Worldwide Individual-Liable-Business-User Converged Mobile Device 2008-2012 Forecast

This IDC study details the growth in individual-liable (personal devices brought into the workplace) shipments of converged mobile devices (CMDs) to businesses over the forecast period from 2008 to 2012. Worldwide individual-liable shipments of CMDs will grow from 15.6 million in 2007 to 69.8 million in 2012. This study examines the key trends that will affect the global growth of personal CMDs used for business purposes.

"Enterprises will only be willing and able to fully mobilize and support a certain segment of their respective workforces. Employees outside this range will increasingly seek to gain some of the productivity advantages of applications such as mobile email on their personal devices," said Sean Ryan, research analyst for the Mobile Enterprise practice at IDC. "This will present challenges for IT departments around policy enforcement, security, and the management of such devices. However, well-formed mobility policies, combined with opt-in for device management and limited access to corporate networks, provide a solution to this dilemma."