Tuesday, February 26th, 2013
Tom Truong, Product Manager
Remember when I had a hard time choosing which tablet to bring with me to MWC 2013? Well Samsung just made it even harder with their just announced Galaxy Note 8”. How is it different from the recent Galaxy Note II? I got a hands-on this morning at the Samsung booth and here are my initial impressions. While the original Note had a solid “oomph” and weight for a phone, the Note 8 seems to be a bit too light for a tablet–the plasticky feel is even more pronounced with the wider bezel design. Other phone makers are going for a ‘right to the edge’ screen, so the Galaxy Note 8 feels like a bit of a step backwards in design. What do you think?
On the other hand, the software and hardware on this device are definitely improved from the original Note–the S pen finally works the way a real pen should (no lag, no need to hold the pen at a special angle) and it feels natural to the jot down notes, diagram some ideas–all very slick. Still a bit awkward is how one is supposed to use the S Pen. There are about 8 or 9 apps to showcase the S Pen–I was able to jot notes, edit photos, annotate, and share. Some of the apps are more of a novelty, and my general sense is that it feels like it should just be a single notepad app that prioritizes basic functions and lets users discover more advanced capabilities intuitively and on their own.
So how did I fare with my device selection on the first day of MWC? I decided to bring a small, yet manly, hand bag which stored my iPad Mini, Galaxy Note, some biz cards, and a portable 4000 mAh battery. I pictured myself getting to a table somewhere to take notes and write another post.
WRONG.
Mobile World Congress is a behemoth of a conference with some local news stations estimating the crowd to be about 100K people. My iPhone was great at my hotel where I had iPass Wi-Fi roaming (wasn’t subjected to the free guest access that was limited to 256Kbps and 100MB transfer), but at MWC, I had to go to specific places to get on the conference supplied Wi-Fi. This meant taking my devices in and out a lot–so I pretty much left my tablet in my bag the whole day. Both smartphones were very useful for the intermittent connectivity, and I especially liked how my Android was able to smoothly transition between the prepaid sim I bought and the Skype/Talkatone app whenever I had Wi-Fi.
In retrospect, I would have kept things super light and just brought one smartphone for the first day. With decent iPass coverage in Barcelona and Wi-Fi at the event itself, I had enough connectivity to schedule meetings, send emails, and keep in touch throughout the day.
Striking the right balance with mobile devices (Galaxy Note 8) >>
Friday, February 8th, 2013
Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing
This is part #2 of our blog talking about the recently released Mobile Enterprise Report. In Part #1, I talked about ‘BYOD in the Enterprise.’ Today we are talking about device choice in the Enterprise.
When talking about what devices IT is allowing in the Enterprise, I thought it would be interesting to compare this to what users are choosing. Fortunately we can do that by looking at the iPass Mobile Workforce report- which is our quarterly report focused on mobile workers.
When looking at the data from our Mobile Workforce report, you definitely see that contrary to the overall consumer market where Android is dominating of late, the mobile worker in the Enterprise definitely prefers an iPhone. While BlackBerry is still popular in the Enterprise, it is projected to be the 4th device of choice in 2013.
Let’s compare this to what IT says in terms of what devices they are managing in the Enterprise, and how that has changed from 2011 to the end of 2012.
What we see here is just how fast the iPhone and iPad have moved into the preferred position with both the mobile user and IT, along with some impressive gains for Android based devices as well. What else is interesting is that while BlackBerry is in decline, just how many organizations are still supporting BlackBerry devices (62% in 2012).
While this is good news for BlackBerry as they try to ride the wave with BlackBerry 10 in 2013, the fact that mobile workers do not think so highly of BlackBerry (as we saw in the first chart) shows that BlackBerry may have some work ahead of them.
This also reflects a trend that we have been seeing for a while — organizations are moving from supporting just a single device to allowing more choice to the user, either by allowing the worker to bring their own device or by IT supporting a wider range of devices. So an organization that several years ago may have just supported BlackBerry is now likely supporting an iOS and Android device.
In fact, we asked IT Professionals what their plans were for both BlackBerry 10 and Microsoft Windows Phone 8 in 2013 to get a gauge if either platform may gain traction with the Enterprise.
What we found is that organizations were more likely to support Windows Phone 8 in 2013 than BlackBerry by a significant margin, even more so in Europe where Nokia has a strong presence with their Microsoft-branded smartphones. Now we asked this question just after Windows Phone 8 was released and before BlackBerry 10 availability so these numbers may change based on actual impressions, but it also reinforces that BlackBerry has some work to do to gain back the support of both mobile workers and IT professionals.
The last point I want to end with in today’s blog is an interesting set of data we are seeing around tablets. One thing we have learned in previous Mobile Workforce Reports is that up to this point tablets were mostly purchased and used by mobile workers. Meaning that they were not something IT was provisioning to their workforce in large numbers. Tablets were the stereotypical BYOD device, but that is changing and we see evidence to support this in this year’s Mobile Enterprise Report.
When we first asked IT if they were supporting tablets for their workforce back in 2011, it was something that for the most part was given just to the executive team and then a handful of folks throughout the rest of the organization. What we see when we asked the same question at the end of 2012 is that increasingly tablets are being given out to the rest of the organization. While I would still expect to see user choice and BYOD to have a strong influence here, it also shows that tablets are being embraced as more than just a consumer device and as a Enterprise productivity tool.
So as you can see- we are seeing some really interesting data in this year’s Mobile Enterprise Report. Make sure to download the report to see for yourself. We will also be hosting an informative webinar to cover the details of the report with MobileIron. Be sure to check back on Monday, when we talk more about the highlights of this year’s Mobile Enterprise Report.
Device Choice in the Enterprise >>
Wednesday, February 6th, 2013
Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing
We just recently announced the results of our annual Mobile Enterprise Report. Unlike our Mobile Workforce Report (which focuses on the mobile worker and is published quarterly), the Mobile Enterprise Report is an annual survey that focuses on senior level IT professionals and the trends impacting them and the Enterprises they work for. This year we teamed up with MobileIron to survey 477 IT professionals between December 2012 and January 2013.
As you can imagine this serves as a nice contrast to the Mobile Workforce Report- where we can compare trends as experienced by IT to those experienced by the workers themselves. We know from the Mobile Workforce Report just how important BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) has become to the workers, but how has BYOD impacted the policies that Enterprises have in place and what devices that are supported?
Part 1 of our Mobile Enterprise Report blog will focus on just this- BYOD Policies and Trends.
This year’s Mobile Enterprise Report is the second time we’ve had a chance to survey IT professionals and this allows us to compare responses from 2011 to what we collected at the end of 2012.
One question we asked is how corporate guidelines have changed in regards to personal devices. You can definitely see the trend shifting over just one year’s time to where less organizations say they don’t allow access from personal devices (26% in 2011 to 19% in 2012) and more saying they have changed their guidelines to be more accommodating to personal devices (47% in 2011 to 56% in 2012). In fact, if you add together those who say they have historically allowed access from personal devices to those who said they recently changed their guidelines to be more accommodating, you get 81% saying they allow access from personal devices. So this definitely mirrors the BYOD trends we see from the mobile workers.
One interesting wrinkle to this, while 81% say they accommodate personal devices, we asked in a separate question if the organization had established BYOD policies in place and 54% said yes. While this is encouraging to see the majority of organizations putting a policy in place, it is clear that there are quite a few organizations that accommodate personal devices but have yet to translate this to a formal BYOD policy. While having a policy in place is not a cure-all for managing costs and security, it can go a long way to make sure employees know what is expected of them.
The last point I’ll touch on in today’s blog is that with some of the questions we can definitely see regional variances at play. Something I’ve noticed when looking at user data as well as talking to our customers is that European customers are less likely to be supporting BYOD than customers in North America. That is something we see reflected in the data with regards to BYOD policies. North American organizations were much more likely to have a BYOD policy (58%) than a European organization (46%).
This is just a small portion of the data available in the report. Download the report to go deeper on these trends and others.
We will also be hosting an informative webinar to cover the details of the report with MobileIron. Be sure to check back tomorrow when we talk more about the highlights of this year’s Mobile Enterprise Report.
Webinar:
The Impact Mobile Workers and Devices have on your Enterprise. Make sure to register even if you cannot attend. We will send you the recording link.
BYOD In the Enterprise >>
Monday, January 21st, 2013
Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
Without wireless Internet access, how much do you feel that your productivity is decreased?
We are now asking for input to our
Q1 2013 Mobile Workforce Survey.
This quarter’s survey covers the following topics and more:
- Satisfaction with your carrier
- Any surprises with mobile phone charges
- Wi-Fi vs. 3G/4G usage
- What and how many mobile devices do you use?
- What would you LIKE to purchase?
- BYOD issues – do you use a personal or company-provided smartphone and/or tablet for work?
Since we have been doing this for quite a few years, the trend data is a fascinating look into the changing habits of mobile workers and the increasing reliance on Wi-Fi access – what are the costs for access, apps that you use for work and preferred locations.
Take the survey >>
And for your time in doing the survey, you will be entered into a drawing for an Apple iPad! Take a few minutes right now.
Fill out the Mobile Workforce Survey >>
Tuesday, December 4th, 2012
Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
Today we released a press release that iPass Open Mobile is the first enterprise connectivity management solution to support Microsoft’s recently released Windows 8 operating system.
Chris Witek, our Sr. Director of Product Marketing, previously discussed the two iPass client versions of Windows 8 for both Windows 8 and Windows Touch on this blog. You can read: iPass Open Mobile and Windows 8
Chris also reviewed the Microsoft Surface after it first came out. He is an early adopter of the product for business travel. You can read this in: Microsoft Surface for the business/mobile worker
For users that don’t have an IT-managed or provided access to iPass, they can download the iPass Open Mobile client from the Windows Store, at: http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/en-US/app/open-mobile/1832ded3-564d-4b4b-8f71-0d300f59d6c5
Press release >> iPass Open Mobile Global Wi-Fi Service First Enterprise Connectivity Management Solution to Support Windows 8 for the Mobile Workforce
Enterprise Mobility for Windows 8 >>
