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IT Smartphone Adoption Stagnate Due to Budget, Security Management Concerns

In the electronic device world a lot can happen in the course of a couple of years.  Better phones, fancier phones, faster networks …. just stop and think about what is available today that wasn’t on table two short years ago.

Two years ago enterprise deployment of smartphones to employees was in full swing.  Just consider the numbers from a survey of companies in 2008:

• 56% had supplied smartphones to up to 25% of their workforce
• 27% had supplied smartphones to 26% - 50% of their workforce
• 11% had supplied smartphones to 51% - 75% of employees
• 6% had provided every employee with a smartphone

In 2008, most of those devices were Blackberrys and were used mainly for email and calendar management.

Now fast-forward to 2010.  You would think with those kinds of numbers over previous years we would continue to see tremendous growth.  But we haven’t.  The smartphone adoption movement has definitely stalled.  Not slowed…stalled.  Completely.

Email is still the main use for smartphones in the corporate world.  In 2008, 30% used smartphones for job-specific applications, now that number has only risen to 31%.  The percentages of employees that have been supplied smartphones by employers are virtually the same as it was in 2008.

Why the stagnation?  Why has smartphone growth stalled in such grand fashion in the corporate world?  It appears that they main concern is security and data management issues - areas that companies are finding it hard to budget for in this current economy.  In 2008 52% of companies said security was the reason to deploy mobile device management.  That number is now up to 73%.  However, 61% of organizations not implementing device management are identifying staffing resources as the issue - up from 46% in 2008.  32% are now indicating that mobile device management is too expensive.  Basically, IT budgets have been too tight over the past couple of years to allow them to take on mobile device security, so they’ve chosen not to grow that deployment.

As the economy improves, this slowed - or dare I say ‘halted’ - smartphone deployment could slow or extinguish key corporate initiatives.  Companies are going to need to take a serious look at where they need to spend their IT dollars if they hope to be ready to grow and be more competitive when the market allows for it.