Mobile Devices: Consumer and the Enterprise

It has struck me, more than with previous OS launches, that a lot of analysts are hung up on the fact that Microsoft seem to be focusing their efforts for Windows Phone 7 on the consumer space.  The surprise being due to the fact that, historically, Microsoft has played more in the enterprise with its mobile offering.  Does this mean MS see the largest part of the smart phone market as being consumer based rather than in the enterprise? Possibly, but I’ve also been considering the fact that, in reality, is one of these spaces led by the other rather than a particular aspect (in this case smartphones) being led by either?  Let me explain this a little more. 

I do much work with cloud computing, use of social media in business and web 2.0 platforms.  It’s fair to say that the workforce of tomorrow is growing up with all of these elements as a pretty standard part of their lives.  Ask a teenager how they like to communicate and interact with their friends and the smart money is they’ll use IM, Facebook or text over more traditional (can you believe it!) methods like email.  My question has long been how will this play out in the mid or long term with regards to the tools we use to communicate, interact and collaborate with in business.  Will young workers be forced to learn tools that have long been in use in the so-called enterprise – email, office and so on.  Or will they, being more familiar with these other platforms, be able to change the way enterprise operates and start to bring with them Web 2.0 technologies to support the information flows?  At this point, I’m not entirely sure which way things will go.  In all honesty, and as with most things, I don’t think it will be as black and white as all that.  The reality will be a shade of grey, somewhere in the middle of these two extremes with enterprise recognising the benefits these new technologies bring with them, making some concessions as a result of that rather than being forced into it by the workforce, to some extent.

As I see it, the question, then, is will consumers (or the workforce) lead enterprise, or will enterprise lead consumers?  Returning to the main point of all this, I think this question is also relevant in the smart phone space.  It looks to me that, for more and more people, their work is a lifestyle rather than the 9-5 job that it may have been in the past.  Especially for those roles that would include a smart phone of some description.  Maybe for the past decade or so there has been a divide where work life would utilise a Blackberry and personal life would use a Nokia (for example).  Now people want to use a single device across their entire life.  As with my point regarding whether consumer will lead enterprise in terms of information platforms in the future, the same might be true with smart phones.  Consumers will look to bring their preferred device to their working lives and how business deals with that will determine how much they can turn this into an advantage rather than it being a disadvantage.

I’ve seen many posts and much opinion about the use of smartphones in business – including this one I saw today – that (for me) miss the point.  They all look at security and control as the primary concern. To my mind, a change in perspective will be required for the future.  I’m not saying that security isn’t important – it absolutely is – but it has long been my belief that the reality both personally and professionally is very different to perception anyway.  I’ve done other posts on this topic, but in short most people are comfortable with email and the Internet, neither of which may be as secure as we may believe.  Mobile platforms lend themselves to better security than other devices in so much as they generally have (or can have added very easily) remote wipe functionality as well as the fact that limited local storage means a lost device is limited in terms of the amount of information that can be lost.  It shouldn’t matter if people put angry birds on their phone – or anything else for that matter – as long as precautions to protect business information are taken. 

But questions of security aren’t the focus here, the point is use of smartphones in business is set for a shake up and I’m not sure if people (i.e. consumers) that comprise the workforce will collectively (and figuratively speaking) demand that so-called non-enterprise smart phones they use personally be accepted and usable as part of their professional lives.  Or will the businesses will keep things locked down and only allow those devices deemed secure and supportable.  I think if it’s the latter, that would be a real shame and a real missed opportunity.  It may even meam that companies adopting such a stance lose competitiveness in comparison to those that don’t.  And it’s my feeling that Microsoft see this too.  The fact that they’re aiming this device more towards consumers isn’t a sign that they don’t want to play in the enterprise space, or that they don’t feel they have a platform in WP7 that can play very well in that space; rather that they may see the 2 worlds combining and that consumers, ultimately, will prove the decision makers and win out.

I’ve used an iPhone in my working life since they were released in 2007.  I’ve also used Android and WebOS based devices since that time and the productivity gains for me are off the chart.  I don’t believe I have posed any greater security threat as a result of this and see real opportunities for those enterprises that adopt these new platforms and allow for new ways of engaging, collaborating, connecting and working.

Of course it needs managing in the right way with the right processes around it, but Microsoft’s focus on the consumer (as with Apple and Google before it) may prove to be the best route into the enterprise as the world continues to change.  And to me that can only be a good thing.