A recent report released by Datamonitor, "Enterprise Mobility: Trend Analysis to 2012", predicts global enterprise spend on mobile devices is expected to reach $17 billion by 2012 - up from the current $6 billion.
A survey conducted last year by Datamonitor showed that security is by far the biggest barrier to mobility deployments.
"Enterprises are fighting a losing battle against employees when it comes to mobile devices and they should consider supporting a limited selection of devices rather than banning them outright," says Daniel Okubo, technology analyst with Datamonitor.
"Allowing a range of the most popular devices will improve employee satisfaction and encourage more of them to embrace mobile devices and improve their productivity when away from the office."
In the past, enterprises have been open to devices such as BlackBerrys being used by their staff to keep updated with work e-mails. However, with new mobile devices such as iPhone becoming more popular among consumers, employers are finding their staff increasingly wanting to integrate their personal device with the corporate e-mail account.
"There is an element of fear of the unknown," says Okubo. "Enterprises question how security will be managed and whether mobility technologies will fit into their current IT infrastructure. Technology vendors have a role to play by properly addressing enterprise pain points."
On the positive side, carriers such as Vodafone have started to understand the complexities involved in device management and have begun offering hosted device management solutions.
"As more enterprises look to expand their mobile workforces and equip their employees with mobile devices, the issue of device management is going to become increasingly important. The popularity of mobile devices in the consumer markets is forcing enterprises to consider how best to manage these devices in the workplace and they need to ensure they have clear policies in place to manage employee expectations," Okubo concludes.
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