CIO View: Mobile computing is the future

Mobile computing is the future. In the meantime, the only major hurdle is mobile computing in the present.

For any manager on the move, the ability to combine a phone with e- mail, SMS, calendars and contacts is an organisational wet dream. However this of course means having a mobile computer that is fast, has a long battery life and comes at a reasonable cost.

Cesare Tizi, ZDnet Australia's CIO of the year for 2007 uses a BlackBerry. Tizi describes his management strategy as "walk around", and as such his BlackBerry is an essential tool.

He notes a more subtle advantage to having a mobile computer, which gives him the "ability to communicate without using your voice -- without interrupting a conversation or meeting ... is very important."

Tizi thinks the uptake of mobile computers faces "many challenges but a lot of it is about the device, the screen has to be good: the right size; the right level of brightness and contrast."

Tizi speaks about how early mobile computers "frustrated me enormously." At the end of the day, it's all about speed. "It has to be snappy", Tizi said.