Tuesday, November 27th, 2012
Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
Although we already introduced Bring-Your-Own-Network on the blog, today’s press release is a reminder to look at these ideas for reducing overall mobility costs for your organization.
From the release:
While many enterprises are rapidly embracing a more mobile workforce and supporting a BYOD strategy, a big unresolved problem for many is the cost of wireless network access. While devices are relatively cheap the wireless networks they run on are expensive. BYOD is all about allowing employees to choose and use their own mobile devices so they can access data and applications whenever they want and wherever they are, and BYON is about enterprises having policies in place to right-size the wireless access costs for employee tasks. Without a clear plan for purchase of wireless access, employees may make costly decisions (all in the name of “getting things done”), pushing connection costs into a budgetary black hole. Essentially, no BYOD plan is complete without a BYON companion.
I also provided some commentary surrounding issues with this strategy, with Eric Lai, ZDNet, and Chris Witek, iPass, providing input.
Read the press release >>
Get the whitepaper >>
Bring Your Own Network press release >>
Monday, November 19th, 2012
Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
Here are a few interesting articles that came out as a result of our new Q4 Mobile Workforce Report:
Mobile workers health threatened by spending weekends online; Computerworld
“A new survey found 63% of mobile workers are spending at least six hours each weekend online — and nearly one-third are online for up to 20 hours over the two days. The findings pose a potential health dilemma for workers and employers, since the weekend hours extend a busy work week and keep employees from getting a needed retreat…”
Firms face ‘bill shock’ from smartphone use; Computerworld UK
“The proportion of workers’ smartphones provisioned by employers has declined from 58 to 33 percent..”
Android-loving suits boot BlackBerrys into 3rd place in the office; The Register UK
“BYOD = Bill Your Own Director as communications costs soar.”
People use own smartphones for work; ChannelBiz UK
“..but potentially rack up huge connectivity bills..”
More employees are using their own smartphones for work and ranking connectivity cost as the least important factor when choosing a mobile network.
And, an interview with Chris Witek, Sr. Director of Product Marketing, by the Latin Editor of RCR Wireless:
Interview with iPass’ Chris Witeck about BYOD survey results
Weekly wrap up: Q4 Mobile Workforce Report >>
Wednesday, November 14th, 2012
Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing
Today iPass released our Q4 2012 Mobile Workforce Report. In this report we interviewed almost 1,700 mobile workers across the globe to learn more about the mobile devices they use, how they use them for work and personal reasons and the impact that mobility has on their lives.
The focus of this quarter’s report is just how important smartphones have become to mobile workers. For those of us who have become attached to our smartphones, we can definitely empathize with that. Some of the items from this quarter’s report that really interested me is taking a look at what’s changed this year from when we asked similar questions last year. For example, take a look what smartphone mobile workers currently use:
What really grabs attention is the jump of Android-based smartphones from 2011 to 2012. While we’ve heard for a while that more Android smartphones are activated than iPhones, that has been more in the consumer space. In this quarter’s Mobile Workforce Report, we are definitely seeing evidence of Android picking up steam with the Enterprise mobile workers as well. iPhones are also picking up share — so what device is losing favor?
We can see here that BlackBerry devices lost share amongst mobile workers from 2011 to 2012, adding to this we definitely see mobile workers not looking to BlackBerry in 2013. When we asked mobile workers if they were planning to upgrade their smartphone in 2013:
- 59% of mobile workers said they are planning on upgrading their smartphone in 2013
- Of those mobile workers:
- 41% were planning on upgrading to an iPhone 5
- 22% to an Android device
- 8% to a Microsoft Windows Phone
- And only 5% to a BlackBerry device
Another really interesting data point is the impact of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) with smartphones. Last year we saw that 58% of Enterprises provided their mobile workers with an IT-managed smartphone. This year we saw that fall to 49% of mobile workers saying they had an IT-managed smartphone (33% said that they have an IT-managed device and an additional 16% said they have both an IT-managed device and a personal device), meaning that BYOD is definitely getting a foothold when it comes to smartphones, as more and more mobile workers are bringing in their own device.
There is a lot more data in this quarter’s Mobile Workforce Report, so I encourage everyone to check it out.
The last point I’ll leave everyone with is a warning to the Enterprise out there. When we asked mobile workers what their biggest barrier to working while mobile, the top response with 50% of responses was “Simple access to Wi-Fi when I’m out of the office”. However, when we asked these same workers what matters most when choosing a mobile network — ‘Speed’ and ‘Availability of Connection’ were at the top of the list and ‘Cost’ was at the bottom.
What that tells us is that mobile workers value that Wi-Fi connection while mobile, but cost is not their concern. I’ve always said that when a mobile worker is faced with multiple choices for connectivity they will go with whatever is easiest and most convenient, regardless of the cost. That is definitely reflected with what we are seeing with the data. The lesson here- to keep your mobile workers productive make sure they have convenient access to Wi-Fi, but keep an eye on that cost.
To learn more about how you can do that- be sure to check out iPass Open Mobile.
Get this quarter’s Mobile Workforce Report
Read the press release >>
iPass Q4 Mobile Workforce Report >>
Wednesday, November 14th, 2012
Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
Our Q4 2012 Mobile Workforce Report is out tomorrow, but you can get a peek at some of the results.
Damon Poeter in PCMag, in “Bring-Your-Own-Device Trend Gaining Steam,” tells how employer-provisioned smartphones have dropped sharply, from 58 percent to 33 percent in the last year.
More from the report and article:
“The iPhone held on to the top spot in terms of popularity among those surveyed, with 53 percent naming Apple’s handset as their first choice, up from 45 percent the year before. Phones running Google’s Android mobile operating system eclipsed RIM’s BlackBerry smartphones in popularity for the first time since iPass has been conducting its research.
Meanwhile, just 5 percent of those polled said they currently use one of Microsoft’s Windows Phone devices but iPass noted that 8 percent think they’ll be getting one by the end of 2013.
Read the article >>
Subscribe to receive the Mobile Workforce Report >>
PCMag preview: BYOD trend is gaining steam >>
Monday, November 5th, 2012
Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
Gartner Symposium kicked off the prediction season with “The 10 Trends CIOs Should Watch in 2013.”
What was first? A Deepening Mobile Reliance.
“According to Gartner, mobile devices will overtake PCs in 2013 as the most likely way employees will access the Internet. That will increase a company’s reliance on handsets and tablets, and force CIOs to determine which products are right for their employees.”
Also relevant to mobile, data security, and mobile devices was: #3: Go to the Cloud
The cloud is increasingly becoming the place consumers store their personal data. For CIOs, that means accepting the likelihood of some corporate data going to the cloud. That should increase employees’ willingness to use cloud solutions in the enterprise.
View the slideshow >>
Top trends for CIOs to watch in 2013 via Gartner >>
