Microsoft just rolled out Windows Phone 7.5, also nicknamed "Mango" (my favorite fruit incidentally). It brings lots of cool features like social networking and local search, but has certain features that businesses will find very useful. These are as follows:

1) MS Office Integration. The Mango update goes beyond allowing creation and editing of MS Office files by offering full integration with cloud based documents through Office 365. Users can sync their documents between their phone, online and desktop using Office 365 as an intermediate. I suspect users can also use third party mobile collaboration suites like HyperOffice to do this. 

2) Enhanced Outlook/Exchange Support. The Mango update has Outlook pre-installed and has enhanced support for Exchange server sync. Users can now sync task lists and to-dos on their mobile. It also supports stronger passwords, including alpha numeric passwords.

3) Lync Mobile. Later this year Windows Phone Mango will add Lync, which will allow users to access SharePoint features right on their mobile, including VOIP capabilities. This seems like this will go a long way to add mobility capabilities to SharePoint, as well as bolster Microsoft's enterprise mobile offerings.  

So is Microsoft finally going to breathe down the neck of iPhone? No way. 

A few days ago, Apple finally put the final nails into MobileMe's coffin when it announced iCloud. As Steve Jobs himself joked, MobileMe got a reputation of being problematic. However, the services that Apple provided through MobileMe will now be available through iCloud, although they have been redesigned from scratch, according to Jobs. 

The new service is quite nifty, and might well capture the success of all of Apple's recent "i" product forays - iPhone, iPad et al. It allows you to sync mail, contacts, calendars, music, photos, documents (iWork) and apps. Any change you make on one Apple device (iPhone, iPad, Mac) are instantly reflected everywhere else. One great application of this is that the pictures you take on your iPhone are instantly available on your Mac and iPad. No more cumbersome uploading or emailing them! 

Although comparisons abound with Google Apps, this service is not really a team or "mobile collaboration" service. It is more a personal information manager on steroids. 

I came across a nice article by Jonathan Blum of thestreet.com. He rues the fact that in spite of all the hype around the Microsoft-Skype deal, it offers nothing to users of tablets who are looking for easier ways to manage work on their iPads or other tablets. Tablets are a great computing device where they have none of the size restrictions of smart phones, nor the portability restrictions of desktops. That explains why they are all the rage. And yet - neither Skype, nor Microsoft collaboration products have a dedicated tablet app.

Jonathan then goes on to list 3 great mobile collaboration applications. 

1) WebEx - It has a slick and effective tablet app for web and audio conferencing. 

2) FuzeMeeting - Second only to WebEx (according to Jonathan), FuzeMeeting is a lot cheaper, and a more suitable choice price sensitive customers.

3) GoToMeeting - Best kept away from, unless you're desperate (Jonathan again). But hey, at least they have an iPad app!

I couldn't help but notice that the solutions that Jonathan has listed are more web conferencing application as opposed to "collaboration software" per se. A mobile collaboration solution would also include document collaboration, shared workspaces, discussions et al. Anybody know of a good tablet collaboration app? 

Endgadget today reported that Obama is unhappy with the state of technology at the white house. He reportedly opined that the White House was "30 years" behind. "I'm the president of the United States. Where's the fancy buttons and stuff and the big screen comes up? It doesn't happen." he humorously quipped. Although Obama is notoriously known to cling to a somewhat outdated BlackBerry, his major grouse was the lack of the use of smartphones, or "really cool phones and stuff", as he put it.

Well, this is quite unlike the super high tech, space age image of the White House created by Hollywood. In a business world where mobile collaboration is catching on like wild fire, the government had better catch up quick! 

I came across a very interesting article on the impact of the mobility revolution on businesses, and important mobile productivity tools that companies need to enable their employees with. We hear talk all around us of mobility being the next big thing, and advertisers and software developers making a beeline to be participate in this great growth.

This has been spurred by a combination of factors - the deep penetration of mobile devices, a large percentage of these mobile phones being "smart phones" - powerful internet friendly phones, and the emergence of wireless internet technologies like 3G and 4G. 

Businesses have been equally impacted by this growth because workers more from their mobile phones as in their consumer role. Besides, there is a greater pressure on employees to be "mobile" given phenomena like outsourcing, offshoring, and telecommuting.

The article lists out four essential "mobile collaboration" tools that companies need to enable their employees with. 

1. Push Email. Push email lets employees access their corporate email (Outlook, Exchange or any other) from their mobile phones, and keep it in sync. Push email is the most important tool for workers because email is the most popular non voice/sms feature that mobile users use.

2. Push Contacts and Calendars.  Push contacts and calendars enable employees with other business information they often need to interact with. Push calendars let employees keep on top of schedules and coordinate meetings on their mobile phones, even when they're away from their desktop. They can also keep their calendars in sync with their Outlook or other business calendars.

3. Mobile Collaboration Software. The next level is to enable users with tools which not only let them access corporate information on their mobiles, but also collaborate on data with their coworkers. These new generation of collaboration tools server a range of worker productivity needs - sharing of contacts, calendars and files; working together on files, or coordinate activities with project management tools.