H/w prices to contribute to mobile spends in AP

SINGAPORE: Mobile device adoption at Asia Pacific (AP) organizations is expected to grow in 2014, according to a new Forrester report by analyst Katyayan Gupta on "Enterprise Mobility Outlook for Asia Pacific in 2014". This is primarily driven by declining hardware prices, a large young online population, and the increasing affordability of wireless broadband.

Key findings from the report point out that 49 per centof organizations across AP plan to increase their spending on mobile software by five per cent or more in 2014; 42 per cent plan to do so for smartphones and 39 per cent for tablets. While emerging countries like India and China will lead the growth in mobile software spending, more developed countries like Australia and Japan will lead the growth in spending on smartphones and tablets.

In the past two years, most AP firms have primarily focused on using mobile apps to connect their organizations with internal employees. For instance, 59 per cent of organizations in India have developed applications for employees, compared with 24 per cent for customers and 19 per cent for business partners.

However, this trend will reverse in 2014: 44 per cent of AP IT decision-makers say they will prioritize building a mobile strategy for customers or partners, while only 39 per cent will prioritize this for employees.