CIOs: Get ready for 1 BILLION smartphone and tablet users

Monday, February 13th, 2012 Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor

I could see mobile happening 20 years ago in Venezuela.

Not known for a great infrastructure, the country showed a different phenomenon. Every restaurant table at dinner had cell phones lying on it. That was the sole method of communication. It was fascinating to me that no one used a phone at home (they probably thought it fascinating that I had a home phone that worked).

And these were business people doing business constantly.

Jump ahead 20 years. Forrester announces: “1B smartphone and tablet users by 2016, with Apple, Google and Microsoft powering 90%.” 350M American employees will be using these devices for business, with 200M of them bringing in their own devices.

Private Wi-Fi will explode to almost 650 MILLION hotspots. Public Wi-Fi to almost 6 million. (iPass will be a large provider of that, already at over 10%).

We would like to re-iterate Forrester’s call to CIOs. “Mobile can’t be treated the same way as a stationary terminal or even laptop computer can and companies have to be ready for the influx.”

You can’t say that you haven’t been warned. Many executives themselves are bringing these devices into the enterprise first, much to the chagrin of IT. Employees will not be productive if they are not connected and that includes smartphones and tablets. Imagine them connecting seamlessly from one hotspot or network to another.

For more on this report, read the article.

For more on enterprise mobility, read a strategy guide.

 

Tags: Android, Apple, enterprise mobility, Microsoft, smartphone, tablet