Cisco has just invested in SoonR a company which supplies a service allowing computer files to be easily accessed by mobile phones or other internet devices. As mobile devices become more powerful and wireless broadband becomes more pervasive, this segment of the market is obviously going to be more important.I recall in 2000-2002 that a few companies focused on solving this problem went out of business. I can't even remember the company names anymore but as happens often, the ideas were good but the timing was not.
But although this is just an investment, I get the feeling Cisco is eyeing what Microsoft, Apple and Google have done in the mobile market and wants in.
Let's not forget RIM and the company's soaring stock price. Certainly mobility has much potential and if SoonR competes with anyone today, perhaps it is RIM with the company's popular Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) software.
I think we will see Cisco making acquisitions and/or rolling out more products in the mobility space this year. Call it mobile unified communications or whatever you want... The end result is there is a great deal of money to be made in mobile devices and services and Cisco will likely want to be better positioned to get a piece of this business.
One last point is that SoonR has said in the past in a GigaOm article it is looking to service providers and companies like WebEx to partner with as they have existing billing relationships. Coincidentally, Cisco just happens to own WebEx.
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