The Consumerization of the Enterprise: Let my iPad go! (to work that is)
I had the pleasure to both attend and present at a Gilder-Forbes Telecosm conference several years ago. One of the presentations that stood out in my mind was a presentation by Paul McWilliams, the editor of Next Inning Technology Research. He showed some incredible data on the boom and bust cycles in the semiconductor industry that were driven by the enterprise market purchase cycles. What made this incredible was that the volatility of the cycles was being damped out almost to a smooth line. The rationale was how the consumer market was driving the chip industry to a more consistent demand profile and pushing growth across the entire sector.
This was back in 2005 when credit was cheap, houses were expensive and everyone was eating iPods for breakfast. Paul’s message was that the consumer was driving the bus now instead of the enterprise and the ride to future growth would be less bumpy. We know now the bus was headed towards a cliff in late 2008 but that doesn’t mute the essential insight Paul gave us, consumer demand for technology has eclipsed that of the enterprise. Initially this was driven by consumer demand for enterprise products, such as Palm Pilot PDA’s and laptops combined with the additional digitization of media heralded by the explosive adoption of little white earbuds across the globe.
That was Phase One of the Consumerization of the Enterprise, where markets were smoothed, fortunes were made and the enterprise was king. What happens in the next phase inverted the hierarchy and causing mass hysteria, at least within the walls of the enterprise, what walls remain…
Zachi
April 20, 2011 @ 8:05 pm
… and now it is actually getting driven the other way around: People are using their own personal smart-phones/tablets to work on the enterprise IT, which forces the corporate IT to align with reality.
John Feland
April 21, 2011 @ 12:24 am
Zachi, you’re right! As more iPads go the way of the iPhone and start showing up in the hands of VP’s and CEOs, the CIO’s are going nuts as they struggle to control and monitor the corporate information flow on and off of these devices. Imagine what this is doing to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance audits!!!!
iPad has its nose in the Enterprise Tent. Asus is already having tea inside. | Argus Insights Blog
May 13, 2011 @ 1:32 am
[…] recently did a post on the rapid consumerization of the enterprise, starting by looking how the semiconductor industry traded the boom and bust […]