Over-the-air support and the changing face of mobility.

David Ginsburg, Vice President of Marketing, InnoPath Software, writes: "Ideally, operators will be equipped with the tools permitting them to add efficiency to the interaction with the customer, growing customer satisfaction while containing costs. Operators will be able to reach out and 'touch' the phone in real-time via a server at their NOC and a simple client that can be pushed to the phone even after it is in the hands of the subscriber. The server and client create a live connection to the phone, permitting tech support to query the device as to its status and configuration, and then take corrective action in real-time if required.

The conventional thinking was that deploying this type of solution is too complex, but Mobile Device Management (MDM) is one technology being used to solve the end-to-end problem of over-the-air manageability. Based on open standards from the Open Mobile Alliance, MDM is being adopted by major wireless operators and handset vendors globally to diagnose and support smartphone issues."