Emerging Global Opportunities In Enterprise Mobility

by Philippe Winthrop

It’s about 104 degrees right now in Buenos Aires.  I’m here, one more day than I had planned for my honeymoon because there was a minor problem with the plane that was supposed to take us home yesterday evening.  They grounded the airplane because they couldn’t get the public address system to work in the main cabin.  Don’t they realize that nobody listens to them anyway?  I digress.  How fitting for the 1st missive of the new year that I start digressing in the first paragraph.  At least I’m consistent in my methods.
In any case, you’ll be shocked (note sarcasm) to hear that during my vacation here in South America, I was constantly observing how people were using their cell phones.  I know….I’m a Grade A geek.
Notice however how I actually said cell phones.  During my (admittedly brief) time in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, I was struck (amongst many other things) by the proportion of people walking the streets that did NOT have smartphones.  When I was at a cafe….not a single iPad or tablet.  Actually, that’s not true.  I did see a couple of people with iPads, but guess what?  They were Americans.
I wanted to share this experience with everyone as a means for yet another reality check.  This trip (aside from all the wonderful personal memories that I now have) was a genuine eye opener for me in terms of where North America and the Western World stand in their adoption of (enterprise) mobility solutions, as compared to the rest of the world.  I instantly thought of Stephen Elop, Jim Balsilie and even Steve Balmer when they keep on stressing the global opportunity for mobility goes well beyond what we know in the Western World.  They are 100% correct.  We take for granted that (almost) everyone has a smartphone, and that organizations need mobility management solutions for all the BYOD hardware out there.  The majority of people here still aren’t fixated by their email or Facebook updates while walking the streets.
During my stay here in Buenos Aires, we also had the amazing opportunity to meet up with some distant relatives who have lived here their entire lives.  My distant cousin works for a global tech firm and he explained to me that for those who do carry a smartphone (still a minority), the overwhelming majority of those people get their device from their company.  I guess BYOD is not big here yet.  Maybe it’s time we coin the emergence of “Traiga Tu Proprio Movil” or “TTPM” as the Spanish version of BYOD.
So, all this to say that enterprise mobility is still definitely an emerging GLOBAL trend.  Yes, we have already experienced tremendous growth in the Western World, but from a GLOBAL perspective, I was unbelievably excited to see how much more can occur.  Now, please do me a favor and send good vibes my way so that my bride and I can come back to the US tonight.

source: TheEMF.org