Mobility gold rush continues

Latest GfK figures reveal whopping 7.1 billon mobile devices will be in circulation by 2015

A total of 7.1 billion mobile devices will be in circulation by 2015 as more people embrace the mobility gold rush, analyst GfK has revealed.

According to the market watcher’s latest figures, 91 per cent of all computing form factor indirect sales in the UK are based on volume, and in 2013, media tablets and smartphones will drive a predicted four per cent growth in western Europe tech sales.

Carl West, GfK business group director, said: “It is no surprise that, with the pace of change from the deskbound personal computer to an ultra-mobile device such as the media tablet, there has been some lag when it comes to understanding the impact. Mobility has been created from lifestyle and perceived efficiency.”

Over the past 12 months, media tablets represented a quarter of the value of notebooks in B2B sales and within the B2B environment, GfK said it was no surprise that the computing fashion change at home is leading to an evolution in the workplace.

And the BYOD trend has meant that mobility, which started in the workplace and was adopted in the home, has evolved and is moving back into the workplace once more. Home devices are being brought into work and used, regardless of IT managers’ permission.

West added: “Consumerisation and device-agnostic applications have led to a fashionable shift in computing. The traditional and secured notebook computer now sees a threat from media tablets, which have outsold the older form factor devices in volume terms at many periods during 2012.”