BYOD Remorse?

Is the BYOD buzz wearing off? It could be.

A report released by Strategy Analytics in December shows that corporate-liable smartphone sales increased in Q3 of 2013. 35 percent of smartphone sales in Q3 were attributed to businesses, compared to 31 percent in Q1 of 2013, and an increase of 13 percent in the same Q3 quarter just a year prior.

Some of the increase could be attributed to purchasing policy with companies saving their spend until the latter part of the year when budget targets are more clearly manifest. But, Kevin Burden, Director of Mobility at Strategy Analytics seems to think that the swing is in part due to the BYOD trend just not working out.

Kevin says:

"BYOD may very well be an unstoppable trend in many regions in the world, but the speed of its growth during a time when companies were still devising usage policies, discovering its management challenges and experiencing its impact first-hand, it’s not too surprising that some momentum would swing back to corporate-owned devices."

Many companies tried BYOD in the first half of 2013, maybe jumping too quickly onto a trend and then realizing the industry promoted direction was too costly and generated too much angst to the business.

If you have an extra $7,000, the full report is available here: Global Business Smartphone Shipments: Quarterly Tracking Q3 2013