VDC Research: Enterprise & Government Mobility Market Blog

Q3 2015 Rugged Mobile Hardware Market Overview

In Q3, the total rugged mobile hardware market, sized as all rugged notebooks, tablets, vehicle mounted devices, and handhelds, grossed just over $1 billion in revenue shipments and has produced year-to-date (YtD) revenue shipments of $3.2 billion. Also looking YtD, the market has shipped over 3.1 million units across the globe. By the end of Q4, we will likely see YtD revenue shipments surpass $4.2 billion and YtD unit shipments near 4.3 million units. While the rugged market has actually seen a year-over-year (YoY) revenue contraction of 1.7% compared with its position in Q3 2014, it has also produced 5.1% growth from Q1 2015 to Q3 2015.

Figure 1:  Rugged Mobile Hardware Global Overview

 

 

Breaking down this $1 billion market by form factor, we find weakened global demand for rugged notebooks, stagnation in revenue for tablets, and strong revenue shipments for handheld devices (the handhelds category includes devices such as smartphones and PDAs). As economic conditions continue to stabilize, this recent growth comes as welcome news to many hardware vendors who look to take advantage of increased economic stability and opportunities presented in the Americas and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions. For example, the growth in the handheld revenues occurred primarily in the Americas and APAC, with global YoY growth of 5.0% over Q3 2014.

While global tablet revenues shipments remained at similar levels to Q3 2014, EMEA generated more revenue shipments from tablets than from notebooks this quarter. One possible reason for this stagnation in growth is due to the increased competition from consumer grade tablets. One specific instance can be seen with the latest Microsoft Surface Pro, which has received relatively positive reviews and adoption from the enterprise market. Furthermore, both EMEA and APAC regions saw slight YoY growth in tablet revenues as the Americas saw minor YoY contraction. Rugged notebook revenues witnessed their highest quarterly performance on the year, but still had YoY revenue shipments fall in all regions, producing a global revenue dip of 14.9% between Q3 2014 to Q3 2015.

Overall, the rugged hardware market continues to maintain a strong global presence, even in spite of some areas of weakness and additional competition from consumer grade technologies. While this increased competition from consumer grade devices may seem like a hard hit to the rugged space, it can be counteracted with rugged vendors offering more advanced technological portfolios. Increases in processing speed, RAM, memory, camera quality, dual-OS capabilities, touch capacity, and enhanced security are all features which are slowly making their way from the consumer market into the rugged market space. As rugged vendors add these, and other, new technological facets to their mobile solutions, their specifications comparisons to consumer grade devices become far more attractive. Additionally, as economic conditions continue to improve, especially in the EMEA regions, rugged revenues will likely rebound for many form factors.   

For more information, be sure to review our forthcoming full Q3 mobile hardware tracker and database, set to be released in late December. For additional information please contact VDC at [email protected]. The author can be contacted directly at [email protected] or via his Twitter @Cam_Roche.   

Hip to be Enterprise: New Enterprise Focused Tablets Stealing the Show

With the broader tablet market in the midst of an identity crisis one segment receiving increased attention are enterprise end users. VDC’s recently published 2015 Enterprise and Government Tablet analysis confirms this opportunity, forecasting annual growth of enterprise tablets – which represent approximately 15% of the overall tablet market – at 12.1% annually through 2019. A flurry of new products targeting the enterprise user from mega-brands Apple and Microsoft and specialty rugged mobile vendors Zebra and Xplore are directing the spotlight on this segment.

In comparison to other mobile form factors, tablets are an increasingly popular selection for enterprise line of business (LoB) applications. According to recent research conducted among enterprise mobility decision-makers, tablets are selected 33% of the time among devices issued to employees by enterprises in support of LoB applications. As the number of mobile deployments in LoB workflows continues to grow, consumer mobile devices are setting the benchmark for what any mobile device should look and feel like, resulting in the emergence of a new breed of enterprise tablets. Beyond enterprise-focused rugged OEMs, consumer-grade vendors are also turning their attention to the enterprise market through both their consumer portfolios and the introduction of more durable, enterprise-minded devices.

Enterprise Issued Mobile Devices Used to Support LoB Workflows by Form Factor

  

New Rugged Tablets from Zebra Technologies and Xplore Technologies

Zebra Technologies held its much anticipated Tablet Plus launch announcement on September 15 during which it unveiled the details of its new ET 50 and ET 55 tablet computers. As Zebra’s first new tablets to be released since the launch of the ET1 in 2011, notable features included support for both Windows 8.1 and Android Lollipop 5.1 in addition to Wi-Fi and/or LTE connectivity. Designed with a consumer feel and equipped for the enterprise, the tablets look to penetrate a still unsaturated enterprise tablet market. With a rugged design, comprehensive accessories to meet industry demands and unique scanning capabilities the ET 50 and ET 55 look to address a number of business use-cases, most notably those in the direct store delivery (DSD), field service, and retail verticals. However, a challenge for Zebra in our estimation will be aligning their tablets with the most appropriate use cases and target industries. Although tablets are being widely adopted in markets Zebra typically serves, these are mostly lower priced consumer devices. Demand for rugged tablets with the specifications and price points featured by Zebra’s new products is mostly concentrated in public safety, utilities, telecommunications and manufacturing environments, segments outside of Zebra’s traditional “sweetspot”. Another challenge, not uncommon in the rugged mobile market, will be the price points of the ET 50 and ET 55 which are $1,850 to $3,000, depending on the configuration. Although the benefits of rugged mobile devices are calculated by their lower failure rates, higher reliability and ultimately lower cost of ownership, even these target prices are high when compared to competitive rugged tablets.

Not to be outdone, Xplore Technologies unveiled the XSLATE B10, a fully rugged 10.1” tablet running Windows 8.1 (Windows 10 upgradeable), also on September 15th. The device is a fully featured tablet with multiple I/O and configuration options targeting field worker applications in transportation, manufacturing and telecommunications segments.  Xplore has undergone some significant changes in 2015, none more impactful than its acquisition of Motion Computing’s assets in April. According to VDC’s most recent rugged mobile research, boosted by the Motion acquisition and strong performance of its existing business, Xplore was the leading rugged tablet supplier in Q2 2015. Now with the target on their back Xplore will need to provide staying power and consistency in performance – especially surrounding support services for its increasingly global customer base – in order to build on its recent successes. 

   

Not the only new tablets in town

The Zebra and Xplore announcements comes on the heels of Apple’s release of the iPad Pro on September 9. The iPad Pro makes a stronger enterprise use-case argument as compared to Apple’s past consumer-focused tablets. Features including a large 12.9” display, the new A9X chip for increased speed and responsiveness and new iOS capabilities such as split screen viewing. In addition, accessories such as the new Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard enable the device to more adequately serve end-users in corporate environments. Borrowing liberally from Microsoft’s playbook (which will be introducing the Surface Pro 4 in October), this device is Apple’s first foray into the rapidly growing 2-in-1 market. However, at the end of the day the iPad Pro is an iPad running iOS at a price point that makes it competitive with Apple’s MacBook Pro. While iOS9 does introduce some interesting features that make the platform more friendly to corporate users – for example, multi-tasking and app management including app-specific VPN management – it cannot be considered an enterprise alternative to Microsoft’s Surface Pro or other 2-in1s powered by big OS/x86 architectures.  

The enterprise limitations of the iPad Pro when compared with PCs is clear including the lack of file management capabilities and scripting technologies designed for PCs, compatibility with most productivity applications, lack of AD support and limited I/O options to name a few. At the end of the day this is just another, somewhat larger, iPad, albeit with a high end active stylus (pencil) at a higher price point.  While one could argue a future where iOS or other lightweight OSes become the enterprise OS of choice and laptops are promoted to the same architecture and framework as the rest of the mobile eco-system, that is a generational change and not one just around the corner. That said, Apple is not standing still and is clearly serious about the enterprise opportunity. Initiatives with IBM and Cisco are breaking enemy barriers and compelling use cases for iOS devices (especially tablets) are being created, often transforming existing workflows.  However, even with all of these enhancements, the iPad Pro is not a general purpose PC and cannot be considered a direct competitor to other two in one products like the Microsoft Surface Pro. Therefore we do expect Apple to encounter a bit of a positioning dilemma with the iPad Pro relative to existing iPads, 2-in1s and its own MacBooks.

What Makes a Tablet Enterprise Friendly?

According to a recent survey fielded by VDC Research among over 650 enterprise mobility decision makers, when evaluating mobile devices for line of business applications, battery life ranked predictably high on the list as did price and overall quality and reliability. With many of these tablets used in the field, wireless options—including embedded cellular capabilities—are critical (one key pain point for many enterprise and government tablet deployments has been sub-optimal GPS quality). In addition, overall ruggedness of the device—in terms of drop and water/dust protection—are key decision criteria for many applications. Surprisingly, however, security features such as integrated biometric capabilities did not crack the top five in overall importance.

However, tablets are often best characterized as a marriage of compromises. Therefore, for many enterprise line of business applications, of equal importance is the accessory and peripheral eco-systems developed by tablet OEMs and their partners. According to our research, protective cases lead the list of accessory requirements, in addition to solutions like payment and scanning sleds, multi-bay charging docks and vehicle mounts. In addition, highly application specific functionality, such as Zebra’s wireless DEX Bluetooth FOB (which addresses the huge headache and point of failure of cabled DEX solutions in the Direct Store Delivery market) often represent the keys to a well designed mobile solution. 

Mobile Device Requirements for Devices Supporting LoB Applications

The tablet form factor has unique appeal for mobile workers supporting a variety of enterprise and government workflows and applications. While the overall tablet is going through its most recent identity crisis, opportunities for business and public sector applications remain strong and robust annual unit growth (for both rugged and non-rugged tablets) is projected by VDC through 2019. The tablet form factor addresses mobile workers’ need for a portable mobile device while providing sufficient display real estate to support meaningful applications. From forms-based inspection and data collection applications to using the tablet as a customer engagement tool in high value retail environments, the opportunities for these devices are substantial.

To view our recently released report on the tablet market please click here.

Written by Matthew Hopkins and David Krebs (EVP)

Q3 Sees Strong Rugged Mobile Performance Across the Board

During Q3 2014 all rugged mobile form factors tracked – including notebooks, tablets, forklift mounted computers and handheld devices – posted year-over-year (YoY) growth, with notebooks and handheld devices leading the way. While the market dynamics for these solutions are increasingly encouraging, noticeable headwinds remain, limiting the growth potential over the next several quarters.

Rugged notebook shipments reached nearly $275 million in Q3, representing an increase of more than 10%, representing the second consecutive quarter of growth. The primary catalyst behind the recent swing in demand has been the retirement of aging systems running Windows XP. While that boost is likely to be short-lived, spending trends in target commercial and public sector segments remain positive. Nevertheless, price sensitivity will continue driving end users to opt for less rugged notebooks or alternative form factors such as tablets for their next-generation investments.

The rugged tablet market, the one consistent growth segment with quarterly growth upwards of 20% for the past two years, is showing signs of slowing. In Q3, tablets saw 12.7% year-on-year growth, which while strong, nevertheless represents a maturing of the market and the third consecutive quarter in which performance has eased from the previous quarter. Still, VDC anticipates that the rugged tablet market will top $500 million in 2014 and that the increased adoption of Android will present a growing opportunity as more enterprises move to adopt the OS for line-of-business applications.

The rugged handheld market, which represents the single-largest category at nearly $600 million, has begun to overcome the headwinds that had buffeted it throughout 2013 and into the first half of 2014. While the threat from lower-priced consumer smartphones remains, rugged vendors are modernizing their product portfolios with products more in line with customer expectations. Moreover, addressing the OS issue plaguing this category, adoption of rugged handheld devices running Android is reaching critical mass, including adoption by tier-I accounts in North America. The North American market had borne the brunt of the downturn but has rebounded in force, ending several consecutive quarters of contraction with year-on-year growth for Q3 topping 20%, supported by large-scale deployments in the retail and postal sectors. 

Executive Bling and EMM

I'm not sure who coined it, but the term "executive bling" is not only funny, but has been a very accurate descriptor of mobile enablement in many of today's organizations. While nearly everyone now carries their own personal device with them at all times, in many organizations, executives continue to be an elite group that are offered a device (or choice of devices) once they attain a certain 'rank' at their place of employment. However, BYOD policy adoption continues to impact mobile enablement in large organizations (59% of the respondents to our latest survey claimed to have a formal BYOD support program in place) and has created a significant market opportunity for mobile-first ISVs. CSO's know that unprotected and unmanaged devices are likely to expose their organization to risks such as unauthorized access and data leakage – for this reason, VDC expects the number of devices "under management" to continue to grow rapidly and is the reason why our forecast for enterprise-oriented mobile solutions is so bullish. Our soon to be released global EMM market forecast shows a 24.6% CAGR from 2012 to 2017 for the ever-broadening solution range that is EMM.

MDM is Dead?

Some have boldly proclaimed that the MDM market is dead; that is pure bunk. The need for centralized oversight of configuration control, application usage and device protection couldn't be more important moving forward – the market is far from dead, it has just evolved. Not to mention that the usage of 3rd party software from EMM providers will increasingly be required for deployment environments where compliance reporting mandates the ability to conduct auditable events – in these scenarios, EMM solutions are needed to compensate for the technical limitations of even the latest mobile operating systems.  Bottom line, MDM solutions are foundational to EMM vendors’ platforms. What has changed, is the emphasis on data at rest and in motion – and of course the applications. Moving forward, I see this shift straining the partnerships that EMM vendors have engaged in and creating pressure on the strategic interactions among competing firms. This is a topic that will be expanded on in our upcoming (September) EMM Report .

Global mHealth Market to Reach Over $8 Billion in 2016

Comprising a wide range of mobile hardware, software, and professional services offerings, the global mHealth market will grow at a CAGR of over 15% to surpass $8B in revenues in 2016.  

Drivers of mHealth Market Growth Include:

    Regional Adoption

• While unlikely to threaten the Americas' hold on overall revenues in the mHealth market, the
  APAC region is leading the market with a CAGR of 17.6% through 2016.  And yet, the APAC market will not be attractive for traditional mHealth vendors, with rugged device platforms and Windows Embedded systems.  

• Rather, much of the growth in the mHealth market in APAC (as in other emerging economies e.g. Africa) will be driven by consumer use of smartphone and tablet computers to expand regional health care access to remote regions.  Increasingly ubiquitous wireless networks and low-priced consumer grade technologies are facilitating medical access for poor and rural populations.

    mHealth Market Not Immune to BYOD's Spread

• Despite strict regulatory oversight and data security requirements native to health care environments, this market has proven markedly ripe for BYOD's spread – according to a recent VDC survey, 75% of healthcare organizations currently have or are considering BYOD policies. Tightening health care budgets are seeing IT departments accommodate increased flexibility in network access and app support for employees.  
• Yet while a favorite buzzword amongst mHealth analysts, BYOD’s direct market impact will be tempered as regulatory compliance considerations, data security risks, and device management challenges necessitate more restrictive BYOD policies.

    Market Shifts Drive Innovation in the Legacy Rugged Market 

• While rugged will see slower uptake across emerging economies, the market for these technologies will continue to grow across North America and Europe. In a market with mission-critical processes and chaotic workflows, device performance and reliability is key. Traditional rugged devices - already present in many health care settings (e.g. handhelds/ PDAs, slate tablets, rugged smartphones) - offer a level of enterprise-friendliness not commonly found in the consumer grade solutions market (e.g. maintenance options, OS upgrade cycle).  
• Moving forward, however, traditional rugged vendors will increasingly look at the end user experience to facilitate competitive differentiation. Rugged devices will increasingly incorporate some of the UI/UX enhancements and appealing graphics inherent to today's modern mobile platforms (e.g. iOS, Android).

For more information about VDC's Research on the mHealth market, check out our 2012 Report on mobile & wireless technologies in the Health Care Services market.

Honeywell's Intermec Acquisition Reshaping the Competitive Landscape of the Rugged Mobile Market

After monitoring the rugged mobile market and witnessing the consolidation trend that has been taking the market by storm for the past few years (e.g. Honeywell's acquisition of EMS Technologies, Inc and Motorola Solutions' acquisition of PSION), here at VDC Research, we were expecting 2012 to bring us more in terms of acquisitions - and the month of December did not disappoint us. On Monday, Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) announced that it would acquire Intermec Inc. (NYSE: IN) for about $600 million in cash ($10 per share).

Despite maintaining its competitive position, Intermec, the workflow performance company that develops, manufactures and integrates technologies that identify, track and manage supply chain assets has been going through restructuring and was in search of a new CEO in addition to evaluating its alternatives. In addition to being a key manufacturer of rugged mobile computers, RFID, barcode scanners and barcode printers, the company is a turnkey solution provider with offerings in hardware, software, services and integrated solutions.

In this blog post, we are going to be looking at Honeywell's acquisition of Intermec and its impact on the enterprise mobility market.

Sign of the Times*:The rugged mobile market - and more specifically the rugged handheld market - is at crossroads. In fact we appear to be entering a phase of lower growth. Some of this can be attributed to consumerization and increased market erosion by smartphones. In addition, macro factors such as the weak economic climate in Europe and the soft recovery in North America do not bode well for higher growth dynamics. What is increasingly clear for participants in this already wildly fragmented market is that without scale - or an extremely focused niche position - one's ability to compete is compromised. Although Motorola - fresh off its recent acquisition of PSION - remains the clear leader in the rugged handheld market with over 40% share, combining Honeywell (LXE) and Intermec creates a more viable "number two" with a market share reaching 20%. This substantially broadens the gap with the rest of the market as the next closest competitor's share hovers around 5%.

Portfolio Fit and Mix:Honeywell's enterprise mobility and AIDC products are part of its Scanning Mobility unit within its ACS division. From a hardware perspective, Intermec expands Honeywell's rugged handheld and forklift mounted portfolio, especially around devices for field mobile and logistics solutions. In addition, through Intermec's printer and media division Honeywell has effectively expanded its TAM by several billion. Moreover, with Intermec's Vocollect division (Vocollect is the leader in voice solutions for mobile workers) Honeywell is further enhancing its warehouse capabilities, a critical market for rugged mobile and data collection technologies. What is likely especially appealing to Honeywell, is access to Intermec's installed base - particularly in markets like DSD, industrial warehousing, logistics and field service. Beyond core hardware, Intermec also has some interesting capabilities around professional services - through its Enterprise Mobile business unit - and software. These could be critical as Honeywell explores possibilities to enhance its service footprint and scale its service offerings.

Consolidation Trend and Honeywell as a Serial Acquirer:Consolidation trend has been a common theme in theme in the enterprise mobility market over the past couple of years and VDC expects this trend to continue in areas where the market has reached a certain level of maturity. Honeywell has excelled as an acquirer of companies as the company acquired Hand Held Products, Metrologic, EMS Technologies and Intermec since 2007. PSION's acquisition by Motorola Solutions earlier in the year shook up the competitive landscape as the consolidated company is better positioned in the market with its expanded product portfolio and market share gains. While the overall tendency in the market might suggest being more cautious giving the economic uncertainties and volatility, Honeywell once again focused on the potential opportunities associated with it and decided to move forward with the acquisition. The company continues to focus on mid-market deals (under $1 billion) and use consolidation as a way to support its organic growth. Honeywell's expertise in consolidation perhaps gives the company a significant leverage over its peers as the company perceives these acquisitions as a safer way to grow its business.

Despite its large installed base of customers and devices and its strong position with its partner ecosystem, Intermec has been having some challenges over the past couple of quarters. It would be interesting to see how Honeywell successfully integrates the company and turns its business around. The impact of this acquisition on Intermec's employees and product lines is also yet to be seen.

*The figures reported in this section are from VDC Research's Strategic Insights 2012 Enterprise & Government Mobility Hardware Mobile Devices Report and references to consolidated companies when mentioning Motorola Solutions (includes PSION) and Honeywell (includes Intermec).

P.S. Since the announcement of the acquisition, multiple law firms announced that they will be investigating the acquisition as a result of the potential claims against the Board of Directors of Intermec, Inc. We will update this blog post as more information becomes available.

Growth in Rugged Tablet Market Trying to Make Up for the Loss in Others

VDC Research recently published its Q2 2012 Rugged Mobile Quarterly Shipments Report, supplementing its Enterprise & Government Mobility Hardware Research Service. Some key findings from this report include:

• The market for rugged large form factors had double-digit growth in Q2 2012 (over Q2 2011). The growth in the rugged tablet market was the primary contributor as the market for rugged notebooks and forklift mounted computers both contracted.
• Rugged notebook market experienced the greatest drop among large form factors. Vendors are positioning themselves to better serve the commercial segments as a result of the cuts in government spending. Shifting focus to commercial markets is not as easy as it may seem, given the historic ties the majority of the rugged notebook vendors have with the public sector.
• Rugged tablet market is taking a boost from the overall demand for the media tablets. The market grew by 30.1% over the year-ago-quarter, experiencing double-digit growth across all regions. Rugged forklift mounted computer market contracted by 9.1% (over Q2 2011) as the only growth came from the Asia-Pacific region while the Americas region shrank by 14.1%.
• Rugged handheld market was flat in Q2 2012, achieving a YoY growth of 1.8%. The economic uncertainty in the EMEA region was a key contributor to this outcome, as well as the fierce competition that this market is facing from lower cost solutions such as the smartphones.

T-Mobile Plays the Pawn in Verizon's Latest Attempts to Push Approval of its SpectrumCo Deal

On Monday, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile announced that the two companies have agreed to a spectrum sale/swap arrangement.  Awaiting FCC approval, this deal would enable the vendors to swap portions of their spectrum in the AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) band, while also seeing “an overall net transfer of spectrum from Verizon Wireless to T-Mobile and a cash payment from T-Mobile to Verizon Wireless.”  From the outside, this appears to be an attractive deal to all parties:

•  T-Mobile gains licenses covering approximately 60 million people (facilitating LTE network build-out).
• The swap/sale of these spectrum licenses may facilitate more efficient spectrum usage, with each vendor increasing its amount of contiguous spectrum.
• Verizon will increase its AWS spectrum holdings, allowing build-out of its LTE network in this spectrum block.
• The deal appears to enhance the level of competition in the wireless market (clearly an FCC concern considering the controversy around AT&T’s failed acquisition of T-Mobile in December 2011), with the nation’s fourth-largest cellular firm attaining network coverage from Verizon Wireless.

And yet, a closer look into this deal tells an entirely different story…

This agreement between Verizon and T-Mobile is merely a piece of a much larger puzzle – one that commenced in early December 2011, when Verizon made a $3.6 billion deal to purchase SpectrumCo (a joint venture between Comcast, Time Warner, and Bright House).  This deal also contains:

    “a cross-resale agreement, in which the cable companies can resell Verizon-branded service, and     Verizon Wireless stores can sell cable service. In four years, the cable companies will be able to     launch wireless service under their own brands in a more traditional wholesale agreement. In     addition, the companies will also create a joint innovation initiative to better integrate wireless and     cable services.” (CNET) 

This purchase has yet to receive approval from the FCC and DoJ, who must evaluate the impact of this deal on competition in the wireline and wireless network markets.  Aside from these government bodies, this prospective purchase by Verizon has drawn considerable criticism from other interested parties – the Alliance for Broadband Competition formed in mid-May 2012 to oppose this purchase.  Members of this alliance include Public Knowledge, Rural Cellular Association, Sprint, and T-Mobile.  T-Mobile had – until yesterday – been one of the most vocal opponents to this purchase.  With this new deal between Verizon and T-Mobile conveniently “contingent” upon the FCC’s approval of Verizon’s SpectrumCo purchase, T-Mobile has withdrawn its objection to this purchase.

This is not the first attempt by Verizon to draw FCC approval of the SpectrumCo deal – in April, Verizon proposed that it would run an “open sale” of many licenses the company holds in the 700MHz A and B blocks.  This proposition was, of course, contingent on the close of its deal to acquire spectrum from the cable companies. 

While the motives driving this deal between Verizon and T-Mobile are clear to all sides, DoJ and FCC regulators will have to re-consider Verizon’s SpectrumCo purchase in light of these changes, and their impact on the entire wireless market.  The Alliance for Broadband Competition (minus T-Mobile) remains fiercely opposed, noting that "While it's nice that Verizon will cede a small portion of its vast spectrum holdings to T-Mobile, that does nothing to mitigate the fact that Verizon and Cable want to stop competing, stop investing, and stop innovating to the great detriment of consumers and the American economy."

 

Army Might No Match for BYOD Forces

Battling tough barriers to adoption - including concerns over security, connectivity, and robustness of the app ecosystem – consumer-grade devices and mobile applications are seeing increased toleration and adoption in military.  As a major part of the army’s new Connecting Soldiers to Digital Apps (CSDA) initiative, the army has launched a prototype-phase mobile app marketplace. While the market is not yet fully developed, currently includes only 12 apps, and is limited (for a short time) to the iOS platform, “this prototype is a first step in establishing and exercising new submission and approval processes that will eventually enable Army members, organizations, and third-party developers to release applications for Army-wide distribution.” 



As shown above, commercial-grade devices will see strong growth, even against rugged counterparts, in the military market.  This will open up a new and considerable market for app developers…we look forward to the flood of new and innovative apps we will see developers create to target this space.  Although these new and innovative consumer technologies will no doubt propel the army into an even more tech-filled, advanced future, we will have to see how the industry copes with the rapid rate of change and innovation inherent to consumer technologies.

Enterprise Mobile Workers: Tracking Tomorrow's Mobility Opportunities

Today's workforce is undergoing some significant changes, and mobile workers are at the epicenter of many of them. In VDC's most recent report, we project that the mobile workforce will grow to 1.2 billion workers by 2014 - or roughly one third of today's workforce. No other workforce segment is as large or growing at the same rate. The segment spans virtually every industry and organization size.

In addition to this major workforce shift, the GEN Y/ Millenial generation, who has a very different relationship with mobile technology, is now entering the workforce. What makes this significant is that this generation is driving expectations regarding what types of mobile solutions are available from prospective employers and how they want to communicate and interact with co-workers.

To learn more, you can read our most recent research note here or tune in to The Global Mobile Workforce Quickcast.