Welcome to Freshly Mobile

Ahh, the promise of seamless mobility. Over the years, I have caught the occasional glimpse and have dared to dream of what might be.

From the Osborne 1 in the early 80’s through the birth of the PDA with the Apple Newton, to the laptops of today, computers have become much more portable. The lure of portable computing is strong and it is changing the face of computing today. In fact, Gartner predicts that more than 40% of the PCs sold in 2007 will be laptops.

Yet, despite how far they’ve come, today’s laptops offer limited connectivity and are too bulky to offer true mobility. Don’t get me wrong, I carry my MacBook Pro nearly everywhere I go. Despite all the improvements it still reminds me of the Compaq “luggable” I used to carry from office to office in the mid 80’s.


From Portability to Mobility

Carrying that old Compaq from place to place, was a great example of portable computing. While today’s laptops are a far cry from that Compaq, the usage is still largely the same: working in one place, packing it up, moving it to another location and begin working there. Sure, the places and connectivity have changed. Today, I can easily carry my laptop from a meeting in a conference room to a meeting at Starbucks, and with the right infrastructure I can use wifi to access the Internet.

Moving from portability to mobility is a lot more complex. On the technical side, the move towards real mobility will require new hardware and software platforms; strong and diverse networks; and inspired ways of bringing it all together. It will require a new way of looking at the technology, at the business, education and personal drivers pushing the (r)evolution along.

I started this site, because I believe that we are on the cusp of making great strides towards that promise.

I started it because I wanted a place where people can come to learn and talk about how the promise is being realized.

I started it because, despite my 20 years working in computing and emerging telecommunications, I am now in a unique place to help host and guide this conversation. I am fortunate enough to work at one of the world’s leading research universities and to work with some of the leading thinkers in the areas of technology, medicine, engineering, physics, oceanography and more.

There are hundreds of sites on the Internet that are devoted to technology and while we will occasionally delve into the speeds and feeds or equipment reviews, our main focus is intended to open thought and discussion about how the platforms, devices, environments and networksimpact and enableto true promise of mobility.

I hope you will join me on this freshly mobile experience.

If you would like to help with the development of this site or to the conversation, please send me a message to mortonmanor at freshlymobile dot com.