A central component of what we do is evaluate and research technology. At the core of how we help financial advisors and institutions make decisions about technology – is our ongoing due diligence. This means live discussions and briefings with financial services technology vendors month in and month out. It happens on web meetings, phone calls and in person at industry events.
Evaluating Smart Phones and More
However, underlying the industry-centric research, we also actively evaluate all manner of hardware and software. This means we are all carrying out more devices than the average business user. Our partners work both on PC and Mac platforms and frequently carry multiple smart phones and tablets. This allows our evaluation and resulting feedback to be real-world tested versus theoretical.
In the case of smart phones – we’ve been exploring Android, Blackberry, iOS and Windows devices. For that matter we also are carrying around Microsoft Surface Pro 3’s along with those phones and iPads and Macbook’s. (It does make for a challenge when it comes to lugging these things through airports and at events – but it is ideal for testing in those situations.)
What (Might) Be Next
While the evolution of smart devices is in disruption mode the last few years (Blackberry anyone?) – we do believe the Windows phone operating system will continue to be a force – even as a small minority of the market for now. Microsoft is consolidating Windows 10 as a single OS for all devices. We also assume (based on a lot of speculation by folks watching this even closer in the mobile space) that Microsoft may choose to support Android apps on Windows phones in the future. Given our findings in using the Nokia Lumia 1020 with a Surface Pro 3 for nearly a year now, we would agree that would be ideal.
While Microsoft has reduce its staff headcount in the mobile area, specifically Phone hardware, they will continue releasing or supporting Windows hardware phones – but may also get very creative. We have seen the HTC 8 – a popular Android handset, also run Windows Mobile 8 and do it very well. Watch closely.
How Cortana Beat Out Google Now and Siri
Tune in to hear how one of our partners (Blane Warrene) evaluated smart phones and came to a surprising verdict about Cortana on his The Digital Well podcast.
