Gartner Says 45 Percent of U.S. Workforce is Using Some Form of Mobile Device
Analysts Examine the Evolution of Mobile and Wireless Technology at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2003
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. October 21, 2003 — Mobile technology and services are continuing to grow at a rapid pace, with 45 percent of the U.S. workforce already mobile in some manner, according to Gartner, Inc. Mobile devices ranging from portable PCs and PDAs to new technologies such as sensor networks, are the biggest revolution in corporate data collection and distribution in a decade.
Gartner analysts presented these findings today during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2003, which is taking place here, October 19 through October 24.
"The availability of a wide range of mobile technology is highly supportive of new trends, such as the real-time enterprise (RTE), which must be responsive, connected, collaborative and informed," said Ken Dulaney, vice president and distinguished analyst for Gartner. "Mobility will be essential to support RTE goals."
Gartner analysts said that the mobile revolution has been enabled by the simultaneous evolution of a set of key technologies in areas such as phone networks, wireless LANs (WLANs), personal-area networks (PANs) and software infrastructure. Core technologies are evolving quickly with little prospect of significant stability before 2005, and new developments in areas such as screens, fuel cells and software for tasks such as speech recognition will continue to drive evolution in the long term.
Gartner analysts said that wireless networking will become ubiquitous with several different technologies and protocols coexisting in the home and office. By 2007, more than 50 percent of enterprises with more than 1,000 employees will make use of at least five wireless networking technologies.
"All organizations should develop a strategy to support multiple wireless networking technologies. Organizations developing consumer products for mobile networks should look for ways to add value by interacting with other home devices that might become networked, such as televisions, set-top boxes, game consoles and remote-control light switches," said Nick Jones, research vice president for Gartner.
Key mobile technologies in 2003 have included radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, WLAN (802.11 variants), PANs, such as Bluetooth, and some proprietary network protocols. During the next five years, new networking technologies and protocols will include 802.165.4 (low power, low data rate wireless), ultrawideband (UWB), and Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO), which exploits multipath transmission to increase bandwidth, and various mesh networking systems. Proprietary networking technologies may gain market traction in specialized areas, such as game consoles, factory automation or medical applications.
Although these new technologies will be developed, short-range wireless technology will not be suitable for all applications in enterprises because each provides different trade-offs in terms of bandwidth, range and cost. Consequently, several types of wireless networks will coexist in most organizations.
Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industry's largest and most strategic conference, providing business leaders with an insightful look at the future of IT. For more than 10,000 IT professionals from the world's leading enterprises, Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of their annual planning efforts. For more information about Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2003, please visit www.gartner.com/symposium or call 1-800-778-1997.
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