The second post in a series on the impact that mobile devices will have on enterprise content.
A New APPtitude
The rapid adoption of mobile apps has been driven by devices like the iPad and the Smartphone from distribution platforms like iTunes and the Apple App Store. This model has redefined the client as mobile and the server as in the cloud, shifting the balance of power between content creators and content distributors in the process. This model is the single most significant technology development to affect business since the PC, and it will dominate computing well into the future.
On the consumer side, the success of this model is evident in the milestone 15 billion apps downloaded from Apple’s App Store in 2011. But how will apps and their distribution model alter the course of business? Considerably, when we look at the following statistics sourced from a 2011 Morgan Stanley Report:
- Apple shipped 10 million iPads in the September 2011 quarter and 45 million in 18 months.
- 9 months after Apple launched the iPad, 80% of Fortune 100 companies had deployed or were piloting it.
- 67 percent of CIOs surveyed by Morgan Stanley said they expected to incorporate tablets into their networks this year.
- Sales to corporations and governments will account for 30-40% of all tablet sales in 2012.
- More than 65% of enterprises in the US and the UK will deploy 5 or more mobile apps in 2011.
These statistics are backed by a recent study completed by AIIM called Making the Most of Mobile: Content on the Move. As illustrated in the chart below, in over half of the organizations surveyed in this report, mobile devices are being used as productivity tools: most employees are issued smartphones (25 - 65% of employees); the adoption of tablets are trending up (7% of organizations are issuing tables to 2/3 or their workforce); and both are combined with an increasing number of people bringing their mobile devices to work.
Mobile devices such as the smartphone have considerable use in the enterprise, with the tablet making inroads
With the success of the mobile phone and the arrival of the tablet, along with touch screen computing and the easy installation of apps onto mobile clients from a digital distribution platform, the world has entered a new phase of computing. The impact of this on content will be profound. We’ll examine these implications in this series of posts.
