Sneak is a big fan of smartphones and connected PDAs and is, therefore, concerned to see that Sir Peter Gershon has made the leap from steering the Office of Government Commerce to chairing the board of handset software maker Symbian. While the ex-government man clearly has plenty of gravitas and no doubt has a contacts file capable of making even a PDA bulge, Sneak does worry about whether the public-sector mindset and mobile technology will make a good mix. Sneak for one does not want to have to fill out every diary entry in triplicate, never mind having to hold a year-long pilot-programme, followed by an audited competitive tendering process, whenever it comes time to buy a new pre-pay top-up card.

16 Nov 2004