Cloud-based mobile apps to grow

Juniper Research expects the total market for cloud-based mobile apps to grow 88% between 2009 and 2014, reveals PCWorld.

About 75% of that market will be enterprise users, Juniper predicts. An ABI Research study from a year ago predicts that a new architecture for mobile apps based on the cloud will drastically change the way mobile apps are developed, acquired and used.

Cloud services can make it easier for developers by minimising the amount of code they have to customise for each of the phone platforms. "This trend is in its infancy today, but ABI Research believes that eventually it will become the prevailing model for mobile applications," ABI Research analyst Mark Beccue wrote in the report.

For the first time, Microsoft has made product activation mandatory for users of Office for the Mac, reports Computerworld.

But Microsoft has saddled the new Office for Mac 2011 with an activation process that's significantly more draconian than that demanded of customers running the Windows version of the suite.

Office for Mac 2011 comes with a 25-character alphanumeric activation key that must be entered within 15 days of running any of the suite's applications for the first time. During that grace period, the software works as if it had been activated.

Outsourcing and consultancy firm Capgemini has won a five-year, multimillion-pound contract with Anglian Water, notes Management Consultancy.

The deal will support Anglian Water's infrastructure, including the full server and storage environment, and all the desktops and networks.

Mark Turner, account executive for the project at Capgemini, says: "Capgemini will also support most of the main business applications, including the full SAP suite, a geographic information system and a range of specialist water systems."