• 27% growth YoY in smart phone shipments shows the increasing popularity of smartphones;
• The Apple iPhone shipments represent over 17% and even overtakes RIM in popularity;
• Nokia retains its leading position but looses 12.4% market share;
• The charts will look differently with Android and Storm on its way in Q4. 

Adoption of Smartphone takes place with professionals in enterprises first as business users like the Apple iPhone for the obvious reasons, as is shown in the recent customer-satisfaction survey taken by J.D. Power.

What does this mean for the enterprise?

• More unique platforms to support, more complex devices……….expect support cost to increase, as it takes experts to fully understand the different platforms and expect end users to ask more device specific questions;
• Devices are geared for high mobile data usage…….will the operators keep promoting “all you can eat” or “fair usage policies” once adoption is there or will they eventually move to an usage based model, how to deal with mobile data roaming…..expect mobile data cost to increase. Ezwim has seen 100% growth of mobile data cost in recent years through its Ezwim Telecom Monitor;
• Device are becoming more open and powerful……end users will put their own software on devices……what about security (Trojan horse, etc.) and what about interoperability issues…..enterprises will need to spend more in establishing and enforcing corporate policies by means of the right tools.
• Devices are becoming more expensive and have a shorter life span…….in the past a simple voice centric device of 100 Euro with a write off in 24 months would be sufficient, today a Smart Phone of 220 Euro with a write off in 14 months will become the standard……

Does the above sound familiar? Yes, it is like watching the life cycle of Desktop Management Services 20 years ago.
Enterprises should start managing the baseline cost and assets, set-up and enforce a corporate policy, and introduce service management.