Sticking with their management mantra, Symantec made GoEverywhere more an organizing tool for various SaaS applications than a productivity application itself. Their value comes from providing a familiar desktop, like you'd see in Windows XP, but with SaaS applications behind all the icons.
They preload their demo with Zoho and Box.net and major Webmail applications. The "My Safe Place" icon opens up a list of all the SaaS connections you want, and you can pre-load your login credentials to all of them for one click easy access. Want to check your Google Calendar? Add your login name and password to the edit screen, and then one click opens up Google Calendar.
Of course, once you load Google Mail, one click can open Google Calendar without Symantec's help. So I don't believe GoEverywhere is the end-all for Webtop organizers, but I'm impressed Symantec came up with this and made a big splash first. It's free to try now, since it's still in beta, and will likely live on as some "freemium" service, according to Kleinshnitz. You know, get many functions for free, but pay a few bucks per month for more advanced features.
While I'm mentioning impressive firsts in this new collision space for our three trends, let's talk Radio Shack. Yes, Radio Shack. They started advertising a bundle that includes the Acer Aspire One and sells the netbook like a cell phone: get a discount on the hardware if you sign up for the wireless data service for two years. I and others predicted this would happen, so kudos to Radio Shack to be the first one that I saw doing that. If you know of others, send me a note.
The combination of a netbook with wireless data service and a Webtop like GoEverywhere makes constant computing not only possible but relatively inexpensive. I can certainly see Millennials (those born after 1980) who don't have a land line telephone connection because they live on their cell phone make the same jump from cable Internet service to a netbook and a service plan. Businesses can provide many employees a cell phone and a netbook from the same provider, and hook them up to all the applications they need through their browser.
This new approach to computing won't work for every employee, but it will work for the majority of mobile workers. Where people like UPS spent millions moving from a clipboard to a customized computing tablet, netbooks, wireless, and SaaS allow you to make the same jump for a few dollars per month.
P.S. -- Leverage, a fun new show on TNT, updates the A-Team idea as outlaws band together to fight the system on behalf of the little guy. Wouldn't it be nice if small businesses had a real group fighting on our behalf?