The bring your own device (BYOD) trend is one that is expected to increase dramatically in 2013.
Firms will increasingly encourage individuals to use their own tablets and smartphones when in the office, as the cost-effective measure means firms will not have to spend as much money on hardware.
There have previously been a raft of security concerns associated with BYOD, as companies feared their information will no longer be as secure as it once was. However, these worries have abated to a certain degree as the flexibility and convenience of the measure is recognised.
The main benefit of BYOD is that it makes mobile working a much easier proposition. A survey commissioned by Newsworks and carried out by YouGov found that 29 per cent of UK adults now own a tablet, which equates to 12.2 million people.
On top of this, a further seven per cent said they planned to buy one in the next few months. The Kindle Fire (35 per cent) was found to be the most popular option, followed by the iPad (24 per cent) and Samsung Galaxy (12 per cent).
When asked about their reasons for having a tablet, 30 per cent said it was to keep on top of news, 59 per cent use it to check their email and 53 per cent listed the primary function of the device as for internet browsing.
Bob Lewis, writing in Info World, stated that BYOD is a trend that is here to stay. He pointed to the ease of integration – which generally involves hooking devices up to a company’s email, directory and calendar systems – as one of its key attributes.
He added that this could become more of an issue if companies develop mobile client front ends for at least some of their core applications, but it will be so ingrained in the working day by that stage that it should not matter.
