ChannelVision Magazine

2. Trust is growing in smartphones Looking ahead, you can expect to see an uptick in smartphone-based conferencing as device quality and connectivity both improve. Forty-four percent of respondents indicated that their smartphone will be their chosen device for making confer- ence calls during the next few years. Almost 43 percent selected PCs and laptops, while just 4 percent chose tab- lets. Even fewer chose home fixed-line phones and office desktop phones. “The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend within the enterprise means that a large proportion of employees have access to a smartphone both at work and at home, making it an obvious and readily available tool for all their com- munications needs,” the report reads. “In general, smartphone adoption has grown exponentially, and further strong growth is expected.” According to GSMA, global smartphone connections are expected to rise by 1.9 billion de- vices from the end of 2016 to 5.7 billion by 2020, the report pointed out. Almost 50 percent of respondents now require more than half of their conference calls to be made on a mobile device. 3. Audio quality is a top concern More than a third of respondents named audio quality as the most impor- tant feature for ensuring a strong UC&C experience, while 32 percent consid- ered reliability of services as the most critical. This was followed by ease of access to meetings, high definition (HD) audio with background noise suppres- sion and ease of scheduling meetings. As PGi pointed out, audio quality was ranked much higher than HD audio in terms of importance, which is surpris- ing when considering how the technol- Mobile & Wireless When do you think wearables and connected d vices will become a challe g for applic tion d velopment? Source: Kony What are the most important features for a conferencing and collaboration experience on a mobile device? (Ranked 1-7) Source: PGi; Mobile World Live 10% 20% 30% 40% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Usage of battery power Audio quality Ease of access to meeting/one touch Data plan usage It already is 6-12 months 1-2 years 2-5 years Never Reliability Ease of scheduling meetings HD Audio with background noise supression (No mute required) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Easy-to-use Apps & Tools Increases visibility and efficiency while ensuring ELD compliance. Our solutions are designed with flexibility and dependability in mind, customized the way you want. Enterprise Fleet Management & Mobile Automation Solutions for any Workforce See MetTel’s variety of tools for any fleet by visiting our website www.mettel.net Fleet & Field Service Solutions Ends all the messy paperwork and gives your mobile workers powerful tools like vehicle cameras, roadside assistance, and digital forms. Best-of-breed Connections Our fleet solutions enable complete visibility into real-time location and activity, with asset and equipment tracking, dispatching, and route optimizations. Channel Vision | March - April, 2018 52