Dive Brief:
- Mobile phones will be used for 80% of internet access by 2019, reports Quartz. In 2010, only a fourth of internet users were phone-based, according to the study of more than 50 countries' internet access.
- As of now, 70% of internet access is through mobile phones. Since the vast majority of internet access is mobile, Quartz said the "mobile internet" now simply refers to "the internet."
- Innovations in technology have helped accelerate mobile internet access. For example, affordability in smart mobile phones is helping Africa increase mobile broadband connections from 419 million to 1.07 billion by the end of 2022, reports Reuters.
Dive Insight:
The workforce is growing reliant on mobility and the way it accesses information. Employees are no longer restricted to stationary desktops, and companies are moving toward laptops to accommodate the mobility transition.
The global app economy is projected to hit $6.3 trillion and its user base will just about double in 2021. The appeal of mobile apps invites shadow IT risks into the enterprise. As more employees explore what kind of mobility they want to see in their work life, almost half of IT departments find that their company's employees use apps unprovided by the department.
To accommodate and regulate the implementation of mobile apps in the workplace, companies such as Microsoft, Facebook and Slack are providing collaboration alternatives, which alleviate the need of shadow IT.
Communication, storage and services are all cloud-based, making them accessible from almost anywhere. Traditional workplaces are no longer stationary, and companies need to adapt to the changing landscape of mobility or face losing talent and efficiency.
