Gartner: Half of Organizations Will Adopt BYOD by 2017

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A new study from Gartner predicts that nearly 50 percent of employers will stop supplying mobile devices and adopt a full-scale BYOD program by 2017. Interestingly, the firm found that more enterprises support BYOD for tablets than for smartphones.

PCWorld’s Chris Kanaracus reported, “About half of the world’s companies will enact BYOD (bring your own device) programs by 2017 and will no longer provide computing devices to employees, a new Gartner report predicts. Ultimately, only 15 percent of companies will never move to a BYOD model, while 40 percent will offer a choice between BYOD and employer-provided devices, according to the report by Gartner analyst David Willis, which was announced Wednesday.”

eWeek quoted Gartner’s David Willis, who said, “BYOD strategies are the most radical change to the economics and the culture of client computing in business in decades. The benefits of BYOD include creating new mobile workforce opportunities, increasing employee satisfaction, and reducing or avoiding costs.”

V3’s Dan Worth added, “Willis told V3 that the iPad, unveiled in 2010, had been responsible for much of the growth of BYOD for several factors. ‘The iPad caught businesses flat-footed as they didn’t have a corporate version of a tablet for the office and the people using them were executives, so it was hard for IT to say no. As such the adoption rate for BYOD on tablets is much higher in organistaions, with 47 percent offering support, as opposed to 33 percent for smartphones.'”

According to the press release, “While BYOD is occurring in companies and governments of all sizes, it is most prevalent in midsize and large organizations ($500 million to $5 billion in revenue, with 2,500 to 5,000 employees). BYOD also permits smaller companies to go mobile without a huge device and service investment. Adoption varies widely across the globe. Companies in the United States are twice as likely to allow BYOD as those in Europe, where BYOD has the lowest adoption of all the regions. In contrast, employees in India, China and Brazil are most likely to be using a personal device, typically a standard mobile phone, at work.”