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There's a good chance that 2011 is going to be the Year of Mobile. And that's just if the counting starts at January 1 because somewhere during 2010, the Year of Mobile, a period of 12 months, has probably already begun. Whereever the measurement beings, the development of applications that run on mobile devices is going to reach levels that they have never reached before.

The most obvious conclusion is that laptop computer sales should decline because not everyone needs a mobile PC. When SAP discussed its reasons for acquiring Sybase this month, the major reason was developing an open mobile platform. And co-CEO Bill McDermott noted that countries such as Japan and China had skipped the desktop experience that has dominated American computing and gone straight to mobile devices. And now the revolution comes to America and it's as much an end to the idea that one device can serve all needs than it is about a proliferation of devices.

What it boils down to is how much work can be accomplished away from the office without a worker having to return.  Clearly, applications can't look and work the same on mobile devices as on personal computers because mobile instruments simply can't display as much information as a PC.

The other big change is that mobile is poised to change which vendors are the major product suppliers. The PC era has involved the dominance of Microsoft in supplying operating systems and office applications on PCs. The mobile era has the potential bring products from Apple, such as the iPhone and iPad, to business users who previously had not considered use of Apple computers.

But the real change is that devices matter less since applications will be available that either look and operate the same or greatly resemble those available on other devices. The era of Microsoft applications running on Intel platforms is not going to be replaced by an Apple era. It's going to be replaced by more choices. Users will be able to pick the device they want and the application that meets their needs, not simply get locked into buying what everyone has.

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