Tablets: Managing the New Niche

Recently, mindWireless’ own Kevin Whitehurst broadcast a webinar on the increasing significance and consequence of corporate-liable tablets in enterprise mobility management. You can view a recording of the webinar here. Below is a summary of that presentation:

Let’s all just agree from the start that the tablet is here to stay. Not only are more and more consumers enjoying tablets daily, this relatively new technology is increasingly finding its way into the tool-belts of enterprise workforces. What does this mean for a company’s device management strategy? Are tablets replacing smart phones and laptops, creating less mobile devices for enterprises to manage? The short answer is: no. Let’s take a look at the data:

According to mindWireless client statistics:

▪        3% of managed corporate devices are now tablets

Types of tablets being used:

▪        89% iPad

▪        9% Samsung Galaxy

▪        2% Other

Who is using tablets:

▪        70% Executives

▪        23% Sales

▪        7%  Operations

How much data are tablet users consuming on average:

▪        1.6gb/month/user

In contrast to the above statistic, our clients’ average smart phone usage is 0.6gb/month/user. Data is being transmitted to tablets at a rate of almost 3 times that of smart phones!

Data usage can be a strong signifier of end-user behavior. Employees must be using tablets for high-rate information-consumption like viewing video, audio playback and image-display.

According to this behavioral analysis we can conclude that smart phones, tablets and laptops are being used in functionally different ways by employees:

• Laptop = Creation
• Smart Phone = Communication (calls, texts, emails)
• Tablet = Consuming/ Displaying

This is a fascinating distinction and a massively important one when considering how to manage an enterprise’s overall mobile infrastructure. Although the tablet seems like it is a hybridization of the smart phone and the laptop, device replacement just isn’t happening inside of enterprises, device addition is. The tablet, instead of cannibalizing use, has met a new niche in the consumption and display of data.  With the use of this new tool, it means a lot more for a company to potentially manage, which could push an already burdened IT team to into a very inefficient mode of operation and cost a company dearly.

No matter the developments in workforce mobile technology, mindWireless is poised to assist our clientele with the most comprehensive mobile expense management in the industry. For the last 13 years we have been on the forefront of every enterprise mobility development. We are the subject matter experts.

Remember to view the webinar here and click here to register for our next presentation on the very latest in telecomm expense management!