A new report from Juniper Research has forecast that the number of employee owned smartphones and tablets used in the enterprise will exceed 1 billion by 2018, as the growing trend of bring your own device (BYOD) redefines business connectivity. This represents almost 35% of the total installed base of consumer owned tablets and smartphones.
Juniper Research said that for businesses adopting BYOD, there is a need to consider mobile devices as just another endpoint – while devising measures to mitigate the challenges and the risks of managing a multi-platform environment. The new report, Mobile Security: BYOD, mCommerce, Consumer & Enterprise 2013-2018, found that while BYOD has the potential to benefit organizations in terms of enhanced employee satisfaction and productivity, the cybersecurity threat from unprotected employee mobile devices is of significant importance. Yet, a single policy or measure may not be sufficient while devising future BYOD strategies. Accordingly, growth in the mobile security market is being driven by the enterprise segment, particularly in the areas of BYOD and mobile device management.
In the consumer segment, Juniper forecasts a steady growth in revenue for security software, approaching 40 percent of the global mobile security sales revenue by the end of 2018. This will be driven primarily by increased consumer awareness of available security solutions and – critically – of the risks posed by fraud and malware to data stored on and accessible via their smartphones and tablets.
Western Europe currently represents the largest revenue hub for the mobile security vendors, but more than half of all mobile devices in the U.S. will have security apps installed by the end of 2018, the firm noted.
