Mobile Application for Middle East Students in the UK Research Paper

Mobile Application for Middle East Students in the UK - Research Paper Example Software applications or apps are the mainstays of mobile business communications (Highsmith, 2002, p.30). Apps refer to the smartphone programs used daily in composing e-mails, updating calendars, editing documents and collaborating with colleagues. Nearly all smartphones have basic messaging apps such as SMS (text messaging), contact lists, e-mail, and calendars with room for downloading many other apps to customize the mobile business experience (Lacohee, Wakeford & Pearson, 2003, p.208). In order to conduct business successfully both within and outside the office, it is crucial to have a shared set of productivity tools. Windows Mobile is a popular operating system for smartphone due to its ability to run native versions of PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, and Excel. Other phones rely on third-party apps that allow users to edit and view Microsoft Office documents. Examples of such phones are QuickOffice and DataViz's Documents-to-Go. In addition, IT departments can customize smartpho nes into running applications related to â€Å"line of business† via the network, for instance, health records, workflow management, shipping and logistics management as well as other industry-specific software (Litchfield, 2010, n.p.). With appropriate applications, smartphones can act as powerful organizers. Pocket Informant is one of the popular contacts and calendar apps. The advantage of Pocket Informant over built-in calendar apps is its ability to provide a clear organization of complex schedules. Pocket Informant also enables one to view all the e-mails, notes and appointments for each contact in the address book (Williams & Pence, 2011, p.680). ReQall which is a new app that allows busy road-warriors to create to-do lists and calendar entries using easy voice commands. Through management of a complex network of contacts for business, only a small number of online services can beat LinkedIn that provide a native app for iPhone and before long for the Blackberry. Video conferencing and online collaboration are a boon to both national and international companies. Many powerful apps extend the online collaboration tools to the smartphone. Cisco's WebEx Meeting Center for iPhone and the Blackberry allows one to take part in the online conference as either a participant or a presenter. It allows for sharing of documents, viewing of PowerPoint presentations and IM together with various participants while teleconferencing via the smartphone (Liu & Hwang, 2010, P.E5). Another iPhone app is iShare which provides access to firm’s Microsoft SharePoint server to update workflows and collaborate on documents. Encamp for iPhone is an app smartphone that enables access to Basecamp project management workflows as well as shared documents (Highsmith, 2002, p.30).