CIO.com Reader’s Choice: Top Mobility Stories of 2013

IT organizations were hit from every side this year with, cloud computing, shadow IT, security issues and the economy, but maybe most so by the surge of mobile technologies. Every aspect of the tech world has been affected by mobility trends such as BYOD, wearables and the market saturation of new mobile consumer technology. Read along as we look back at the mobile trends that had the greatest impact on IT in 2013.

The demand for programmers and developers with mobile skills continues to rise, but which ones should you consider adding to your toolbox? These are the IT skills most sought-after by employers.

From gloves that analyze your golf swing to glasses that combat jetlag to a headband that reads your mind, here’s a look at some of the newest and neatest advancements in wearable technology.

Fast food restaurants want to use mobile technology — theirs and yours — to create a highly intimate customer experience. Your personal device and the restaurant’s own systems will exchange data for your convenience and their profit. Fast food becomes not so much a destination, but a service that follows you from mealtime to mealtime.

Health care workers in the developing world are using mobile phones to address critical health needs ranging from maternal mortality to HIV testing to clean water. Here are 10 examples of mobile health around the world.

Mobile is top-of-mind for most CIOs today. However, while many IT leaders are focused on enabling existing business processes and operations in a mobile framework, CIOs with an eye to the future are thinking about how mobile can transform the business and enable new use cases.

The DEMO conference has a storied past, serving as a launching pad for businesses that would grow into industry powerhouses, such as VMware and Salesforce.com.

Managing devices in a BYOD environment is no small feat, and the right mobile device management product is a key component in making it work. Here are 10 top MDM vendors in the market today.

Exciting mobile apps such as Pandora, Yelp and Hailo along with features running on smartphones and tablets have disrupted entire industries. The old ways of serving customers and bridging supply and demand are being upended by the more efficient one-two punch of digital and mobile. Smart companies are joining the movement rather than resisting — they’re disrupting themselves.

Apple, Google, Microsoft and BlackBerry beared down for the great mobile enterprise race in 2013. Here are the results from a survey on mobile app deployment plans for all mobile platforms. The winners and losers may surprise you.

As a catch-all term, “mobile” can mean anything from a me-too app to an elaborate augmented reality platform. While venture capitalists have been cautious since the 2008 crash, you wouldn’t know that if you simply focused on the mobile sector. Mobile is well into a gold-rush phase, and these 10 startups hope to cash in before the vein runs dry.

For years, security experts have predicted the rise of mobile malware, and 2013 was no exception. Many experts expect mobile threats to escalate. What other security threats are on the horizon?

The path from the flash of genius to the working mobile app has been long and treacherous. The good news is that help is on the way as companies develop tools and frameworks that smooth the journey. Here is a collection of 10 tools that are revolutionizing the way we create apps.