Mobile solutions for businesses have made great strides since short message service (SMS) was the pinnacle of mobile business collaboration some 10 years ago. Gone is the time when personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cellular gizmos were the Transformers toys for in-the-know folks in business. That time saw the first attempts toward the development of ultra-portable solutions. But for the past five years, smartphones, along with the offerings from software providers and hardware manufacturers, have been pushing the boundaries of ultra-portability to squeeze that personal computer (PC) into the palm of your hand.
Despite incredible achievements, ultra-portability still means restricted ease of use and functionality. Incidentally, ultra-portability is the reason why laptops still reign supreme in the business world today-it's your office folded in two, with no compromise. However, with the release of the iPad last year, a hardware revolution with tablet computers has begun, opening up a new horizon for supply chain management (SCM) systems for businesses.
