Clove Technology’s Blog

Smartphone users are proving themselves to be an innovative bunch. Whether their weapon of choice is a BlackBerry, iPhone, Android or Nokia E61, smartphone fans the world over are coming up increasingly avant-garde uses for their mobile devices. Today we are launching a quest to find the top ten most innovative business uses of a smartphone. The prize for the best entry is a brand new BlackBerry 9700.

From MPs tweeting in the House of Commons to a BBC newsreader beating a technology failure by reading the headlines from her iPhone, there’s an abundance of inventive uses of a handheld. We are compiling our Top Ten chart of innovative business uses of a smartphone, which will be published on our blog in May. Other great examples of innovative and alternative uses of smartphones for business purposes include the US water utility companies that have been saving time and money by using BlackBerry smartphones to display system maps and collect all kinds of data while out in the field. Meanwhile, a San Diego medical research organisation has recommended the use of smartphones in healthcare to help keep patients out of hospital – recording snoring to detect sleep apnoea or scanning barcodes on food packaging for an instant calorie count.

Think you can do better? Enter our competition today, by submitting your innovative idea to http://competitions.clove.co.uk/

In the meantime, here are some of our favourite business smartphone stories – with some successes and some BlackBerry boo-boos.

• Bricker & Eckler, a US law firm, use BlackBerries to keep track of email, calendars and contacts while in the courtroom. While use of mobile phones is banned in court, the Ohio firm is able to use the BlackBerry’s other functions to receive last-minute alerts and updates, increasing customer satisfaction and staff productivity.
• Conservative MP Alistair Burt read out a letter about Criminal Record Bureau checks from his BlackBerry during a debate on anti-social behaviour in parliament. However, Deputy Speaker Sir Michael Lord wasn’t impressed and said the practice should be discouraged.
• The iCape is an interesting invention marketed at American hair salons. It’s a cape with a clear vinyl front in the lap area designed so that keen business people can keep in touch with their emails even when having their hair cut – without the danger of getting a hairy BlackBerry (or getting hair products on it).
• CN, a road and rail dispatch service that operates in the US and Canada, utilised the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution to modernise their dispatch business. Each of the 350 drivers was equipped with a BlackBerry device, logging on to the BlackBerry server every time they arrive or leave a destination, enabling easier scheduling of work and more accuracy in reporting to customers.
• Radio 3 newsreader Alison Roper wasn’t fazed when the BBC’s computer systems crashed just before a news bulletin. While colleagues panicked, Alison quickly whipped out her iPhone and read the news from that.
• Keen blogger and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Tracey Crouch learned that there are some places it’s not a good idea to use your smartphone when she dropped her BlackBerry down the loo without realising until too late – after she had pulled the flush.

Terms and Conditions

One winner will receive a BlackBerry Bold 9700 and goodie bag. Five runners up will receive a BlackBerry goodie bag, including lanyard, pen and Clove gift voucher

No alternative prize will be offered Clove Technology’s decision is final

Winners will be notified via phone or email and must provide these details on entering the competition

Closing date 30 April 2010 Winners will be notified by 31 May 2010

Full terms and conditions here: http://competitions.clove.co.uk/terms-and-conditions.html