eWeek and others are reporting on the results of the recent Gartner study regarding BYOD (bring your own device). BYOD, not to be confused with BYOB (bring your own bottle-something I'm known to do with wine) is a growing trend that further underscores why Symantec purchased former Comunicano client Nukona.
The stats in the Gartner supplied slideshow tell a very interesting picture, and one that shows BYOD as having impact globally, and where actually, the USA is lagging behind. My view is that businesses will allow more personal devices, as long as they can manage their portion of it, have control of the data, apps and content that touch their networks, and have the management capability to remote wipe or remove data and information from it. This also signals a greater decline of the traditional desk phone, increased opportunity for video calling using tablets and smartphones, plus the reduction in desktop PC sales and likely over time, even impacting laptop sales as well.
This is a boon to cloud communications companies, and those which virtualize services in the cloud, like VMWare, RackSpace, Joyent and Oxygen Cloud to name a few, but it also means companies in telecom like Verizon with the acquisition of TerreMark and others have already made their entry points into this market.
Personally, I'm finding the I make use of real cloud services like BaseCamp and Yammer, the greater use my iPad gets. Toss in Google Apps for good measure and a few others like Co-Mapping, and as HTML5 rolls out fully, we'll begin to see less need for the laptop in most situations, and greater use of lightweight tablets like the new Google Nexus 7. A long time ago, I predicted the price point needs to be under $200.00 for growth to reach the tipping point. With the Nexus 7 tablet that ships this month, that point has been reached so you'll be seeing even more tablets in the workplace that don't come from the company.