iPass, in its quarterly Mobile Workforce Report, found that mobile worker preferences and behavioral
characteristics across age groups and geographies are similar. In fact,
the median age of a mobile employee is somewhere around 46.
The report, which drew from the experiences of more than 1,100 mobile
employees, found that personal smartphone liability played a much
bigger factor on device usage than age.
"Today nearly a third of people use an unmanaged smartphone for work.
Unmanaged smartphones are a significant risk to enterprises," said
Steven Wastie, senior vice president marketing and product management at
iPass. "Twenty percent of these mobile employees have experienced a
relevant security issue with their smartphone containing business data lost, stolen, infected or hacked."
The mobile employee survey also uncovered:
- iPhone and Android will lead the smartphone market by 2012 among the mobile workforce.
- Globally, smartphone penetration among mobile employees outpaced the
consumer market, with 69 percent now using those devices for work. - The laptop is becoming the new desktop as the smartphone and tablet
replace the old laptop. Over a third of mobile employees (37 percent)
believe that a mobile device will usurp the laptop for general business
purposes in 2011, and 27 percent believe it will be an iPad or other tablet. - 34 percent of mobile employees do not use their smartphones for work
if they are footing the bill -- having a direct and negative impact on
their productivity. - 22 percent of mobile employees breach corporate policy using an
unmanaged smartphone. - While most mobile employees reported that nothing bad had happened
to their smartphones with business data on it, 14.3 percent of mobile
employees had their smartphones either lost or stolen, 3.9 percent had
had their smartphones hacked or contracted a virus, and 16.0 percent had their smartphones damaged or broken.
About the Report
The iPass Mobile Workforce Report is published quarterly and is based on two sources:
- More than 1,100 survey responses from mobile enterprise employees
between October 10 and October 31, 2010 (48 percent from North America,
37 percent from Europe and 12 percent from Asia Pacific). - Enterprise mobile broadband usage data is collected by iPass across its user base from July 1 through August 30, 2010.
About iPass Inc.
Founded in 1996, iPass (NASDAQ: IPAS) is a leading provider of
enterprise mobility services with 3,500 customers, including more than
420 of the Forbes Global 2000. Additional information is available at
www.iPass.com or on Smarter Connections, the iPass blog.