Poll: consumers plan to use iPhone for work as well as play
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 7, 2007 at 6:07pm
While the iPhone is positioned as a consumer device, a recent IDC poll of U.S. professionals shopping for mobile devices at http://www.MyProductAdvisor.com suggests that this segment of the population is planning to use the device for both work and play. Nearly 70 percent of those polled who already own, or plan to purchase an iPhone in the next 12 months, consider the device to be for both personal and business use.
This is despite the fact that, in many respects, the iPhone is not well-suited to the corporate environment. Sixteen percent of respondents to this latest IDC poll plan to purchase an iPhone within the next 12 months, in addition to the two percent that already own one. Those polled intend to use the iPhone for various business tasks such as personal information management (contacts, calendar, etc.), corporate email, corporate Intranet, and customer relationship management (CRM). Whether respondents to this poll own an iPhone or not, two-thirds of them currently use one mobile device for both personal and business use.
“The results of our poll suggest a preference for both personal and business usage among those that own or plan to purchase an iPhone in the next 12 months,” says Sean Ryan, research analyst for IDC’s Mobile Enterprise Device Solutions. “This coincides with a growing trend in the proliferation and uptake of other converged mobile devices (those with a high level operating system and cellular connectivity) designed to meet both the business and consumer requirements of mobile workers.”
On the other hand, individuals intending to use the iPhone for business purposes aren’t considering corporate requirements for security and manageability of mobile devices in their decision, he adds.
“The use of unsanctioned devices, iPhone or otherwise, in the enterprise adds tremendous complexity for IT managers and executives trying to develop strategies around mobility while maintaining control and security over such devices,” Ryan says. “IT managers need to be aware of the implications of allowing iPhone access to corporate networks.”
The IDC study is based on a mini-poll designed by IDC and fielded in the U.S. by Market Insight Corporation on the consumer Web site http://www.MyProductAdvisor.com between Sept. 7-19. The poll was embedded in the mobile phone section of the site and voluntarily answered by 351 mobile phone shoppers using the web site for product recommendations. The average age of respondents was 43 years with 63 percent of respondents male and 37 percent female. All ages and all business sizes were sufficiently represented. This poll has a confidence level of 95 percent with a five percent margin of error.
Leave a comment ⇒
Please post the article topic & comment in our forums. No registration required.
Article Information
Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This
Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
