Mobile Workforce Report Q1 2011: Page 1: Introduction | Page 2: The Mobile Stack | Page 3: Networks are Expensive | Page 4: Mobilocracy and the Mobile Lifestyle | Page 5: Q4 Mobile Usage Data | Page 6: Conclusion
The smartphone market is now bigger than the PC market1. If there were any questions about smartphone dominance, they have now been squelched. This is no truer than in the workplace among the most mobile workers. However, in this quarter’s Mobile Workforce Report, we found that the tablet market is also experiencing phenomenal growth at the expense of the PC market, especially among mobile employees. Today, 65 percent of mobile workers reported that they used a tablet; and 27 percent used their tablets for work.
It wasn’t that long ago (post-2001) when futurists and technologists predicted the rise of one computing device — a panacea to rule them all. But the day ruled by “the one” device has still not come, even with the arrival and saturated media coverage of Apple’s latest ‘i…’ devices, Google’s Android operating system, and a plethora of major device players vying for market share. But most mobile workers think the day is coming in the next five years (67 percent) when there will be just one über mobile device. Yet that same mobile worker is now carrying 2.68 devices for work today.
We believe the final outcome will not be one device to rule, but a trinity of Internet-capable devices. It is the mobile stack that is the new unit of computing that in-cludes the laptop, the smartphone, and now the tablet.
Cloud computing will aid the mobile stack
The economics and reality of why the mobile stack will dominate as a trend may not be written in the sky, but it is certainly written in the clouds. This trinity of devices shows every sign of expanding, especially as cloud computing finds a greater foothold with users both on a professional and personal level. In fact, 49 percent of tablet users ranked accessing corporate applications — increasingly in the cloud — in their top three most useful applications when they travel. The growth of cloud-based infrastructure is uniquely set up to cater to users and multiple connected devices. Cloud-based applications allow the saving of the state of an application and its work, which can then be recovered on other devices. State-sensitive applications — in which you can create a document on one device and later resume work on the document via another device — are a reality today. Cloud computing can also save battery life, since processing occurs in the cloud, providing more storage and delivering better performance to mobile users.
Our prediction is that the average enterprise mobile employee will be armed with all three devices in the mobile hardware stack for at least the next few years. In addition to this, corporate and personal data will be stored both in private and public clouds. Encryption and security on devices will become an increasingly important element of any offering — although this is a very challenging area for security that needs to evolve, along with managing authen-tication and authorization. This new framework of computing will also be pushed by the increasing availability of affordably priced devices.
Devices are cheap
In a world where networks are omnipresent, devices will become cheaper. ZTE Corporation, the fourth largest man-ufacturer of mobile handsets, has already stated it will produce smartphones costing as little as $1002. Whether carriers subsidize these devices or users purchase them outright, the price of a device — compared to the expense of a typical two-year contract with a carrier — will be relatively inexpensive.
Softbank, a major telecom carrier in Japan, already offers the iPad free to users who sign a two-year contract.3 Alongside the effect of cheaper devices will be this push for applications to become less platform and device-specific and more cloud-reliant, enabling users to access their data at anytime, anywhere, and from any device.
Networks are expensive
While free Wi-Fi hotspots will grow, the true mobility experience will remain expensive. Globally, mobile data traffic is predicted to double every year through 2014. That’s over 43 billion gigabytes of mobile data traffic. Video alone will account for 66 percent of this traffic by 2014.4 Yet this still only makes up less than 6 percent of the total IP traffic predicted by 2014.
In spite of the expansion of 3G and 4G networks, networks are already overwhelmed (and users underwhelmed). The survey found that only 57 percent of mobile workers were satisfied with their mobile operator’s network coverage, and just 46 percent were satisfied with their network speed. As a result, 59 percent of mobile workers used Wi-Fi on their smartphones at least one hour per day. And if push came to shove, and their mobile operators raised prices for data access, 71 percent of mobile workers would choose to go on a data diet. 48 percent would be more selective and 22 percent would limit use to just critical access. With the promise of 4G, users will be able to benefit from faster networks, as they are less exhausted than over-subscribed 3G networks. However, with most 4G plans capped at a set number of gigabytes per month, users will inevitably incur overage charges due to the nature of faster networks encouraging increased usage.
The rise of the mobilocracy
In enterprises worldwide, we continue to see trappings of the rise of a mobilocracy among the mobile workforce. Defined as a class of mobile workers who rely on mobile devices for productivity, these users were trained in the consumer world, are more technology savvy than just a generation ago, and expect to play an increasing role in technology decisions within their companies. We found that among the mobile workforce, 94 percent will trouble-shoot a problem themselves, and 13 percent will not seek help from IT when they have a technical problem.
Mobile Workforce Report Q1 2011: Page 1: Introduction | Page 2: The Mobile Stack | Page 3: Networks are Expensive | Page 4: Mobilocracy and the Mobile Lifestyle | Page 5: Q4 Mobile Usage Data | Page 6: Conclusion
