|
July 7, 2015
The Analytics of IOT
June 30, 2015
IOT Momentum Starting to Build
June 23, 2015
Breaking the IOT Connection
June 16, 2015
Software is a Service
June 9, 2015
The Challenge of Rising Expectations
June 4, 2015
Insider Extra: Rethinking the Conference Room
June 2, 2015
Win10 + Intel Skylake + Thunderbolt 3 = Interesting PC
May 26, 2015
The IOT Opportunity is Wide Open
May 21, 2015
Insider Extra: The Carrier Challenge for Consumer IOT
May 19, 2015
Maker Movement Drives the Future
May 14, 2015
Insider Extra: The Next Step for Wearables: Health Care
May 12, 2015
Making Sense of IOT
May 5, 2015
A Fresh Look at Wearables
April 30, 2015
Insider Extra: The Amazing HoloLens Leap
April 28, 2015
The Device Dream Team: Large Smartphones and Thin Notebooks
April 23, 2015
Insider Extra: Mobile Sites Should Be Dead
April 21, 2015
Wearables + Connected Cars = IOT Heaven
April 14, 2015
The Future of Wearable Power Is Energy Harvesting
April 7, 2015
Twinning Is Key to Connected Devices
April 2, 2015
Insider Extra: Competing Standard Co-Existence For Wireless Charging and IOT
March 31, 2015
Riding the High-Res Tidal Wave
March 24, 2015
Smart Cars Accelerating Slowly
March 19, 2015
Insider Extra: The Future of Computing is Invisible
March 17, 2015
Smart Home Decade Dilemma
March 10, 2015
Apple Event Surprises
March 3, 2015
Flat Slab Finale?
February 26, 2015
Insider Extra: "Phablet" Impact Continues to Grow
February 24, 2015
Paying for Digital Privacy
February 19, 2015
Insider Extra: The Wire-Free PC
February 17, 2015
Whither Apple?
February 12, 2015
Insider Extra: The Real IOT Opportunity? Industry
February 10, 2015
Business Models For The Internet of Things (IOT)
February 5, 2015
Insider Extra: Is "Mobile Only" The Future?
February 3, 2015
Sexiest New Devices? PCs...
January 29, 2015
Insider Extra: iPhone Next
January 27, 2015
How Will Windows 10 Impact PCs and Tablets?
January 22, 2015
Insider Extra: Hands-On (or Heads-on) With HoloLens
January 20, 2015
Whither Windows 10?
January 15, 2015
Insider Extra: Mobile Security: The Key to a Successful BYOD Implementation
January 13, 2015
Smart Home Situation Likely To Get Worse Before It Gets Better
January 6, 2015
More Tech Predictions for 2015
December 30, 2014
Top 5 Tech Predictions for 2015
|
|
|
|
July 14, 2015
By Bob O'Donnell
I’ve been doing a great deal of research on corporate purchase, usage and management of devices recently, and I’ve come across some interesting findings. Most importantly, the corporate smartphone is far from dead.
Though it’s easy to assume that BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) has taken over the world—especially in the US—and that everyone buys and brings their own smartphone to work, that just isn’t the case. Particularly in more regulated industries like health care and financial services, there’s still a great deal of pushback for BYOD overall, and still very healthy purchases of smartphones by these companies.
In fact, according to research I recently completed, companies in those industries are purchasing 59% of the smartphones in active use by their employees—only 41% of employees’ primary work smartphones are being purchased by individuals.
In another survey of US health care companies, I also found that 35% of them either strictly forbid or don’t have a BYOD program. Now, admittedly, the highly-regulated health care industry tends to be a bit more conservative than others, but not actually by that much (typically only a few percentage points difference at most). The fact is, there are large groups of people who can’t use their own smartphone for work-related purposes, and even in organizations that do allow BYOD, a majority of smartphones are likely still being purchased by the company.
Knowing this both explains some interesting market developments, and provides an opportunity for products and services that are specifically targeted at this market. First, if you’ve ever wondered how Blackberry has continued to hold on, this is clearly the reason, as the vast majority of their business has always been and continues to be corporate-purchased smartphones. Of course, most organizations have opened up their purchases to other operating systems, which is a key factor in why Blackberry’s unit shipments have continued to decline.
Many of the IT professionals who are making or strongly influencing these purchases also have a soft spot for Windows, and this preference clearly shows up in survey results. Though it’s well-known that the percentage of consumers actively using Windows Phones is small, what isn’t well-known is that a surprisingly large percentage of companies (over 40% in several different surveys) have employees who use devices running Microsoft’s mobile OS. In fact, in a TECHnalysis Research survey of US health care companies, 17% of the active work smartphones in their organizations were running Windows Phone. This goes a long way towards explaining Microsoft’s recent comments about focusing their future smartphone development towards enterprise as a key target. They actually have a solid opportunity there.
Speaking of opportunities, there are also strong markets for tools designed to manage smartphones and the increasingly large data sets that reside on them. In addition, there are budding business opportunities for tools that are focused on building custom mobile applications for business. I’ve covered this topic more thoroughly in the past, but suffice it to say that custom applications for PCs have been at the heart of most companies’ IT operations for decades. As these organizations transition their cadre of business apps to mobile, there is great business potential. This is one of the main reasons Apple took the unusual step of partnering with IBM nearly a year ago to help build and sell these custom mobile apps. With the rapid transition to large-screen smartphones, this becomes even more interesting because of how much functionality can be built into mobile apps.
The corporate angle is also the reason that Samsung has invested a great deal of time and money in Knox, which is their device and data management tool. I expect to see Google increase their offerings in these areas well.
Tracking corporate device purchases may not be as exciting as tracking consumers, but as consumer smartphone sales start to flatten and even decline in more established markets, those interested in following the money will inevitably be drawn to these hidden opportunities in corporate smartphones.
Here's a link to the original column: https://techpinions.com/the-hidden-opportunity-of-corporate-smartphones/41049
Podcasts
Leveraging more than 10 years of award-winning, professional radio experience, TECHnalysis Research participates in a video-based podcast called Everything Technology.
LEARN MORE |
|
Research Schedule
A list of the documents that TECHnalysis Research plans to publish in 2015 can be found here.
READ MORE |
|