Webconferencing on smartphones is an important step towards increasing business productivity

Recently, Cisco WebEx launched the web conferencing services on smart

mobile phones. So, how do you see a need for such web based service offerings on

smartphones in a country like India?



According to Gartner, worldwide mobile phone sales to the end users totaled

314.7 mn units in the Q1 2010, a 17% increase from Q1 2009. Smartphone sales to

the end users reached 54.3 mn units, an increase of 48.7% from Q1 2009. Growth

in the mobile devices market was driven by double digit growth of smartphone

sales in mature markets. Considering the way we have to work today, this

offering is an important step towards increasing business productivity. With

this solution available on all of these smartphones, workers will be able to

collaborate quickly and easily, thus getting business decisions made faster.

Since a huge amount of business people use smartphones, do you think web

conferencing service will be largely used by them and not by general people?



Irrespective of the type of user, the freedom that they will be able to gain

from using this solution will help to increase productivity because workers will

be able to work wherever and whenever they wish, using their chosen device.

There is no cost for attendees to join meetings on smartphones. Users must have

a current WebEx Meeting Center subscription to schedule or host a meeting on a

computer.

How dependent is the service on the bandwidth provided by the telecom

operators?



To use WebEx on a smartphone, users will need an active 3G cellular or Wi-Fi

connection. Users can also attend WebEx meetings on 2.5G phones but theyll need

to select only one media, either data or voice.

Today smartphones are mini-computing devices. So how much care has been

taken about the security issues?



All WebEx meetings are delivered on an on-demand Cisco WebEx Collaboration

Cloud, configurable for each organizations policy requirements. All of the data

exchanged in Cisco WebEx meeting applications is routed through the Cisco WebEx

Collaboration Cloud, a dedicated, secure and global network of data centers.

This network provides 24x7 accessibility. Whenever Cisco WebEx meeting

applications are used, the data is encrypted and hosted on this secure network,

and delivered to a variety of end points including desktops and mobile devices.

As 3G services are expected to be rolled out shortly in India, do you

expect that mobile and web based services will generate more business for Cisco

WebEx?



According to a Crisil Research Report, the launch of 3G services, network

deployment by new operators and rollout of long distance network will drive an

investment of around $55 bn over the next five years into the Indian telecom

sector. With the availability of applications such as Cisco WebEx Meeting Center

on a larger number of 3G smartphones, 2010 looks set to be the year when

enterprise applications like web conferencing become truly mobile, providing

workers with access to their corporate applications on the go.

Pankaj Maru/CMN



maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in