Solution providers need to get ready for opportunities in the explosive growth of smartphone and tablet sales, along with an accompanying boom in mobile data traffic—with mobile cloud use accounting nearly three-quarters of that traffic—by 2016.

Intermec is refining its channel program with new focus and improved incentives in mind as more VARs and ISVs embrace rugged mobile enterprise devices.

Microsoft went “all in” on Windows Phone 7 to reverse its fortunes against Google's Android and Apple’s iOS in the smartphones wars. Left out of the battle, though, was Windows Mobile, the operating system for rugged devices, a sector Microsoft thought was secure. Not only is that position being threatened, Microsoft may have already lost the ruggedized market.

For the first time, smartphone sales surpassed shipments of client PCs – including tablets – to become the world’s most prolific computing platform. Over the next three years, more than 1 trillion smartphones will enter service, compelling businesses to adopt mobile device management.

Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, is replacing its co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis today. The task of turning around the vendor falls to Thorsten Heins, who is faced with sliding market share and customer satisfaction ratings. Could RIM become the first casualty of the mobility era?