New ABI Research data estimates that 2.4 billion employees will be using smartphones by 2017, representing a growth rate of 17 percent and a nearly three times greater number of smartphones than used by today’s employees. ABI's enterprise Practice Director Dan Shey pointed out, "In light of our data, we are talking 'billions’ here, not ’millions’ as the overall size of the BYOD smartphone market. Mobility suppliers and enterprises need to think in terms of serving all employees with tools, apps, and services via their smartphones instead of only mobile employees or corporate liable employees.”
Although Android currently has the dominant leadership position among the global workforce and is expected to grow to 56 percent by 2017, ABI now believes that Android may never reach this level -depending on the future success of the Windows Phone 8 and Blackberry 10 smartphone platforms. “The question" says Shea, "is whether or not new smartphones from Microsoft and RIM will put more power in the hands of the enterprise concerning employee mobile device use, particularly for accessing corporate resources. Such change would directly impact enterprise device market share.”
The “Enterprise Mobile Devices” market data set from ABI provides biannual market segmentation analysis for the enterprise mobile device market. Segmentation data is offered for smartphones at several levels including two employee segments, and by device operating system. Media tablets will be added in Q4 2012. All market data forecasts are provided for seven world regions with additional segmentation for the U.S. and Canadian markets. These findings are part of ABI Research’s Enterprise Mobile Devices Research Service, which includes Research Reports, Market Data, Insights, and Competitive Assessments.
It is of course true that both Research in Motion (RIM) and Microsoft not only make the best bedfellows for enterprises in today's market, but will in fact continue to do so in the future. Microsoft is far likelier to succeed in holding its market share (and it's probably safe to assume that it will grow that market share over time) than RIM, which is far too weak at this point to continue to hold on to its existing markets.
Microsoft and Nokia teamed up exactly because the opportunities to regain cachet for both would only be found in the enterprise. Because Microsoft, to its credit, has been moving quickly to tie all of its upcoming Windows 8 releases to a common core that extends deep into enterprise infrastructure, IT departments may indeed - as ABI suggests - look to gain some control back by looking to push Windows-based mobile devices. Certainly on the tablet front this will be true - whether or not Nokia and Microsoft can make this happen on the smartphone front on a scale that would tip the scales back to Microsoft domination is still a long shot.
RIM needs a partner to survive , no enterprise smartphone market share growth number will save it. We believe RIM needs a Samsung to come through as a white knight. The good news is that there is much the two companies could do together.
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