In 2013, during my presentation at an Intel offsite in Chandler, Arizona, one of the topics of discussion was 2-in-1, demand for which was tepid. Techaisle research had shown that PC OEMs marketers had done a good job of building initial awareness for the devices. With the notable exception of micro and very small businesses, awareness of 2-in-1s was relatively high. What was not high, was consideration and purchase preference for these devices. For two hours I presented arguments, supported by research and analysis as to why the 2-in-1 market demand was forecast to low for several years.
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Techaisle’s survey of SMBs (1 to 999 employees) in Europe shows that mobility is addressing a clear business need and these firms are in turn responding with growing investments, especially in applications and solutions. 63% of small businesses (1-99 employees) & 74% of midmarket firms (100-999 employees) say that adoption of mobility solutions has contributed to business growth, up from 67% and 68% respectively from the previous year. Some SMBs have even experienced 2X growth as prior to mobility solutions deployment. Similarly, 37% of small businesses & 24% of midmarket firms say that adoption of mobility solutions has contributed to improved profitability.
39% of small businesses and 89% of midmarket firms have deployed one or mobility solutions and the average spend has increased by 29% for small businesses and 51% for midmarket firms. Survey data shows that service providers are becoming the top purchase channels of mobility solutions for both small and midmarket firms but there is also a distinct increasing influence of IT consultants.
The security vendor landscape is one of the most diffused in the IT industry. Within the past 6 months Techaisle has received press releases and briefing requests from more than 60 different suppliers. Despite the incredible diversity of prospective suppliers, though, small businesses and midmarket firms are largely focused on the same handful of security technology suppliers. Symantec, Trend Micro and McAfee rank among the top three security solution vendors in SMB segment. It appears that with security, brand leadership extends throughout the SMB market, with suppliers who are well-positioned in the small business or midmarket community tending to be strong in the other segment as well. This statement does not necessarily mean that overall leadership will extend into the myriad niches that are apparent in the market. What it does mean, though, is that suppliers addressing specific niches will need to develop convincing positioning statements explaining how their niche solutions extend and integrate with products available from the overall market leaders.
Although much of the public debate around mobility involves hardware brands and feature sets and overall penetration rates, the real business benefit of mobility is delivered via applications that address specific task requirements within the business, and mobility solutions that overlay the management and security structures needed to integrate these apps with corporate IT systems.
Data drawn from the Techaisle 2017 SMB & Midmarket Mobility adoption survey shows that 2017 will see an explosion in the number of mobility application types used by US SMBs. The data presented in figure below shows that small businesses will go from a current average of seven mobility application categories in use to 14 in 2017, and midmarket firms will increase from an average of about six mobility app categories to 13. This 100%-ish growth pattern is demonstrated across most employee-size segments, with all but the 250-499 group anticipating a 2017 net increase in mobile app categories used of 86% or more.