Increased usage of mobile broadband networks has had a
positive effect on the mobile enterprise device market with sales
predicted to rise by 56% between 2008 and 2014, according to new
market data from Juniper Research.
Such a rise, says the new report, would result in a market that
was worth $284 billion by 2014 driven by
enterprises seeing mobility as providing the benefits of cost
reductions and increased profitability won via efficiency and
productivity improvements. In fact, Juniper goes as far as to say
that as more and more businesses go mobile the concept of the
‘unwired enterprise’ is becoming a reality.
At the heart of the uptake is the growing availability of
advanced mobile devices of confirmed value, without which
enterprise-grade applications and services would not run. The
availability of high-capacity networks has also had a crucial
effect on uptake and Juniper forecasts that the proportion of
devices connected to 3.5G/3.9G networks will rise from 13% in 2008
to almost 80% in 2014. It also believes that the usage of wireless
dongles will peak in 2010/2011 and will subsequently lose ground to
plug-in data cards and devices with embedded wireless modems.
However, Juniper warns despite compelling arguments for
mobilising business processes, numerous hurdles still remain in
persuading significant numbers of businesses to become
unwired.
Specific barriers to adoption identified by Juniper include
limited functionality resulting from the small size and form of
devices; problems in adapting applications for mobiles while not
compromising on usability; and
the perennial issue of ensuring mobile device security.
The report’s author Andrew Kitson pinpointed device management
and security as the critical issues that businesses need to address
before they can optimise any return on an investment in mobile
systems.
“Enterprises need to be assured of total control over the
devices their employees use. To do this, they need to limit the
types and numbers of devices connecting to their networks,
deactivate or restrict devices that are lost or stolen, minimising
functionality and access, and employing user authentication,
content encryption, and other security solutions as appropriate.
There are upfront cost issues involved, but the greater cost lies
in compromising on security features.”