• AirClic

• Blue Dot

• Cognito

• Pyxis Mobile

• SAT (now Wonderware, throughacquisition)

• Vaultus Mobile Technologies

Evaluation CriteriaAbility to ExecuteProduct/ServiceDo the vendor's mobile server software,client software,AD toolkits, applicationmanagement capabilities, device securityand management abilities meet the buyingrequirements of enterprise users? Does itinclude multichannel capability to supportOS/device diversification? Are the offeringspluggable and modular? Does the vendoralso supply packaged mobile applications; ifso, are they well-integrated and supportedby the MEAP?

Overall ViabilityBy increasing the criteria for inclusion, weare dropping this parameter from high tostandard.To qualify, small vendors needapproximately $20 million in annualrevenue; to be profitable or nearlyprofitable; and/or have cash on hand tofinance one year of operation. For largevendors, continued commitment fromupper management for mobile capabilitiesand overall company financials areconsidered.

Sales Execution/PricingFactors include numbers and geographicdispersion of inside/outside sales,partnering and the level of local salessupport for resolving issues.Alsoimportant are value-added reseller (VAR)and system integrator (SI) relationships,carrier partnerships and ongoingapplication developer relations.Verticalstrategies and customers play a role in thecriteria, as do pricing models and TCO.

Market Responsiveness andTrack RecordHow long has the company been in themobile enterprise application market, andin particular, how has it innovated aroundnot only multichannel capability but allfacets of enterprise mobility? How has thecompany responded to the maturation ofthe market and its changing requirements?Is the company growing at or faster thanthe market rate?

Marketing ExecutionHas the company successfully marketed tomobile tools or capabilities to specificvertical industries, locations or end usersin IT? What is the strategy based on? Is ittooling, database, device, applications orsystem integration channels? What is thelevel of market awareness of thecompany's mobile enterprise offering?How does the company work with itspartners to create a healthy "ecosystem"?

Customer ExperienceAlong with the core product category, thisis the most important category andrequires actual customer and partnerexperience (for example, from the ITorganizations, lines of business and endusers) for the entire engagement life cycleof mobile applications - from initial contactthrough sales, procurement, development,integration, deployment and support.Given that many customers interact morewith the VAR and/or SI than the softwarevendor, this category also takes intoaccount the vendor's choice of partnersand any ongoing partnerevaluation/certifications.

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OperationsHas the company successfully scaled itsbusiness geographically? In many cases,MEAPs need to be able to supportmultinational deployments. How does itsupport vendor partners, training centersand developer relations? How well-run arethe sales, marketing, finance, research,development, testing, system integration,help desk and other key functions? Areproper quality assurance processes in place?

Completeness of VisionMarket UnderstandingNumbers and geographic dispersion ofinside/outside sales, partnering, and level oflocal sales support for resolving issues areimportant.A longer-term vision of MEAPs'functionality, beyond mobile applicationenablement, including vertical-industryunderstanding, voice, instant messaging,location and presence, are also importantfactors. Carrier relationships, as well ashosted and nonhosted offerings, will alsofactor in here.

Marketing StrategyThis entails a market understanding of therequirements for security, managementand integration with existing platforms, andof department/functional groups withrequirements for rapid ROI and frontlineapplications. Existing relationships inadjacent markets, such as field service orenterprise-targeted offerings, weigh heavilyin this category.

Sales StrategyThis includes the number of salesprofessionals and their geographic spread,

the number of vertically focused teamsand the vertical markets to which theyattend.Within this category, we alsoevaluate the sophistication of the salesteams and the scalability of the salesmodel.This category seeks to take accountof partner strategies and how they willrelate to future sales efforts.

Product StrategyDoes the future road map for the productreflect the market's direction and the likelyrequirements of buyers in 18 to 24months? Does the history of the productreflect steady improvements and growth infunctionality? Has the company built oracquired the pieces necessary to maintainproduct relevance/leadership? Does thecompany seek to address additional clientrequirements, beyond mobile applicationdeployments?

Business ModelThis category evaluates the vendor on itsability to balance the need for companyand product agility with the need forleadership in the market. How does thevendor's focus reflect future marketconditions and requirements? How willhosting, partnerships and services affectgrowth? Does the company's businessmodel dissuade it from multichannelsupport?

Vertical Market StrategyDoes the vendor add extra value throughfocused packaged mobile applications ingrowth vertical industries, such astransportation, logistics, healthcare,government, education, oil and gas,

petrochemicals, utilities, insurance,financial services, and professionalservices? Is it able to articulate a strategyfor vertical differentiation, and can itmaintain that position? Has it identifiedhorizontal applications that span multiplevertical industries, and can it capitalize onthose frontline applications across thecustomer base?

InnovationDoes the company have a compellingtechnical story that supports a compellingbusiness proposition? Is the company atrend setter in mobile applications or afollower? Does it have an ambitioustechnical direction that will enable it todeliver ongoing product enhancementsfaster than its competitors? Does itprovide input for or participate instandards bodies? We also considerintellectual property positions; however,Gartner does not give legal advice.

Geographic StrategyDoes the company have a strong plan forsupporting customers and growing businessworldwide? Is the company strong inmarketing and sales activities in at least tworegions? What is its track record formultilingual support, including product, salesand partners? What are its internationalexpansion plans, and do they mirror theregional market maturity rates we expect?

LeadersLeaders must not only be good atsupporting their own platforms, but theyalso must have a good vision of themultichannel enterprise, a solidunderstanding of IT requirements, andscalable channels and partnerships tomarket.They also have to provideplatforms that are easy to purchase,program, deploy and upgrade. Smallervendors that have focused on keyelements of multichannel functionality andoffer application-centric solutions competehead-to-head with broad platforms, butsome are side-stepping this to bepluggable.With the revised criteria, theMEAP vendors offering applications maynot have all the flexibility but can provide

Table 1. Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria WeightingProduct/Service HighOverall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy, Organization) StandardSales Execution/Pricing StandardMarket Responsiveness and Track Record StandardMarketing Execution StandardCustomer Experience HighOperations Low

Source: Gartner

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enough product substance in terms ofnonfunctional requirements (for example,device management, transport stacks,security and policy enforcement) to beincluded in the Leaders quadrant.

ChallengersChallengers in this market must have highnumbers of enterprise clients; a large,growing base of seats in deployment; andthe ability to meet the needs of alldepartments in global rollouts.They have acomplete software suite, with all therequired functionality that is scalable forlarge numbers of users.They are vendorswith a history of execution in the market.They may lack strong technical or businessvision - especially in the area of diversityand multichannel support - or havelingering gaps or confusing overlaps inproducts or channels to market.

VisionariesVisionaries in this market have acompelling vision of the product's and themarket's future, as well as the technicaldirection to take them there. However,they have not backed that vision up in oneof these areas: history of execution, lowTCO (even compared with some nicheplayers), strong financial results or a longlist of satisfied clients with largeinstallations.We expect vendors in thiscategory to continue to be "mined" forpotential acquisition and courted by thelarger, traditional software vendors fortheir ecosystems.

Niche PlayersNiche players are not as strong in one ormore of these criteria - geography,product breadth/completeness or focus,or number of customers.Although theymay be a particularly good choicebecause of vertical or customerknowledge, Gartner suggests pairing nicheplayers or packaged mobile applicationplatforms with other stronger MEAP orpackaged mobile application vendors, andthat enterprises ask niche MEAP vendorsto show how they will remedy theirshortcomings through partnering orintegration for specific projects.

Vendor Strengths andCautionsAntenna SoftwareAntenna Software increased its breadth ofprebuilt applications and completed a majorupgrade to its Antenna Mobility Platform(AMP). It sells the majority of its softwarehosted as a service (75% and more) andtypically blends in professional services intoits monthly charge. It continued to expandits focus beyond its roots in field service tosales force automation (SFA), and showedgood execution using a platform-centricapproach to mobilizing CRM-basedapplications.

Previously known as the A3 platform,Antenna's AMP architecture has a longtrack record. In 2008, it launched AMP 2.0with improvements across the board,including in end-to-end security, modelingand application/component libraries.The

company outgrew the market in 2007 andearly 2008 to achieve its No. 2 place as amarket leader in terms of the number ofmobile seats deployed, although its top-linerevenue reflects a slightly lower averageselling price.Antenna acquired theintellectual property of Vettro inNovember 2008.

Antenna needs to execute with itsrelationships with Oracle and AT&T, andupgrade its customer base to its latestversion of AMP to remain a leader.

Rating: Leader

Strengths

• Antenna is above average comparedwith the market in seat growth in2007 and early 2008. Keypartnerships include thoseannounced in September 2008 withAT&T and Oracle.These strategicalliances hold promise that Antennawill be able to scale in the nearterm, and greatly increase itspotential sales channels.

• AMP Studio (version 4.0) has greatlyimproved as an IDE, covering a widevariety of developers and addingsignificant application managementcapabilities. Gartner rates Antenna'spackaged mobile applications -which include field sales, fieldservice, IT service management,consumer packaged goods, directstore delivery and merchandising -as positive.

• Antenna is a good fit for companieswith mobility requirements tosupport Oracle users.

• Antenna continues to providesupport for a wide range of devicesand operation systems, includingRIM BlackBerry,Windows Mobile,Palm OS and iPhone.

• It has an overall strong approach tocost-effectiveness - its hosted modelenables enterprises to scale to raiseor reduce user counts or to effectshort-term rollouts.

Table 2. Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria WeightingMarket Understanding HighMarketing Strategy StandardSales Strategy StandardOffering (Product) Strategy HighBusiness Model HighVertical/Industry Strategy HighInnovation HighGeographic Strategy Standard

Source: Gartner

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Cautions

• Customers will need to upgrade tothe latest version of the AMPStudio, which may incur additionalprofessional services fees. Be awarethat in new installations, somegrowing pains could occur asAntenna expands its partnershipwith AT&T.

• Its customer base of older Antennaplatforms still occasionally reportshortfalls in meeting expectations,including issues such as lack ofproduct documentation.

• When Antenna encountersoccasional issues with mobileplatforms such as RIM OS andMicrosoft, it is often dependent onthe partner to remediate the issues.

• Antenna is one of the smallervendors rated, raising issues ofviability. However, growth has beengood, and continued fundingremediates much of this concern.

• Although improved support ingeographies outside the U.S. is stilldeveloping, it is not as deep as othervendors in the Magic Quadrant.Enterprises should ensure that localsupport is in place outside the U.S.Antenna should look to establishalliances similar to AT&T outside theU.S. to support Europe and Latin-American-based multinationals.

AppleIn 2008, Gartner received more inquiresand questions in face-to-face meetingswith clients about the iPhone platformthan any other provider listed.Apple isa newcomer to mobile enterpriseapplications, so it has significant gaps. Itlacks a long-term vision within theenterprise space and some importantfeature sets regarding security,management and applicationdistribution.A lack of transparencyabout decisions relating to applicationacceptance has raised the ire of someiPhone developers, although Apple hasmade strides to address therequirements of large enterprise

developer communities. Plan on at leastprototyping for sales force applicationsin 2009. For more information regardingthe specific issues that IT organizationsface in supporting the iPhone.

Rating: Niche Player

Strengths

• Apple's fantastic user interface onthe client side is driving keeninterest from enterprises andconsumers.

• The vendor has strong integrationbetween the development platformand commercial applicationdistribution, causing tremendousinterest and development fromtraditional and nontraditional mobilesoftware vendors.

• Enterprises wanting to create betteruser experiences for sales forceapplications or knowledge work canbenefit from Apple's new userinterface paradigm.

• Apple has a mixture of thin-client orrich-client Safari- and Google-basedapplications. Its thick-clientcapabilities hold good potential.

Cautions

• Apple is in the early stages of themobile enterprise maturation cycle.It only met criteria for securewireless e-mail in the second quarterof 2008. Little to no customers havescaled line-of-business applications inthe field to date.

• It has no multichannel support forthick clients - developing mobileenterprise applications implies lock-in to Apple, resulting in higher TCOand the need to source another setof tools to support diversedevice/OS requirements.

• Expect high TCO and highersecurity risks. iTunes will be requiredas an application that ITorganizations must install on end-user desktops for enterprisemanagement and security.TheiPhone configuration utility works via

unencrypted XML, which can bechanged to be signed, but mostmanagement tools have not madethis option available yet to end users.

• Apple's decision to limit backgroundapplication-tasking abilities (topreserve battery life), forcesbusiness applications to foregroundprocessing, and limits managementand security capabilities available tothird parties.

• Challenges exist regarding its ownMDM software, additionalcosts/complexities of IT and endusers supporting Apple iTunes onPCs.We expect Apple to supportnon-iTunes-based applicationdistribution of enterprises shortly.

• Apple's tools target only a singledevice, with lesser distribution thanRIM or Microsoft (52 carriers versusRIM's 375 and more).

• One consequence of architecturallimitations, such as backgroundprocessing, is that classicmultiplatform MAGs, such asAntenna, cannot provide the fullportability to, or range of featureson, iPhone.Thus, MAG iPhoneapplications will work differently onthe iPhone. Issues such as limiteddata sharing between separateapplications reduce iPhone'srelevance for corporate users.

• Apple's platform lacks anymainstream languages (such as C#,C++ and Java) and forcesdevelopers into a niche language -Objective C.Apple development canonly be done on Macs, which is alimitation for many enterprises thatdon't use Macs.

• As a requirement of the platform, todistribute applications, an enterprisemust apply for the Apple enterpriselicenses (which is a trivial process).

DexterraDexterra improved its execution scoresignificantly in 2008 - the biggest driverbeing observed improvement in customerexperience.Although the TCO for

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Dexterra offerings is still higher than othermultichannel IDEs, it has closed the gap in2007/2008. Overall, Dexterra grew atslightly below market pace in 2007 andearly 2008.To further execute against itsvision, it changed CEOs midyear, bringingin Michael Liebow from IBM GlobalServices, and secured another round offunding ($21.5 million) in October 2008 tofurther fuel growth, adding to its industry-high total of venture backing.

Beginning with Concert 5.0, Dexterramigrated from a Microsoft-oriented serverarchitecture to Java.The programmingenvironment, Concert 5.6, offers an Eclipseplug-in for 4GL design with tie-ins to itsother Eclipse and Visual Studio plug-ins.Dexterra provides a wide range of mobileapplications, ranging from field service tofield sales. Dexterra has generally availableserver-based components (DexterraMobile Command Center - focused onscheduling and dispatch, and DexterraMobile Tracker - focused on integrationwith location-based services) Overall, werate Dexterra's packaged mobileapplications as positive, but expect thatconsiderable R&D resources will need tocontinue to be applied to maintain and add functionality to the mobile and back-end offerings.

A notable relationship is that Vodafone inEurope purchased the Concert platformand has launched its own mobile offeringin early 2008, with customerdeployments in Spain, Romania, Hungaryand the U.K.This kind of offering showspromise in making mobile SFA andlightweight field service applicationsavailable to all sizes of enterprisesthrough direct and carrier channels.

Dexterra revamped its MDM capability -an area that we criticized in last year'sreport - adding functionality to its ownmanagement capability (for example,making its client lighter-weight andimproving the modularity of itsmanagement platform to accept MDMplug-ins such as Sybase Afaria).

Rating:Visionary

Strengths

• Dexterra's highly flexibledevelopment environment has beensignificantly upgraded in 2008 andnow offers its own stand-alone,Eclipse-based toolset, which remainscompatible for legacy applicationsand laptop-based applications thatare based on Visual Studio.

• Dexterra's sweet spot has been onMicrosoft mobile platforms; it hasbroadened this with several largedeployments on RIM OS.

• Its worldwide focus on carrier andVAR/SI relationships holds promise -for example, in possible upside inthe Vodafone relationship, whereDexterra can accrue recurringrevenue. Dexterra has a strongmarketing presence, good reports ofsales presence and project supportoutside North America.

Cautions

• Dexterra is aggressive in pursuingmany priorities, evidenced by theintroduction of back-officeapplications for scheduling anddispatch, as well as location services.

• Dexterra customers' TCO improvedmaterially in 2007/2008, but stillremains high compared with othervendors that offer packaged mobileapplications. In our observation, thisis driven by longer deploymentcycle times rather than by anyissues with software licensing costs,but are, in general, lower comparedwith vendors such as Microsoft orRIM. Gartner anticipates thatConcert 5.6, combined withimprovements in documentationand support, will shorten furtherdeployment timescales.

IBMIBM continues to fade in this market, as ithas since 2005, with Gartner customersshowing limited interest for LotusExpeditor, mainly for notebook- and kiosk-based applications. IBM has discontinuedits MDM offering, pushing such

requirements to its partners. Concernsregarding IBM's mobile AD strategyinclude its complexity, the fragmentation ofJava implementations on client devices tosupport offline business logic, and the lackof modularity and scalability of the offering- simply put, it is difficult to scale down fordepartmental or small business units. IBMhas made some investments in simplifyingits platform - for example, its Expeditorclient can be provisioned with TivoliProvisioning Manager,WebSphere Portal,Eclipse Web Update or Microsoft SystemsManagement Server. IBM will likely need anacquisition to reinvigorate its mobileplatform offering.

Rating: Niche Player

Strengths

• IBM Global Services gives IBMstrong insight with regard toenterprise mobile requirements. IBMhas articulated that it will belaunching support for a new set ofhandheld devices in 2009.

• IBM is still one of the largestvendors in enterprise mobility withmore than $1 billion in servicerevenue; however, little of that isrelated to IBM's MEAP platform.

Cautions

• After years of thought leadership inthis area, IBM will need to start overin 2009 if it intends to be consideredas a MEAP vendor outside a captivebase of IBM Global Servicescustomers. IBM customers need tolook at other MEAP vendors (andfor enterprises wanting to support adiverse set of mobile OSs, especiallyMEAP vendors with strongermultichannel offerings) if anythingmore than kiosk-based applicationsare required.

• Although IBM's Lotus Expeditorclient is competitively priced, onaverage,TCO on notebook-basedapplications using Lotus Expeditor fora rich portal interface remains high.

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MicrosoftA significant percentage of large enterpriseschoose to build mobile capabilities from theground up with Microsoft, which isparticularly attractive if target devices spantablets, desktops, notebooks and ruggedizeddevices. Microsoft gives developers theability to support thick- and rich-clientapplications across a wide range ofMicrosoft OS platforms, leveragingWindows Presentation Foundation, SQLServer CE and System Center MobileDevice Manager. Microsoft has chosen tonot support other platforms; the idea ofOS/platform diversity support throughmultichannel access is at odds with itslicensing and go-to-market strategy.

Rating: Challenger

Strengths

• Microsoft gives enterprises theability to construct multichannelservers using Visual Studio, SQLServer CE, its direct push capabilitywithin its mobile e-mail offering, andits thin-client profile support forother device types.

• It has a large installed base formobile solutions across all types ofdevice platforms.

• Microsoft has long-standingrelationships with enterprise ITdepartments,desktop/notebook/tablet marketleadership, rapid adoption ofWindows mobile in the smartphonemarket and dominance of that OS inthe ruggedized handheld market.

• It has a huge .NET developer baseand some skills transfer to thecompact .NET framework, loweringthe learning curve for mobilesupport. Microsoft's strong AD toolsand support aid debugging.

• Microsoft's partner ecosystemincreasingly features application- orindustry-specific packaged mobileapplication providers, such asWonderware (SAT), which extendcore multichannel/mobile functions.

Cautions

• Microsoft doesn't have any offeringswith multichannel functionality. Manyorganizations need to augment aVisual Studio-focused AD approachwith multichannel IDEs or packagedmobile application suites, whichentail additional integration andsupport for Microsoft and non-Microsoft tools using low-levelconstructs to provide an end-to-endoffering.This presents cost, expertiseand deployment timing issues.

• Its approach requires more-expensive 3GL programmers and, inmany instances, enterprisesexperience a higher TCO, especiallywhen compared with MEAP orpackaged mobile application vendorsthat offer prepackaged business logicor preintegrated applications.

OracleOracle's offering for offline mobile accessexpanded beyond its Application Server 10gand database in 2008, as Oracle begansharing publicly its vision for its ApplicationDevelopment Framework (ADF) Mobile,based on its Java-centric approach tosupport all types of devices, includingiPhone (OS X), Symbian, RIM,WindowsMobile and Windows CE (industrialdevices), using rendering technology in ADFMobile through its model-view-controllerframework.ADF Mobile provides databasesynchronization through its transactionreplay service. Mobile-specific tools includea WYSIWYG editor; a Visual page flowseditor;ADF Mobile tag libraries; modelersfor database, class and Enterprise JavaBeans,as well as an IDE for mobile development.This offering integrates with JDeveloper;visual XML editor for XML Schema,Extensible Stylesheet LanguageTransformations (XSLT) and Web ServicesDescription Language; and process floweditors for Business Process ExecutionLanguage and enterprise service bus.

Gartner rates Oracle's packaged mobileapplications as promising. In the thirdquarter of 2008, Oracle launched OracleMobile Sales Assistant and Oracle MobileSales Forecast for iPhone.

Such progress is evidence that Oracle hasbeen putting many more resources intoR&D and into partner and channelmanagement, but it faces one importantdecision by the first quarter of 2009 -deciding which user interface will be theprimary one for internal Oracle applicationsfrom this point on. It will have to choosefrom a promising new one derived from itsAppforge acquisition, from those built fromscratch using ADF Mobile and from legacySiebel, just to name a few.

By year-end 2009, Gartner predicts Oraclewill begin to field mobile implementationsof substantial size based on Fusion.Tomove its execution rating up, Oracle needsto consolidate its many mobile pointsolutions into packages. Customerreferences improved slightly in 2007 and2008, and Gartner expects that manyOracle customers will recoup theirinvestments in Fusion in 2009.

Rating:Visionary

Strengths

• Investment in packaged mobileapplications and mobile tools pickedup noticeably in 2007 and 2008.Internal projects show promise ofbearing fruit in 2009, as predicted inour past two Magic Quadrants.

• Breadth of mobile offerings remainsa strength, as Oracle (ranging fromwarehouse to thin-client to Oracle'sE-Business Suite) supports mobilecollaboration, including mobilepersonal information manager (PIM)and push capabilities.AlthoughOracle's high-level vision for theproducts has improved, and it hasmade acquisitions to support thatvision, enterprises consideringmobile projects with Oracle need totake into consideration that 2009will represent the initial broadlaunch of many offline capabilities ofOracle Fusion Middleware.

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Cautions

• Its Siebel mobile offline client is inneed of re-engineering.WhereOracle products do not meet thefull requirements of the end-user,the Oracle Partner Network bringsvaluable relationships to meetneeds, such as for lighter-weight ormore highly customized Siebelenablement. For example, the strongpartnership with Antenna Softwarehas allowed several customers tobuild complete solutions. In othercases, some larger customers arechoosing to build custom solutionsusing components of ADF Mobile.

• Oracle has stated it is renewing itsfocus on Ajax mobile due to theimprovements in mobile browserson smartphones and PDAs. Inaddition, to support offlinerequirements, Oracle also plans todeliver an on-device Java Clientframework to support mostly offlineapplications, such as Oracle FieldService. Gartner believes thisapproach will be important formore-demanding mobileapplications. Until mobile browsersbecome more capable of intelligentcaching and until tooling and Webprotocols enable designers toappropriately color information thatis vital to offline performance.

• Instances of mobile compositeapplication integration usingincreased capability of offerings aregrowing, but still in the minority.Customer references for OracleApplication Server 10g mobilesupport are improving, but they stillhave longer development cycles andhigh TCO.

• Continued realignment acrossconsulting practices and applicationportfolios - and possible conflictingpartnerships, such as that withAntenna Software - will continuethrough 2010.

Research In MotionRIM's ecosystem and prevalence ofnetwork operations centers at more thanhalf of its carriers worldwide are itsstrengths. Developers can choose betweenthe BlackBerry Java DeveloperEnvironment plug-in for Eclipse, BlackBerryplug-in for Microsoft VS and BlackBerryMobile Data System (MDS). It is taking atoolset, rather than platform/middleware,approach after it gained no traction withVirtual BlackBerry. It has abandoned thenotion of multichannel server support.Thus, investment in thick- or rich-clientapplications requires lock-in to RIM OS;however, the tool investment mitigatessome of the lock-in.

Rating: Challenger

Strengths

• RIM is the largest, single e-mailvendor with strong ties to IT and C-level decision makers - putting it in astrong position for "e-mail + 1"application adoption.

• It has a significant number of devicesdeployed with core (mobile e-mail)application functionality, potentiallyreducing the cost of additionalapplication deployments.

• Security, transport, push andmanagement of RIM devices remainbest of breed.Application-centricMAGs with modular designs canbenefit from RIM's MDS and MVSplatforms for transport, security andvoice integration, although this maydrive up TCO.

• RIM has a strong ecosystem forapplication-neutral mobile enterpriseenablement, including a largenumber of developers (more than500 for enterprise applications) andpartners producing applicationsusing RIM's multichannel elements.

Cautions

• RIM supports a narrow set of devicetypes. It has no server-side capabilitybetween smartphone and ultra-mobile PC, tablet and PCapplications, other than abstractionand layering through Java and thenrecoding in Visual Studio.

• Software licensing programs haveshown little uptake among non-RIMdevice vendors, meaning that fewnon-RIM devices are addressable fore-mail and other applications.

• Device management and securitycapabilities on non-RIM devices aresupported by the BlackBerryEnterprise Server (BES) or MDSonly in conjunction with BlackBerryConnect.

• RIM's Java Platform, Micro Edition(Java ME) is proprietary with Javaextensions that encourage devicevendor lock, and as such should beavoided to retain flexibility.

• Many application customerreferences are deployed via secureBES access. Enterprises can leverageBES access but need to choose thebrowser or desktop implementationcarefully for the user interface.Animportant design consideration is toenhance user experience by codingcaching logic (such as having aserver push cache updates every 15minutes) to provide offline capability.

• RIM's approach requires more-expensive 3GL programming skills.

SAPSAP made slow but solid progress with itsMobile Infrastructure platform in 2007 andearly 2008, releasing Mobile Infrastructure3.0. SAP released packaged mobileapplications in sales force, field service,enterprise asset management (EAM) andtime/expense management. Gartner ratesSAP's packaged mobile applicationfunctionality as promising. For SFA, SAPannounced a partnership with RIM, whereRIM would develop a tightly integratedclient for RIM OS with hooks into Mobile

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Infrastructure's server side. Gartnerexpects this offering to be available in thefirst quarter of 2009 and that SAP willfollow up with a Windows Mobile client forSFA by the fourth quarter of 2009.Limitations in SAP's Mobile Infrastructurearchitecture, coupled with Apple's OS Xlimitations, will likely push out support formobile SFA on iPhones until 2010. Gartnerexpects incremental improvements to SAP'sMEAP in 2009, because other applicationswill rely on its Java-based clients. If it is tokeep or improve on its visionary rating in2009, SAP must increase its activities withpartners and improve its pluggability withthird parties in areas such as MDM.

Rating:Visionary

Strengths

• SAP reorganized its mobile effort andit now reports directly into seniormanagement.This, coupled with moreinvestments in partnerships, such aswith Syclo and Dexterra, show theincreasing importance SAP is placingon mobile, and a recognition thatSAP's interests are not well-servedby just building out its own mobileplatform and portfolio.

• Extended improvements to thedevelopment environment, reducedsynchronization times and theexpansion of the product to includeproduction prepackaged applicationshave enabled lower TCO and more-rapid deployment timeframes.

Cautions

• As with Oracle, large applicationsuite vendors find it challenging tomaintain long-term focus andexecution on mobile. NetWeaver'scomplexity and size preclude itsextensive use outside the extensionof SAP applications.

• Non-SAP application-basedexamples of mobilizationcustomers, although increasing,remain infrequent.

• SAP has high customization costs.Several customers using MobileAsset Management and Mobile AssetManagement for Utilities reportrewriting or discarding more thanhalf of the client-side code providedwith Mobile Infrastructure.

• Device management will remain aweakness of the platform through2008, as SAP plans to address thiswith NetWeaver Mobile 7.1.

Spring WirelessBased in Brazil, Spring Wireless is one oftwo new entries on the Magic Quadrantthis year. It is expanding its presencebeyond Latin America into NorthAmerica and Europe, and it has one ofthe largest R&D staffs for mobilemiddleware in the industry.

Rating: Overall, Gartner rates its packagedmobile applications as positive and placesSpring Wireless in the Leaders quadrant.

Strengths

• Spring Wireless has experienced asignificantly faster growth rate thanother MEAPS rated, and it has highseat count with a wide range ofapplications and customers.

• It has a large customer base ofmultinational companies across RIM,Windows Mobile, Symbian and manynon-smartphone-based platforms(based on Java).

• Spring Wireless has a strongtechnology platform with a robustAD platform, good catalog ofprebuilt applications (supplementedwith recent acquisitions) and decentmanagement/security tools.

• It has low cost of ownershipbecause of the availability ofprebuilt applications (across awide spread of vertical andhorizontal-based requirements)and ease of customization ofthose applications within thedevelopment environment.

Cautions

• Spring Wireless is primarily focusedon Latin America to date. Recentinvestments in international growth,notable the U.S. and WesternEurope, will take time to bear fruit,limiting its appeal to enterprisesbased solely in those geographies.Spring Wireless will have to provethat it can sustain its record outsideLatin America. Gartner typicallyobserves growing pains in the formof higher project TCO and delayedprojects in this market. Enterprisesoutside Latin America need tomonitor Spring Wireless's localactivities and performance in 2009.

• Few enterprises use Spring Wirelessfor behind-the-firewall solutions,mostly hosted ones.

• Spring Wireless is known foremployee and customer-facingapplications in Latin America.As asmaller company with internationalaspirations, we expect SpringWireless to focus more on business-to-enterprise (B2E) applicationsoutside Latin America.

SybaseSybase launched its Unwired Platform inthe fourth quarter of 2008, providing, atlast, a unified toolset. It's iAnywhereportfolio, which includes OneBridge andAfaria, presents one of the most completeMAG solutions on the market.With best-in-class, device and applicationmanagement capabilities; strong thick-clientfunctionality; and composite applicationabilities, Sybase has the most MEAPmultichannel enterprise installations. It canprovide SQL anywhere on multiple mobileplatforms, including RIM OS.

Sybase 365 (the newly acquired Mobile365 and AvantGo products combined)provides a thin-client application platformand messaging platform for enterprises toreach mobile users with B2C applications.It also provides a delivery mechanism forB2E applications across all business sizes.

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Sybase's go-to-market strategy dependshighly on its VAR and SI channels toprovide entry to untapped markets anddeliver a consistent experience to endusers. Quality within its VAR/SI channelimproved in the past year. Sybase continuesto have the broadest device supportamong all the multichannel vendors.

Rating: Leader

Strengths

• Key acquisitions of best-of-breedvendors and solid execution havebeen followed by consolidation indevelopment and an expandedvision that includes iPhone andLinux/Android support.This hasenabled Sybase to retain itsLeadership rating.

• Device management remains a keydifferentiator.Afaria, as an integratedpart of the Sybase UnwiredPlatform, gives Sybase entry intoincreasing numbers of ITorganizations, as it tries to addressthe growing issues around MDM.

Cautions

• Competition from smaller MEAPswith packaged mobile applicationsand single-target MEAPs, such as RIMand Microsoft, are putting functionaland pricing pressure on Sybase.

• Its growth-by-acquisition strategy,while netting considerable marketshare, means that Sybase tends toreflect a weakness found at Oraclewith respect to its application suite.Sybase advocates an integratedapproach; however, its sluggishness inpruning fading product portfolios foryears doesn't properly convey itsintegration strengths. Sybase needsto be more proactive (like Cisco) inshaping or pruning acquisitions,because this trait has weakened itsmarket position and clouded thevalue proposition to the market.

• Sybase lacks advanced applicationconnectors and prebuilt applications.

• Because of its "a la carte" menu ofproducts, Sybase is often a higher-cost alternative when all modulesare selected.This approach canmean that integration timing remainsa bit longer than for application-focused vendors.

SycloSyclo grew in two areas in 2007 and 2008- in its partnerships, particularly with SAP,and with its 5.0 release of its Agentrymultichannel toolkit. Gartner still seesSyclo in new EAM deployments for IBM'sMRO Software offering, which was itsoriginal stronghold in the field servicemarket. Overall, Gartner sees Syclo'sapplications as a strong positive. Syclomust execute and strengthen itspartnership with SAP to maintain itsleadership rating.

Rating: Leader

Strengths

• Syclo's breadth of customers andhistory of providing complex mobilesolutions at relatively low TCO,coupled with improvements in itslatest toolkit release of Agentry (5.0),enable it to move up to a leaderstatus. Continued execution within itsexisting customer base (primarilyEAM and complex field serviceapplications) has netted moderateseat growth and driven Syclo deeperwithin its customer base, which givesSyclo one of the largest installedbases for MEAP vendors.

• A focus on security and enterpriseasset management has enabledsignificant penetration intogovernment, energy and regulatoryagencies -where Gartner expects agrowing need for mobility in thenext 24 months.

• Agentry 5.0 positions Syclo as achoice that aligns with organizationsalready comfortable with Eclipse.

Cautions

• Customer satisfaction climbedslightly in 2007 and 2008 from theprevious year, providing some proofthat operations initiatives and toolupgrades were effective.Organizations on versions ofAgentry before 5.0 need to ask theirsystem integrators or Syclo abouttool upgrade paths.

• Syclo is growing slightly below themarket rate - 2007/2008 wasrelatively quiet in terms ofpartnerships or pursuing carrier-based or software-as-a-serviceofferings. Syclo has less of a base inmobile SFA applications.

• Its message and value proposition isclear and consistent, but its brandawareness/marketing message isweak when compared with othermobile enterprise platform vendors.

Vendors Added or DroppedWe review and adjust our inclusion criteriafor Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes asmarkets change.As a result of theseadjustments, the mix of vendors in anyMagic Quadrant or MarketScope maychange over time.A vendor appearing in aMagic Quadrant or MarketScope one yearand not the next does not necessarilyindicate that we have changed our opinionof that vendor.This may be a reflection of achange in the market and, therefore,changed evaluation criteria, or a change offocus by a vendor.

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Evaluation Criteria DefinitionsAbility to ExecuteProduct/Service: Core goods and services offered by the vendor that compete in/serve the defined market.This includescurrent product/service capabilities, quality, feature sets, skills, etc., whether offered natively or through OEMagreements/partnerships as defined in the market definition and detailed in the subcriteria.

Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy, Organization): Viability includes an assessment of theoverall organization's financial health, the financial and practical success of the business unit, and the likelihood of the individualbusiness unit to continue investing in the product, to continue offering the product and to advance the state of the art withinthe organization's portfolio of products.

Sales Execution/Pricing: The vendor's capabilities in all pre-sales activities and the structure that supports them.Thisincludes deal management, pricing and negotiation, pre-sales support and the overall effectiveness of the sales channel.

Market Responsiveness and Track Record: Ability to respond, change direction, be flexible and achieve competitivesuccess as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve and market dynamics change.This criterion alsoconsiders the vendor's history of responsiveness.

Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver the organization'smessage to influence the market, promote the brand and business, increase awareness of the products, and establish a positiveidentification with the product/brand and organization in the minds of buyers.This "mind share" can be driven by acombination of publicity, promotional, thought leadership, word-of-mouth and sales activities.

Customer Experience: Relationships, products and services/programs that enable clients to be successful with theproducts evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways customers receive technical support or account support.This can alsoinclude ancillary tools, customer support programs (and the quality thereof), availability of user groups, service-levelagreements, etc.

Operations: The ability of the organization to meet its goals and commitments. Factors include the quality of theorganizational structure including skills, experiences, programs, systems and other vehicles that enable the organization tooperate effectively and efficiently on an ongoing basis.

Completeness of VisionMarket Understanding: Ability of the vendor to understand buyers' wants and needs and to translate those intoproducts and services.Vendors that show the highest degree of vision listen and understand buyers' wants and needs, and canshape or enhance those with their added vision.

Marketing Strategy: A clear, differentiated set of messages consistently communicated throughout the organization andexternalized through the Web site, advertising, customer programs and positioning statements.

Sales Strategy: The strategy for selling product that uses the appropriate network of direct and indirect sales, marketing,service and communication affiliates that extend the scope and depth of market reach, skills, expertise, technologies, servicesand the customer base.

Offering (Product) Strategy: The vendor's approach to product development and delivery that emphasizesdifferentiation, functionality, methodology and feature set as they map to current and future requirements.

Business Model: The soundness and logic of the vendor's underlying business proposition.

Vertical/Industry Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs ofindividual market segments, including verticals.

Innovation: Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital for investment,consolidation, defensive or pre-emptive purposes.

Geographic Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs ofgeographies outside the "home" or native geography, either directly or through partners, channels and subsidiaries asappropriate for that geography and market.

Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00162969,William Clark, Michael J. King, 18 December 2008.