On Tuesday I gave a Skill Sprint webinar introducing one of the coming features of EMS (Enterprise Mobility Services) in the next version of RAD Studio, that is, direct support for sending Push Notifications to mobile apps.
This is a feature Google calls "Google Cloud Messaging for Android" (or CGM) as you can see at developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html and Apple calls Apple Push Notification Service (APN) as you can see at developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/RemoteNotificationsPG/Chapters/ApplePushService.html.
In both cases, the idea is that a client appliation running on a mobile device can authorize receiving a notification from a server (via Google and Apple services). This notification can reach the running application, which can than execute specific code. If the application is not running, the notification is added to the notification center/list and selecting it will open the application, again passing it the proper data (so that the application can display information specific to the notification it received).
While I'm pretty sure you might have seen this used for games and social applications, this feature can add great value to line of business applications, where the user can be alerted of anything important to him while on the road. Given the notification is asynchronous in nature, this should work even in cases the device connectivity is limited and not stable.
For all of the information of the future RAD Studio implementation (that will be available via Enterprise Mobility Services), you can see the video replay below. The session explains the scenario, but also shows actual code snippets, including the 2 lines of code (plus 2 components) you'll need to add to a VCL application to initiate a notification to some or all of the devices connected to the same EMS service.
Feel free to ask any question.. safe for when the technology will ship.