Forrester: More than half of enterprises support consumer phones

Enterprises that never expected to support personal consumer devices are slowly changing their minds, with 59 percent now supporting employee-owned smartphones in various ways; something unheard of when I worked in I.T. just a handful of years ago. The growing number, based on data in a Forrester research report published today, is likely to continue rising as the mobile lines between home and work keep blurring. That means more opportunity for device makers and mobile app developers to create solutions that effectively cater to both.

While Apple’s iOS has been making strong headway in enterprises, Forrester’s data shows that Google still has a strong play in the workplace even as companies are wary of both. “[I]n the next 12 months, 83% of firms expect to support iOS and 77% expect to support Android, despite underlying security concerns for these platforms,” the report says. Given how the iPad is still outselling Google Android Honeycomb tablets by many factors, it sounds like businesses are supporting more Android smartphones as opposed to tablets, while iPads and iPhones are both making their way into the workplace.

But one can’t talk about enterprises without mentioning Windows, and in this case, it comes in two flavors: Windows on the desktop and Windows Phone on handsets. Although Forrester doesn’t come out and say it specifically in its report, the possibility of supporting Windows Phone in the workplace is certainly suggested. And that makes sense because there’s definitely room for a third major mobile platform and ecosystem.

After using the new Mango software update on a Windows Phone — and because competitors such as webOS and BlackBerry aren’t showing as much forward momentum — I think Windows Phone will be that third platform. Given the Microsoft Office, Sharepoint and Exchange hooks, it seems a natural fit for the enterprise.

In terms of Windows itself, there’s a mobile aspect worth considering which highlights a broader opportunity: mobile virtualization. As employees shift from desktops and laptops to smartphones and tablets for work, there’s still a need for desktop-grade software access. That can be handled on mobiles through remote desktop solutions such as LogMeIn Ignition or Citrix Receiver, allowing for secure desktop access from a tablet or smartphone, for example.

Remote desktop access is just one piece of the enterprise puzzle when it comes to consumer devices, however. Personal smartphones and tablets could be used to carry enterprise data, so secure methods are needed. And employees don’t want to see their work software in the way of games, social networking apps and other personal software. Virtualizing a work environment on the phone or tablet can keep the two worlds apart on the same device.

The MyModes software I used on a T-Mobile smartphone attempts to do this at the user interface level with different themes for work and play on the same smartphone, for example, but a truly virtual work environment on consumer devices brings needed security. A solution like the one from VMWare that I pointed out in December could temporarily turn an employee owned phone into an enterprise tool as needed with little to no risk of compromised data.

Regardless of the platform, device or mobile apps involved, it’s clear that enterprises can either embrace consumer devices or suffer unhappy employees that are forced to carry multiple mobiles for both work and personal use.

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Move over Android, China has a new cloud-based phone!

Android and iOS phones may be gaining traction around the world, but after three years of development, Alibaba thinks there’s room in China for another smartphone platform. The company is launching its mobile platform, Aliyun, on the K-Touch W700 handset later this month.

The Aliyun platform focuses on cloud-based, web applications but is also “fully compatible” with Google Android apps, according to a statement the company provided to the Wall Street Journal. Alibaba will complement each handset with 100 GB of data storage on its AliCloud service.

In any other region of the world, I’d say such a device has no chance. But China’s mobile broadband infrastructure is still developing across the vast region and relatively few are using 3G-capable smartphones. Essentially, the country is ripe for smartphone growth and it shows.

In the first four months of this year, the number of 3G subscribers jumped 44 percent to 67.57 million. That means in a population of more than 1.4 billion people, only a small percentage of the 900 million mobile subscribers are using smartphones. Contrast that with the U.S., where more than half of all handsets now sold are smartphones.

As far as the Aliyun platform and its reliance on the cloud, details are vague. Here’s how the company describes it at a high level:

The cloud OS will feature cloud services including e-mail, Internet search, weather updates and mapping & GPS navigation tools. A distinguishing feature of the cloud OS is its support for web-based apps. These offer users an Internet-like experience and do not require the user to download or install application software on their mobile devices. Cloud OS users can seamlessly synchronize, store and back-up data such as contact information, call logs, text messages, notes and photos to AliCloud’s remote data center, and can also access and update this data across all their PC and mobile devices.

I’m not sure that “support for web-based apps” is a distinguishing feature, as all current platforms have the same support. Screen shots show the user interface to be similar to iOS, but with a hint of webOS, so there’s nothing innovative in that respect, either.

Then again, when less than 10 percent of all cellular subscribers are using a 3G handset, maybe innovation isn’t required. But I wonder how dependent upon the cloud Alibaba’s platform actually is.If the 3G infrastructure is still a work-in-progress for many areas across the large Chinese land mass, it could pose a problem for the handset.

We’ll be talking more about the intersection of the cloud and mobile technology at Mobilize, September 26-27.

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