Wednesday, February 1, 2012

bnm

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Monday, November 21, 2011

iPhone Crowned New King Of The Enterprise

A recent survey shows that the iPhone has dethroned the long-reigning king of the enterprise, RIM's BlackBerry, for business use. Quickly catching up to the Blackberry is Google's Android OS.



Enterprise mobility provider iPass polled over 2,300 enterprise workers for its quarterly Mobile Workforce Report, and found that the iPhone now makes up 45% of phones used by mobile workers. This is up from 31% in 2010.
The BlackBerry, which was for years the preferred handset of the enterprise user, has fallen to second place. It now makes up 32.2% of the mobile worker market, down from 34.5%. According to iPass, this doesn't necessarily mean that the BlackBerry is losing its place in the sector, rather it's a testament to just how quickly its rivals are growing in popularity.
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This might come as no surprise to some. While RIM's BlackBerry seems to be less and less popular, iPhone and Android handsets continue to fly into the hands of consumers.
The popularity of Apple's iOS platform has continued to grow as users adopt not only the iPhone, but the iPad as well. These devices work hand-in-hand, leaving little reason for users not to choose iOS.

RIM’s Blackberry is losing share to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android-based handsets.
The Android platform also is seeing significant growth. It's up from 11.3% to 21.3%, nearly doubling from 2010 and placing Nokia at fourth place with 7.4% of the market. Just last year, Android made up 11.3% and Nokia was topping it at 12.4%.
As for overall smartphone use, 95% of mobile workers currently carry smartphones. This is a 10% jump from 85% in 2010. Of those, 91% use their smartphone for work, which is up significantly from 2010's 69%.
Perhaps unexpected is that 58% of companies provision smartphones to their employees. This is down from roughly two-thirds of companies just a year ago. This is likely because 42% of employees already carry smartphones, purchasing and paying for their own handsets. iPass says it's part of a growing trend as companies loosen their grip on liability and allow employees to carry their own smartphones, with their own liabilities.
Smartphones are becoming increasingly more prevalent. Devices that were once regarded as something carried by business professionals are now carried around by teenagers who want to Tweet and post Facebook updates throughout the course of their school day. The iPhone is unique in that it caters not only to business professionals and gadget geeks, but moms and dads who ordinarily are not as 'hip' to technology.

The iPhone is expected to dominate into 2012, leaving Android and Windows Mobile platforms far behind in second and third place, respectively.

At this rate by 2044 everyone on Earth will use Android

With 550,000 new Android devices being activated every day, it's only a matter of time before your nan discovers the joys of Chrome to Phone.


At last week's Google Music launch in the US the company disclosed that more than 200 million Android devices to date have been activated, with the current rate of activations sitting on a mind-boggling 550,000 new Android devices switched on every day. Pretty stunning numbers, especially when you consider that Android only passed the 100 million devices mark this May, a mere six months ago.
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While still falling short of Apple's enviable total of 250 million iOS devices in the wild, if Android's incendiary rate of adoption were maintained it would see the OS conquer the globe sometime around 2044. Okay, we'll admit we used some ridiculously dodgy math to come up with that particular figure (we're not taking into account increases in world population during the timeframe, nor that iOS itself sees a none-too-shabby 210,000 activations a day itself etc.), but you get the general idea.

One stat worth noting: Android activations no longer seem to be accelerating at the rate which they once were. The 550,000 new devices a day threshold was reached in July, as revealed by Google CEO Larry Page, and going off the latest Google Music launch figures it appears that rate is unchanged from four months ago. So Android is still taking over the world... just at a more leisurely pace.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

PC information

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Generation Y Expected To Disrupt The IT Department



IT departments are bracing for a new generation of workers who expect to use their own devices and services at work. According to a Cisco survey of those under 30--of the so called Generation Y--"more than two of five would accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility with regard to device choice, social media access, and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility."That is a number hiring managers must consider if their company ignores IT consumerization, where self-provisioned gadgets and services are integrating with the corporate environment. Restrictive companies are not going to find as much interest in their employment opportunities as they did previously."



Generation Y sees BOYD as a right, not a privilege.

College students and recent graduates have only known a life with a cell phone, and most recently, a smartphone. Their smartphone has become an extension of who they are, and they feel intruded upon when an employer requires them to give it up for a corporate-issued device.

"They see it as management of their personal life," said Dan Croft, president and CEO of Mission Critical Wireless. "The distinction of work and play has blurred so dramatically compared to 20 years ago." Employees are increasingly expected to work remotely and during off hours; and they expect to be able to use their own tools to do it. If they're working at home, they expect to be able to play a bit.

Acquity Group has witnessed firsthand the demands that new employees make on an IT department. The consulting firm who built websites for both Kohl's and Saks Fifth Avenue has hired 400 employees this year, 25 percent straight out of school.

"Certainly they're looking to have access to whatever ever they want," said Jim Newman at Acquity Group. New hires want "access to their own social media or our internal social media, or email and those sorts of things through their own devices, whatever they are. So they value having the ability to choose their own platform or their own mobile device."

Yet IT departments are generally run and staffed by a generation that did not grow up with smartphones and might not understand the importance these devices have for younger workers.
"Personally, I can't relate to dropping my salary so that I can use an iPhone instead of a Blackberry." said Larry Seltzer, editorial director of BYTE. Seltzer's not alone. Many other established workers cannot relate, says Croft. He equates today's new employees to baby boomers who were willing to sacrifice pay in order to ensure some time off. The companies that adapt to this new worker will have their pick from the entire talent pool; but that requires a different set of skills and a different mindset. If IT replaces the consumer app store with a corporate one, they'd better throw in a few games, like Angry Birds.
"If you lock policy down [too] tight, you create an environment in which you are inviting rogue users to find their way around a system," said Croft.

Providing games to employees to keep them happy while working is not part of what IT has been trained to do. They're trained to hide Solitaire and Minesweeper though group policy, to block game sites at the firewall, and to lock down the DVD drive to prevent unauthorized program installations. Croft and others think that's about to change. Successful IT departments will work with their staff, creating a feedback loop, as better ideas might come from outside of IT and other traditional, corporate channels.  
As IT allows for self-provisioned devices and services, it must work to lock them down. Answering the question of how far and how tightly is determined by policy. A company's stakeholders must establish a set of policies starting with basic security, or a password policy, for example. The password policy requires decisions on password length, complexity, and shelf-life. So even this small bit of policy, and each of its components, pits convenience against security. Once policy is in place, the technology for a device management solution can be implemented. Yes, users can bring their Droid to work; but they should expect to have someone else controlling what can and cannot be put on it; and they won’t have all of the freedoms they would outside of the enterprise.

The role of IT is changing due to consumerization. It isn't as cut and dried as it used to be. IT's role is moving from implementing its own tools to integrating tools and technology it did not purchase, standardize on, or test. Companies that understand and adapt to this new role will have an advantage over those that view self-provisioning as a luxury accorded a generation spoiled on gadgets.
'Cotton Candy': PC-On-A-Stick Looks For Niche
Make a Comment | Serdar Yegulalp, BYTE | November 18, 2011 04:05 PM
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A startup from Norway is demonstrating a prototype PC-on-a-stick that could revolutionize the way we take our computing with us--or simply become... Read More >>

Category: Peripherals
News
iPhone Crowned New King Of The Enterprise
Make a Comment | Jacob Lopez, BYTE | November 17, 2011 04:53 PM
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The king is dead! Long live the king! The iPhone has taken over as the leading smartphone in the enterprise, according to mobility solutions... Read More >>

Category: Smartphones
Reviews
LG DoublePlay: Twice Your Android Smartphone Fun?
Make a Comment | Todd Ogasawara, BYTE | November 16, 2011 04:35 PM
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This new T-Mobile-powered Windows Phone has a great price and some eye-popping features, such as dual screens. Read More >>

Category: Smartphones
How-To
How To Stay Secure In iCloud
Make a Comment | Ronald McCarty, BYTE | November 16, 2011 04:26 PM
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Setting up iCloud on your new or upgraded iOS device can be exciting, but you don't want to forget about security. Read More >>

Friday, November 18, 2011

15-year odyssey sees Mac ride to 5% market share




Peter Dockrill
18 November 2011, 3:15 PM


Apple's 5% market share might not sound like much, but with quarter-on-quarter momentum dramatically outstripping total PC growth, the Mac is anything but a quiet achiever.


Apple's dominance in the mobile sphere with the ongoing success of its iOS product family (the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod touch) hogs most of the limelight these days, but its contemporary growth in the conventional computer market is also considerable.

As reported this week by AppleInsider, the Mac last quarter achieved a 5.2% share of the overall PC market, surpassing the five per cent barrier for the first time in a mind-boggling 15-year stretch, going off an analysis by market watchers Needham & Co.



The 4.89 million Macs sold by Apple globally from July through September represented a 26 per cent increase over the previous year, taking Apple up from a 4.7% market share after the June quarter (and 4.4% one year ago).

The numbers are even more remarkable when you consider that Mac shipment growth has outstripped overall PC growth for nearly six years now (22 consecutive quarters).

Nor are the achievements limited solely to the consumer market. In the business sector, Mac shipments growth outpaced the total PC market by nine times, sucking up 43.8% of the overall 4.8% growth, and suggesting iPad and iPhone uptake among business users is spurring buyers onto complementary Mac purchases, according to Needham & Co.

In the wake of the iPhone 4S and the untimely passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, speculation as to what products the company will next unveil range from the bankable short term (a redesigned and slimmed-down MacBook Pro range) to the fanciful long term (the mythical Apple TV set, not to be confused with its current Apple TV set-top box, now suspected to be Siri-controlled), fuelled by rumours that Apple's former leader left behind a 'four-year plan' of ongoing product blueprints prior to his death.