iPhone envy? IBM launches $100 million mobile research intiative

June 16, 2009 | Dean Takahashi | Comments | |

ibmMaybe Big Blue has a bad case of iPhone envy. IBM said today it is launching a $100 million major research initiative to take mobile technology for businesses and consumers to new heights over the next five years.

The company said it wants to deliver simple, easy-to-use services to the millions of people who have bypassed using the personal computer as their primary method of accessing the Internet.

IBM notes that 83 percent of the world population doesn’t have access to a computer. The company has created a program in southern India that lets farmers, repairmen, small business owners and consumers post or exchange critical business information or process transactions via cell phones. After nine months, the company says it has gotten rave reviews. IBM is also looking at how to better serve people with targeted offers, based on their mobile transaction histories.

The company also wants to assert itself in the enterprise smart phone market by making phones even more essential for managing large forces of enterprise field workers, conducting financial transactions, entertainment, shopping, and more.

IBM has created a pilot project in which a technology dubbed BlueStar will enable mobile devices to automatically process insurance claims. The company says BlueStar lets people cut the time required to process claims by helping locate claims adjusters who are closest to the insured client. The project demonstrated how to deploy mobile apps to a large work force.

These strategies may sound familiar. And it’s interesting that IBM is announcing this just as Apple launches a new version of its iPhone software on Wednesday. While Apple clearly has the market’s attention, IBM hopes it can deliver innovations in the future that make mobile technology more capable and easier to use.

[photo: pocketpicks]

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About the Author, Dean Takahashi

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • rohit
    sigh... when was the last time "IBM Research" created an "easy to use" service that had mass adoption....

    The SmartMobile marketplace is going to be big though - there will be a Billion plus smartmobile devices in about five years (up from 100m today). That number is bigger than all TVs in the world, all the world's newspaper circulation, number of email users, or number of landlines.... This is a secular trend across multiple technologies that are evolving fast and we will see a number of large companies created as a result. We are witnessing nothing short of a birth of a new mass media channel.

    iPhone is first proof of this marketplace and Android, Palm, others will follow. SmartPhones is just the beginning, Netbooks are no less smart and no less mobile... I want the same App screen on my next netbook as I have on my iPhone today.

    see http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/20...

    I am just cynical about IBM playing a large role in this marketplace.
  • Peter Antypas
    I agree, it's laughable to say the least. Even Microsoft has failed in the mobile space, becoming increasingly marginalized and irrelevant. Nobody associates IBM with anything consumer facing to begin with ... and for good reason. Heck, they didn't even successfully capitalize on the PC!!!
  • It’s nice to know that the company has plans to compete with the other high edge mobile technology communication company.