Skip to main content

Why the Smartphone Ecosystem Advantage Matters

Smartphones in the workplace are now considered to be one of the most significant trends that will further drive demand for new mobile business productivity applications. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, they now estimate that by 2017 about 2.4 billion enterprise employees will be using smartphones.

This represents a growth rate of 17 percent and is nearly three times more smartphones than employees use today -- in the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) segment of the global marketplace.

"Billions, not millions, is the size of the BYOD smartphone market. Mobility suppliers and enterprises need to think in terms of serving all employees with tools, apps, and services via their smartphones instead of only mobile employees or corporate liable employees," said Dan Shey, enterprise practice director at ABI Research.

The most immediate opportunities are in the mobile business customer base which includes employees using their phone for business reasons. This group includes corporate liable, individual liable and prosumer acquired devices -- prosumers are currently the largest segment in this group.

Smartphones among this group will grow to about 640 million employees by 2017. Android has the dominant leadership position among the global workforce and is expected to grow to 56 percent share by 2017. However, ABI believes that it's possible it may never reach this level of adoption, depending on the success of other smartphone platforms.

ABI says that the key question is; will new smartphones from Microsoft/Nokia and RIM put more power in the hands of the enterprise employee, particularly for accessing online corporate resources? I believe that's unlikely to be the deciding factor.

Given the recent performance of these companies, I'm wondering if they seem more of a threat to their shareholder's equity investment, rather than becoming a potential concern to the established incumbent smartphone device competitors.

When you consider the smartphone platform ecosystem advantage that the current leaders have attained, it's really hard to imagine a scenario where others can create any meaningful momentum among independent mobile app software developers.

Moreover, the race to create the most compelling mobile enterprise software portfolio in the marketplace has not already been decided. The ultimate solution may look more like a federation of complementary best-in-class applications, not a suite from a single legacy enterprise software company.

I predict that the apparent strategic foresight that created both Google Android and Apple iOS ecosystems will become the most difficult aspect for others to replicate. Clearly, it's not impossible to unseat the market leaders, but it's going to take more than bold aspirations and product announcements to displace them.

Popular posts from this blog

Industrial Cloud Computing Apps Gain Momentum

In the manufacturing industry, cloud computing can help leaders improve their production efficiency by providing them with real-time data about their operations. This has gained the attention of the C-suite. Total forecast Industrial Cloud platform revenue in manufacturing will surpass $300 billion by 2033 with a CAGR of 22.57 percent, driven by solution providers enhancing platform interoperability while expanding partner ecosystems for application development. ABI Research found the cloud computing manufacturing market will grow over the next decade due to the adoption of new architectural frameworks that enhance data extraction and interoperability for manufacturers looking to maximize utility from their data. Industrial Cloud Computing Market Development "Historically, manufacturers have built out their infrastructure to include expensive data housing in the form of on-premises servers. The large initial upfront cost of purchasing, setting up, and maintaining these servers is

Demand for Quantum Computing as a Service

The enterprise demand for quantum computing is still in its early stages, growing slowly. As the technology becomes more usable, we may see demand evolve beyond scientific applications. The global quantum computing market is forecast to grow from $1.1 billion in 2022 to $7.6 billion in 2027, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). That's a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48.1 percent. The forecast includes base Quantum Computing as a Service, as well as enabling and adjacent Quantum Computing as a Service. However, this updated forecast is considerably lower than IDC's previous quantum computing forecast, which was published in 2021, due to lower demand globally. Quantum Computing Market Development In the interim, customer spend for quantum computing has been negatively impacted by several factors, including: slower than expected advances in quantum hardware development, which have delayed potential return on inve

Contact Center as a Service Gains AI Benefits

Enterprise leaders with large customer care organizations are exploring Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications to improve their online customer experience, increase operational efficiency, and reduce costs to improve profitability. Trained AI can be used to automate tasks, such as answering routine questions, freeing up contact center agents to focus on more complex inquiries. AI can also be applied to personalize the customer experience by recommending new offerings. Additionally, AI can be deployed to analyze vast amounts of existing customer data to identify support trends and patterns, which can be used to improve the overall customer experience. Customer Care AI Market Development Worldwide Contact Center (CC) and Conversational AI, including virtual assistant end-user spending is projected to total $18.6 billion in 2023 -- that's an increase of 16.2 percent from 2022, according to the latest market study by Gartner. "Near-term investment growth rates for CC and CC Con