Wireless Smartphone Usage To Surge This Year
By: Bill Ives
Here are more 2010 predictions. Forrester has issued a report, Collaboration Needs Will Fuel A Smartphone Surge, by Ted Schadler with Matthew Brown, Brownlee Thomas, Michele Pelino, and Peter Schmidt, with the subtitle: The Surge Can Be Funded Through A Bring-Your-Own Smartphone Strategy.I appreciate receiving a review copy.It predicts that 2010 will be the year of the smartphone surge.
The Forrester team surveyed 3,904 information workers nad found great excitement about about smartphones, “attracted by the ability to email, collaborate, and work with documents from anywhere.” While only 14% percent of information workers across the US, Canada, and UK already use smartphones, another 64% would like to. This compares with general consumers usage at 78% with mobile phones and 11% with smart phones. That yet to be fulfilled demand in information workers, along with some employers’ willingness to share monthly mobile costs, sets the stage for the surge. This calls for KM and other information professionals to determine a strategy for effective and coordinated usage. There is also the numbers to pressure mobile carriers to cut costs across plans.
I imagine that most smart users also use a fraction of the capability of their devices. I know I do. I see my colleagues using much more capability. The report provides along list of potential capabilities and their current usage from email (92%) to enterprise apps (7%). Some others include: personal contacts (84%), work calendar (83%), IM (48%), emergency response (17%), and team collaboration (12%). The last one should go up dramatically if the report is correct it its predictions.
Location flexibility is the top reason (60%) for using a smartphone over a laptop. The increased reach will provide the ROI for smartphone, according to Forrester report. While this seems obvious, there seem to be two reasons here: the portability of the device and the extended access, and these will continue to evolve. Having greater wifi access will mitigate one difference and such devices as the tablet might go into the other.However, I think the convergence of capabilities into a single type of device that takes two forms will balance that out.
In other words, content that used to come through many channels such as music, TV, Web, phone now comes through one device (see for example, TV Moving Closer to Mobile Phones and the Web and Who Will Win TV Sets or Computers? I now have all my music and photos on my iPhone, as well as my laptop and have stopped using separate devices for them. However, this device will take two forms, one that sits on a desk and perhaps even connects to a larger monitor and one that fits in your pocket.There will be an increased need to synch these devices and that needs to be part of the smartphone strategy.
There is much more in the report including suggestions on how to start your smartphone strategy.
