Over 105 Million Mobile Workers in the U.S. by 2020: IDC

A forecast from IT research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests that enterprises with a solid mobile device management (MDM) strategy today will be well positioned to cater to tomorrow’s workforces.

By 2020, the number of U.S. mobile workers will grow to 105.4 million, a jump from 96.2 million in 2015. Also by that year, mobile workers will make up 72.3 percent of the total U.S. workforce.

“Mobility has become synonymous with productivity both inside and outside the workplace, and the mass adoption of mobile technology in the United States has cultivated an environment where workers expect to leverage mobile technology at work,” said IDC research analyst Bryan Bassett in a statement. “This expectation will be supplemented by new solutions specifically intended to manage the challenges associated with the growing needs of the mobile workforce.”

There are several factors at play, according to IDC.

Smartphones and tablets are becoming increasingly affordable. Coupled with the growing popularity of bring your own device (BYOD) programs among businesses, mobile device use has skyrocketed in work environments.

Encouraging the use of mobile devices is also having a positive impact on the bottom line. Citing earlier research from the analyst group, IDC noted that 69.1 percent of enterprises reported experiencing a reduction in operating expenses or capital expenses after setting up their BYOD programs.

It also helps that mobile devices are becoming more capable, and some cases, more wearable. “In addition, innovations in mobile technology such as biometric readers, wearables, voice control, near-field communications (NFC), and augmented reality are enabling workers in completely new ways, increasing productivity by enhancing communications and business workflows,” observed IDC.

In March, IDC predicted that the wearables market would more than double this year. In 2015, vendors are expected to ship 45.7 million wearable devices, compared to the 19.6 million wearables that made their way into the market last year. Strong demand for wearables during the first quarter indicate that the firm’s rosy forecast is on track.

Employees in the fields of manufacturing, construction, retail and healthcare are expected to drive mobile device use for work purposes faster than other verticals. The latter is particularly welcoming of smartphones, tables and other mobile devices at work.

“Healthcare workers represent the largest segment of the mobile workforce, accounting for 18 percent of the total U.S. mobile worker population when office-based and non-office-based healthcare workers are combined,” stated IDC.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS

• Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  December 04, 2020

• Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 18, 2020

• Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  November 10, 2020

• Top 10 AIOps Companies

  FEATURE |  By Samuel Greengard,
  November 05, 2020

• What is Text Analysis?

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 02, 2020

• How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 29, 2020

• Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 23, 2020

• The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 16, 2020

• Top 10 Chatbot Platforms

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  October 07, 2020

• Finding a Career Path in AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  October 05, 2020

• CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  September 25, 2020

• Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 25, 2020

• Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2020

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  September 22, 2020

• NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 18, 2020

• Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 14, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 13, 2020

• IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 11, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality

  FEATURE |  By James Maguire,
  September 09, 2020

• Anticipating The Coming Wave Of AI Enhanced PCs

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 05, 2020

• The Critical Nature Of IBM’s NLP (Natural Language Processing) Effort

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  August 14, 2020