The majority of Australian enterprise CIOs will use consumer media tablet popularity to spark deeper workspace change in the next 12 months, according to a survey by IDC.
The IDC Special Study, ‘Opportunity Beckons: A survey of corporate media tablet adoption in Australia’, details IDC’s view of the existing and future adoption of media tablets in the commercial sector based on survey data captured in the first six months of 2011 and end user case studies.
“The introduction of media tablets in Australian enterprises is being viewed by CIOs and IT decision makers as an opportunity to address broader issues related to the workspace ecosystem including the consumerisation of IT, cloud computing, mobility and security,” said IDC senior analyst, Trevor Clarke. “In short, these devices will be a catalyst for fundamental change in how IT is leveraged and the makeup of the device and client OS ecosystem.”
Survey results show that more than 56 per cent of organisations are going to deploy or pilot media tablets in the next 12 months in either an official roll out or through a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy.
“The percentage of those looking deploy media tablets increases when you just look at larger organisations, with many CIOs reporting pressure is primarily coming from c-suite executives,” Clarke said. “Notably, unlike the consumer space where media tablets are predominantly complementary devices, many CIOs say media tablets will replace some devices in their organisation. So we will see these devices create change in how employees utilise technology to complete their responsibilities.”
Additional survey results show there is strong interest in adjacent technologies such as client virtualisation and mobile applications and printing, along with strategies such as activity based working and BYOD that are helping to drive this adoption.
“Not all organisations will adopt media tablets and they certainly won’t be appropriate for all employees or all situations,” Clarke said. “Some will baulk at the security risks, integration and change management their deployment entails. However, what is clear from the survey results is the momentum is behind these devices finding their way to a permanent place in Australia’s enterprise organisations.”
The Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) media tablet market doubled in Q2 2011, driven by multiple launches of Android-based devices, and soon to be joined by other players globally such as the Amazon Kindle Fire.
Media tablet shipments doubled in Q2 from the previous quarter, with 420,000 units shipped, according to IDC’s Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker (2011 Q2). Australia contributed 87.5 per cent of the total shipments, while the rest went to New Zealand.
Android-based media tablets are projected to reach at least 300,000 units by the end of 2011, but with Apple expected to continue to be the dominant player with more than 70 per cent market share. IDC expects approximately 1.3 million units of media tablets shipped into the ANZ channel by the end of the year.
