July 20th, 2013

It is no secret that tablets are and will continue to make its way into the business work place.  According to
Forrester, 21 billion dollars will be spent world-wide  by business and government on tablets.  According to this report, Software investments will grow apx. 3% this year and 6% next year.  PC purchases will  grow only by a modest rate.   Windows-based machines will be down  7 billion dollars.  So the question is why?    The answer is simple. Media and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)  As we become a more mobile society and we embrace visual media, tablets have become the most popular product to have.  Apple has had the best OS system for clients to use to produce media for years.  While i-pad sales have slowed some, they have also dropped in pricing. Android is making a huge dent into the tablet market but for business and government use, Apple was the first and they have done well in penetrating that market. Media, video in particular, has made a huge impact in marketing and business
applications.  Apple's OS systems have proven themselves to be the best in working with this medium.

As for the BYOD scenario, business or not, personal usage to tablets has soared. It makes sense for businesses to allow to their employees to use their devices for business. Obviously firewall protection, propitiatory polices and other measures will need to be in place as well as infrastructure support to handle the traffic generated by tablets but that comes with the infrastructure growth and changes in I.T.   BYOD is not the buzz storm it once was but it still is a huge consideration for small business. World-wide  Expect
 $2.06 trillion invested in IT growth from tablets to the
hardware to support it. I found  the Forrester  report fascinating and an eye opener.  Tablets are going to be the new "desktop" only it will fit in your lap  a lot easier.  So what is your business doing?  What is your policy for your employees?  Those questions will  need to be answered sooner than later.