Welcome to our inaugural post introducing Mason’s blog on mobile infrastructure! As our first post, we wanted to share a bit more about our plans for the blog and highlight some of the key topics we’ll be covering. If you like what you see, feel free to subscribe, and we’ll send you regular updates to share what we’ve been writing about lately.
But first… what is mobile infrastructure anyway?
What is Mobile Infrastructure?
When we talk about mobile infrastructure, we’re referring to anything that is involved with building, deploying, and managing a fleet of dedicated devices. That includes the hardware, the operating system, management software, connectivity, shipping, logistics—essentially everything except for the actual application that the device is running. Examples of use cases leveraging mobile infrastructure range from ordering kiosks at restaurants, to patient engagement solutions at hospitals, to dedicated connectivity gateways for medical devices. Every day, new smart hardware products are brought to market where some form of mobile infrastructure is being utilized.
So why focus on mobile infrastructure? Pretty simple, really. We believe that delivering software on smart hardware has the potential to drive meaningful, impactful change in the world. It’s already changing healthcare, education, fitness, retail, transportation, etc., but we’re just scratching the surface. There are plenty of innovators in the world who have amazing ideas and can build world-class software, but unfortunately integrating that software into a full-stack hardware solution is much more time consuming, expensive, and challenging.
Our mission at Mason is to remove all the barriers stopping innovators from bringing smart hardware products to market, and the goal of this blog is to provide resources to inspire and educate game-changers (like you!) around the world.
What topics will this blog cover?
The content on our blog is going to focus on four key areas (outside of the standard company news/announcements, product updates, etc.). Each focus area has numerous layers that can be broken down, but at a high level, here’s what you can expect to find on our blog:
- Android and Mobile Development: We have some of the world’s best Android engineers working at Mason, so we’ll be writing a lot about that world, including OS development, Android app best practices, security best practices, etc. (for example, check out this LinkedIn course from our Engineering Lead on building battery conscious Android apps). We will also write about high-level mobile app development in general (e.g. pros and cons of using a cross-platform framework vs. going native).
- Logistics, Operations, and Connectivity: Building dedicated devices means you have physical assets you need to ship, track, provision, and support—this is a completely foreign concept to the majority of the population. Dealing with physical devices adds another level of complexity, which means you’ll need to know about things like importing/exporting, certifications, cellular connectivity, inventory management, fleet management, etc.
- Hardware and Manufacturing: So you want to get into hardware, but aren’t sure how to get started? This section of our blog will be a great place to kick things off. We’ll cover hardware basics, supply chain trends, design and manufacturing best practices, navigating foreign ODMs, how to pick the best chipset, etc.
- Industry Innovation: This is where we will highlight how dedicated devices are disrupting industries like healthcare, transportation, retail, hospitality, etc. We’ll be producing research reports, highlighting future trends, and covering everything you need to know to enter or advance in a specific market.
If you have topics or questions you’d like us to cover on our blog, reach out to marketing@bymason.com, and make sure to subscribe to our blog to get regular blog updates to your inbox!