According to a recent report nearly 18% of staff has already been provided with a work tablet. This in comparison to a figure of ’only’ 12% this time last year is a massive jump when you consider the sheer number of tablets that will involve. Upon close inspection of the same report showed that out of the people who have tablets 66.7 per cent used it for work. These are truly staggering numbers when compared with the declining sales figures for the PC marketplace which recently fell to the lowest shipment levels for 5 years!
For many businesses however the thought about supposed increased security risks, incompatible systems, and the expense must have put companies off from investing in the technology. However if the most recent report is correct then those objects are slowly being overcome and we can only expect that 18 per cent figure to get bigger year after year.
Another article recently suggested a trend away from BYOD to CYOD (Choose Your Own Device) by offering employees a choice between approved devices. With some people favoring different systems or manufactures having the option to choose a system they know and enjoy using can only make their productivity increase – when not watch their films from iTunes….! According to the article in question limiting the number of devices people can chose from help make it easier to find a solution that is secure and can manage to current corporate systems and data.
As PC shipments decline and tablet sales increase we can only expect even darker days ahead and the tablets and the usage of them within the business continues to grow and shine brightly. For a large proportion of people though using the tablet to conduct their work end with mixed results with awkward user interface, poor quality apps and incomparable data streams the biggest headaches. We still seem to be a long way from the death of the desktop pc in the office environment but given the leaps forward that tablets have made in only a few years it could be that the time when we will be a desktop free place to work can be too far away?
