Fanboys had better sit down before continuing, as I have some bad news for you, unless your particular tech obsession of choice is CrackBerry or Windows flavoured. Neither Apple iOS nor Android will beat BlackBerry or Microsoft as a mobile business platform any time soon, according to the latest market research.

But more of that later, first let’s start with some confusing jargon. A newly published study conducted by Plantronics reinforces what I already know, namely that more and more people are working outside of the traditional office environment these days.

Well, actually, that’s being a little disingenuous as in reality it confused me greatly by suggesting that people increasingly work in ‘transitional spaces’ and, to be honest, I had no idea what that really meant.  Delving a little deeper, it would appear that it means ‘public spaces used while in transit’ according to Plantronics. Translated into normal-speak I think what the survey was actually trying to say is that people are doing more work while on the bus, train or plane. And in hotel rooms, airport lounges or coffee shops for that matter. Anywhere outside of the office, other than the home environment in other words.

This should come as no great surprise, given that the likes of IDC were predicting only last year that one third of the world’s workforce (about 1.2 billion people if you prefer) would be mobile by 2013. But I was still somewhat taken aback by the Plantronics numbers, which suggested that a majority (55.2%) spend some 20 percent of their working week doing their work in these transitional spaces.

Of course, this particular survey, coming as it did from a manufacturer of audio headsets, was geared towards convincing me that the most important factor to emerge from this change in working patterns is noise. Specifically background noise that impacts upon concentration, productivity and business success as a result of the distraction. I mean, how dare people talk in a coffee shop when I’m trying to work, have they no consideration? Actually, most of the office workers I speak to reckon that it’s quieter in a coffee shop anyway, so I’m not sure what all the fuss is about.

Leaving the noise issue behind, and concentrating more on the inevitable march towards mobility in the workforce, another IDC survey caught my eye, this one being the catchily entitled ‘2010 EMEA Enterprise Mobility Survey’ which questioned 1,240 end users in 13 countries about the latest workforce mobility trends within their companies.

Two things jumped out at me from this survey:

1. Consumerisation of IT is not an issue, and the so-called trend of ‘bring your own smartphone into work’ just doesn’t ring true to the majority of people. Indeed, IDC reckons the response was almost unanimous in predicting an increase in company-paid mobility, as it calls it. Or ‘I should bloody well think so’ hardware provision as I call it. The type of hardware was the really interesting bit, as respondents to the survey predict a “heterogeneous world in terms of business devices” with smartphones seeing the largest growth at the expense of laptops. Tablets and netbooks figure to a lesser extent, but will still outnumber laptops in the office of the future it would seem. I can’t say I’m totally convinced, despite being a fan of netbooks and smartphones. Sure I carry my iPhone everywhere, but I try not to write long reports using it. My netbook is another matter, but I’m not perhaps your typical small business user and my needs are fairly low-resource shall we say. I’m happy knocking out a few thousand words or doing some online research on the netbook, but it’s not a true mobile office in the way that your average laptop can be said to be. As for tablets, well let’s not even go there as I’m still recovering from the last time I dared suggest an iPad wasn’t the ideal business tool. And talking of getting into trouble with the Apple fans…

2. When it comes to smartphones for business, Apple has a long way to go. The IDC survey suggests that BlackBerry is the preferred smartphone platform of choice amongst ‘business decision makers’ with Microsoft in second place ahead of Symbian. Apple iOS was fourth and Android fifth. What’s more, IDC doesn’t see any great change at the very top with BlackBerry predicted to still be number one in three years time. The only real change will be the decline of Symbian, as Apple iOS and Android eat into business market share.

So do you run a business and use iOS or Android over BlackBerry or Windows? If so, please let us know why. If you don’t we’d still like to hear from you, just tell us why not.

As you’ll know if you’ve read my BlackBerry Torch review, I’m a fan of RIM’s new smartphone OS, BlackBerry OS 6. Although the Torch itself didn’t get my juices flowing, the knowledge the new Bold would arrive soon, with the new UI on board, appeased me somewhat.

Well, I’ve just laid my hands on one. Alas, I’m not bowled over.

The reason? Well, there isn’t anything particularly new about it. The camera has been boosted from 3.2 megapixels to 5, the trim around the front edge has been changed from black to chrome, the RAM has been doubled from 256MB to 512MB, and … um … that’s about it.

The keyboard is the same design. The screen is the same size (2.4in) and resolution (480 x 360 pixels), the dimension and weight are identical (60 x 14 x 109mm and 122g) and the battery capacity is the same (1,500mAh). The 624MHz processor remains obstinately the same.

This isn’t a terrible thing. I like the 9700 even now, and there’s no doubt at all that OS 6 works better on the Bold’s screen than on the Torch’s. There’s more room for icons along the bottom, while the keyboard is easier to use as it isn’t surrounded by a raised plastic lip. The 9780 is more pocketable, lighter, and if real-world battery life follows the figures stamped on the label, that should stomp on Torch’s too, with 230mAh of extra capacity.

The big question, however,  is will anyone buy one?

Not anyone in their right mind. After all, with 9700 owners  promised an OS 6 upgrade in the next few months, existing owners would be mad to upgrade for the sake of a couple of megapixels. Just wait and soon you’ll have a phone that’s all but identical … for nothing.

Meanwhile, anyone new to BlackBerry would be better off scouring the market for deals on the 9700. It’s largely the same handset, or at least it will be once the OS 6 upgrade arrives, prices are good now and are likely to be pushed lower once the 9780 hits the shops in the next few weeks. Again, the extra megapixels just aren’t worth paying the extra for.

A RIM spokesman called the 9780 a “necessary upgrade” today. I’m sorry, but I’d have to disagree.

October has been a month of ‘Fanboy FAIL’ as far as sensible smartphone market analysis is concerned. First there was Steve Jobs bigging up iOS, iPhones and the iPad while dissing Android and RIM. Then there was the inevitable fanboy fracas from all sides that followed, including Jim Balsillie throwing some RIM soundbytes into the mix. This has truly been the month that common sense was finally shot in the head.

If you need further proof of this, then take a look at the Good Technology Device Activation Report for the 3rd quarter of 2010. At first glance, this report would appear to suggest that both Apple iOS and Google Android platforms are being rapidly adopted within the enterprise sector, while BlackBerry has vanished from the business market altogether.

The report reveals that the iPhone 4 was the single most activated mobile device within the enterprise during the 3rd quarter. The seemingly good news for Apple does not finish there, as the iPhone 3GS took the number two spot and iPad was number three. The Motorola Droid X came in at number four for Android and HTC Cedar held up Windows Mobile at number five. Apple iOS devices accounted for more than 50 percent of all new activations from June through September, Android 30 percent and Windows Mobile 15 percent.

Have you spotted the fly in the Good Technology report ointment yet? Yep, that’s it: the complete lack of any BlackBerry share. Surely some mistake, eh guv’nor? I visit a lot of enterprises, and I travel by air and rail a lot as well, and I’ve not noticed any dramatic drop in the numbers of BlackBerry toting suits.

Does the report reflect a trend I have missed? Does it mean that BlackBerrys are rapidly falling out of favour within and without the enterprise? Erm, that would be a massive no, actually. It reflects the fact that Good Technology, which admits as much in the report itself, has no insight into BlackBerry device activations at all as RIM devices all use the BlackBerry Enterprise Server for corporate email access.

Does the report reflect a trend I have missed? Does it mean that BlackBerrys are rapidly falling out of favour within and without the enterprise?

It is, at the end of the day, about as valuable an insight into the true positioning on mobile device platforms within the enterprise as Steve Jobs rubbishing Android and RIM in his hugely misplaced rant during the Apple earnings call.

It is, when all is said and done, about as insightful as Research In Motion’s head honcho Jim Balsillie claiming that “for those of us who live outside of Apple’s distortion field, we know that seven-inch tablets will actually be a big portion of the market” when the truth is that’s just wishful thinking right now.

The bottom line, once you strip out all of the fanboy posturing, CEO positioning and incomplete device activation reporting, is simply this: smartphones and tablets are good for business.

Period.

Now that that’s settled can we please get back to the real world stuff which should be concerning us all, such as how to best secure the use of generation next mobile computing data within the enterprise? I’d much rather see everyone getting hot under the collar about that particular hot potato than continue with this whole, pointless and puerile “my phone is better than your phone” nonsense.

Front on, the most interesting item is slap bang in the middle: a trackpad. This works almost identically to a normal laptop trackpad, except you press it to select on an item. Opinion in the PC Pro office is so far mixed: I found it intuitive, though it’s a little fiddly as you can’t jump about the screen as quickly as I’d like, whereas our esteemed news & features editor, Barry Collins, simply couldn’t get on with it at all.

There’s a full Qwerty keyboard, which is usable but not spectacular. This is mainly because the buttons feel a little cheap and plasticky (as does the whole phone), but also because it isn’t the widest of devices.

The 8520’s most heralded innovation, however, is the introduction of these three buttons: one for skipping back a track, one for jumping forward, and one for pause/play. They sit atop the unit and work well in practice, though obviously the BlackBerry’s music player is hardly going to rival the iPhone’s.

The two bobbles you see down the right-hand side act as the volume controls, and there are a further two “bobble buttons” elsewhere: one on either side, roughly in the middle of the unit. One activates voice commands, the other the 2mp digital camera (which also shoots video).

The screen is also worth a mention. It’s not big, with just a 320 x 240 resolution, but it’s sharp, bright and clear – if not as vibrant as the BlackBerry Bold. Crucially for some, it also lacks 3G and GPS radios.

We’ll be putting the Curve through our full range of tests over the coming days, but it’s undoubtedly got a tough fight on its hands. Competition comes from the Nokia E63, the Nokia E71 and RIM’s own BlackBerry 8900 – even though the 8520 is being priced at a competitive £200 inc VAT on pay-as-you-go contracts.

For those of you who may not be completely au fait with the details (where have you been?), it’s RIM’s new flagship phone, but instead of simply relying on a (slow) GPRS connection – which we haven’t been impressed with before – the new device has a 3.5G (tri-band HSDPA) connection, and a new web browser.

The result is a completely revamped BlackBerry, with a new-look interface. The operating system has moved on to version 4.6 now and it comes complete with a slick new look and iPhone-style web browser, which gives an overview of web pages before allowing you to zoom right in.

From the brief time we had alone with the handset we’d say it was pretty good. It seems much easier to get on with than Windows Mobile (not hard) but not quite the slick consumer experience you get with the iPhone (not suprising). The screen is incredibly bright and crisp too: a demo video clip showed it off in a very favourable light. The external stereo speakers are loud and clear.

More importantly, perhaps, the new keyboard seems excellent. Admittedly we haven’t had enough time with it to dig out its flaws, but after a few minutes use we’d be happy to give the thumbs up. It has slightly larger keys than the one on the already superb 8820.

We liked the look of the new interface as well. It looks much more sophisticated than previous versions, complete with snazzy transparency effects and iPhone-esque square application launch buttons.

There’s also much better office document compatibility, with Dataviz’s Documents to Go included – RIM’s previous efforts have, surprisingly, been woeful in the extreme – but disappointingly it’s the limited version. You can view office documents with it but not edit or create new ones. You have to pay to upgrade.

Other details include a nippy 624MHz processor, which drives the new operating system along without hesitation, GPS, 1GB of internal storage, a two-megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone socket and externally accessible microSD slot. We’ll have to reserve comment on the battery life, but it looks as if that could well be pretty good, too, with a 1,500mAh lithium polymer unit on board.

The only disappointment is that the handset isn’t that elegant. The aluminium-style trim is quite nice as is the flush-finish screen and sliver ‘frets’ between the rows of the keyboard. But compared to the likes of Nokia’s gorgeous E71 (10mm thick), the Bold is a bit of a porker at 15mm – and we’re none too keen on the leatherette finish the back plate is clad in either.

But this is all having had just a half an hour play with the device. Once it’s fully charged, we’ll be giving it the full PC Pro workout and will post a full review when we’ve done so. Be sure to check back soon.