Surveys show that enterprises tablet use is on the rise

By Brian Lawrence, CDW product manager a mobilityNetwork World - One in three U.S. adults now owns a tablet computer, up from 18% last year, according to a June 2013 study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. So what about professional use? Are tablets standard-issue employee equipment? To find out, CDW surveyed professionals from midsize and large business, healthcare, higher education and state and local government to see how these devices are affecting day-to-day productivity.

Tablets in the workplace are fairly new. More than half of the respondents (56%) noted that they'd only been using a tablet at work for one year, and 32% have used a tablet for two years. Only 9% have been using a tablet at work for three years. Many of these tablets (59%) are personally owned, although 34% of respondents use a company-issued device. Some even use both.A

For the most part, employees are using tablets at work for email, Web browsing, Office/productivity suites, file storage and social media. Employees surveyed say they enjoy working on tablets because they promote collaboration with coworkers and make work more enjoyable. Most importantly, tablets provide information access on the go.A

However, tablets aren't replacing other devices for work purposes. Sixty-eight percent of respondents noted that they still use a desktop, 62% still use a laptop and 53% use smartphones all in addition to their tablets. In fact, only 2% of respondents said they only use a tablet for work tasks.A

While employees assume tablets increase their productivity, organizations tend to wonder if they are more of a distraction. Since inquiring minds especially managers want to know, we asked.A

CDW found that tablet users spend about two hours daily on their tablet for work purposes, gaining just over one hour in daily productivity thanks to tablet use. Employees are spending about a quarter of their total computing time on their tablets, and especially like the ability to manage email and calendars and to take notes. A whopping 84% of respondents confirmed that tablets do make them better multi-taskers while at work.A

The perfect tablet

We also asked tablet users what the dream tablet would look like. Not surprisingly, what users value most is email access, long battery life and Web browsing capabilities. Other important features and functions cited included 3G/4G support, fast start, ease of use and a touchscreen interface. Tablet users also appreciate the portability of tablets and note that they also look for Office/productivity suites, an attachable keyboard or keypad, a high-resolution display and file storage capabilities.A

Ironically, we did find differences in tablet preferences based on respondents' astrological signs. Respondents under the Aries designation enjoy presenting in meetings on tablets, while Libras value the hours gained in daily productivity. Cancers agreed that tablets are a great tool for customer/constituent service, and Leos say that tablets improve work flow.A

According to Pew, there are no statistically significant differences in tablet ownership between men and women, or between members of different racial or ethnic groups. Ironically, we did find that there could be a difference in the productivity, availability and general happiness of your organization if and when employees become equipped with tablets. Regardless of your sign, it's impossible to deny the effects of tablets in our work and personal lives.A

About CDW: CDW is a leading provider of technology solutions for business, government, education and healthcare. Ranked No. 31 on Forbes' list of America's Largest Private Companies and No. 267 on the Fortune 500, CDW was founded in 1984 and employs more than 6,700 coworkers. For the trailing 12 months ended March 31, 2013, the company generated net sales of $10.2 billion.A

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Reprinted with permission from NetworkWorld.com. Story copyright 2012 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Google unveils second-generation Nexus 7 tablet running Android 4.3

Google is rolling out a second-generation Nexus 7 tablet designed for improved performance and portability, featuring the company's just-announced mobile operating system, Android Jelly Bean 4.3.

The device offers numerous enhancements over the original Nexus 7 tablet that Google released last year. It is also the first device to ship with Android Jelly Bean 4.3, the latest version of Google's mobile OS, the company announced Wednesday.

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The product was introduced by several Google executives during a meeting hosted by Sundar Pichai, head of Android, Chrome and apps at Google.

Improved portability, speed and graphics comprise the major enhancements to the Nexus 7 tablet. The device will be available in three models: a 16GB Wi-Fi version for $229, a 32GB Wi-Fi model for $269, and a 32GB 4G LTE version for $349. The Wi-Fi models will be available starting Tuesday at the Google Play store, while the 4G model will be available in the coming weeks through T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon, the company said.

Besides the U.S., the new Nexus 7 will be available in Canada, the U.K., Spain, Korea and Australia, with more countries to follow very soon, Google said.

In terms of portability, the new Nexus 7 is almost 2 millimeters thinner than the original and about 50 grams lighter. The device features a 7-inch display, the same size as its predecessor, but packs in more pixels, Google said, going from 1280 x 800 to true 1080 HD at 1920 x 1200 pixels in the new model. It also can show a 30 percent wider range of colors and has dual stereo speakers for virtual surround sound.

The first partner to take advantage of the new 1080 HD video feature is Netflix, which supports video streaming in the high-quality format.

The tablet also sports dual cameras, with a 1.2-megapixel camera in the front and a 5-megapixel lens in the rear.

Internally, the Nexus 7 features a 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, giving it a four-times-more-powerful graphics processing unit than the original Nexus 7, Google said. The CPU is also 1.8 times faster, Google said, and the system memory has been doubled to support 2GB of RAM.

Specs also include dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 for powering peripheral low-energy devices.

The Android 4.3 software on the Nexus 7 also includes a new restricted profiles feature to give users more controls over who else can access certain content and apps on the device.

Since its launch last year, Google's Nexus 7 has accounted for more than 10 percent of all Android-based tablets sold, Google's Pichai said.

"Nexus 7 has been a big hit, and we're going to try to follow up with another one," said Hugo Barra, product manager at Google.

In recent years Google's product portfolio has expanded significantly beyond its bread-and-butter search technology. In recent months there has even been talk of Google opening brick-and-mortar retail stores to boost its efforts in selling hardware like tablets and also laptop computers with its Chromebooks.

Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com

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What Can Employers Really See on a BYOD Smartphone or Tablet?

CIO - The thought of a CIO turning to spying technology to peek inside a personal iPhone makes people furious. They fret about an employer remotely reading personal emails and text messages, seeing personal photos and videos, and listening to personal voicemail.

But they would be wrong to worry about such things.

At least that's the message from Ojas Rege, vice president of strategy at MobileIron, a mobile device management software developer.

"There's a ton of confusion out there, and so the trust gap has widened," says Rege. "Employees don't really know what their employer can and can't see. They're just guessing."

[Related: BYOD Creates Trust Gap Between Workers and Employers]

Such is life in the brave new world of "bring your own devices" (BYOD), where work life and personal life collide on a single device. BYOD has become a flashpoint for privacy: Employees are pressured into signing strict user policies heavily weighted toward a company's legal right to access and monitor devices, while giving an employee's expectations of privacy short shrift.

Only three out of 10 employees completely trust their employee to keep personal information private, according to a MobileIron-commissioned survey of 3,000 workers across the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. The flip side is that the rest aren't so sure.

[ Related: CIO Takes Action to Solve BYOD's Privacy Problem ]

The survey sought to learn more about the trust gap in the enterprise, but what it really found was mass confusion. It's a dangerous scenario: Confusion can quickly escalate from head-shaking to finger-pointing to employee lawsuits claiming privacy rights violations.

Making matters worse, tech companies and the media have played a role in causing this confusion. Consider this Sprint television commercial showing a boss viewing compromising pictures of an employee on an iPhone:

It's not clear what is happening. The boss doesn't seem like the iPhone-carrying type, so why is he holding the employee's iPhone? If this is the boss's iPhone, how does he have access to pictures that the employee uploaded? While the commercial is about data plans, the scary image pours fuel on the fire of confusion.

Hoping to clear up some misconceptions, CIO.com talked with MobileIron's Rege to find out exactly what a company can and cannot see on a BYOD smartphone or tablet.

Two out of five employees in the survey don't think the employer can see anything--and they're wrong. Company email and data flow through corporate servers, "so absolutely your company can see it," Rege says. If you're connected to the corporate Wi-Fi network, the company knows what you're doing.

If you're not on the corporate Wi-Fi network, a company still has visibility into the BYOD smartphone. Technically speaking, a company can see the wireless carrier, country, make and model, operating system version, battery level, phone number, location, storage use, corporate email and corporate data.

The company can also see the names of all the apps on the device, both personal and work-related. This visibility has led to some companies blacklisting apps on a BYOD smartphone or tablet. It's important to note that a company cannot see the data within apps.

Visibility is a little more limited for rogue devices, or smartphones not under a formal BYOD policy but still accessing company email. Companies can still see the make and model and carrier, as well as corporate email and data, but not the location of the device.

So what can't a company see?

Technically speaking, a company cannot see personal email, text messages (unless done over a corporate text messaging app), photos, videos, voicemail and Web activity. The survey found that respondents were most worried about employers seeing these types of data, Rege says, "yet all those are technically impossible to see on an iOS device, unless it's jail-broken."

Oddly, more than half the survey respondents said they were far more comfortable with their employer seeing their location on the BYOD smartphone.

[ Related: How to Craft the Best BYOD Policy]

CIOs who clear up some of the confusion will help close the trust gap.

Survey respondents said they would be more trusting if the employer spelled out exactly what it can and cannot see, both from a technical standpoint and an optional one (as in, opting not to track location), as well as why it wants to see the information.

Respondents also said they want it in writing that the employer will not look at personal information.

However, this last request is impossible in today's legal system. Personal devices may be subject to search and review in the event of litigation that involves an employer or other similar legitimate reason, which can include any business information on the phone. It's just like any other piece of evidence, document or computer that could be confiscated and looked at for evidence.

In such extreme cases, all data on a BYOD smartphone or tablet becomes fair game. So CIOs should be clear that they cannot promise to not look at personal information. But even this should help close the trust gap.

"Transparency drives trust," Rege says.

Tom Kaneshige covers Apple, BYOD and Consumerization of IT for CIO.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @kaneshige. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline, Facebook, Google + and LinkedIn. Email Tom at tkaneshige@cio.com

Read more about consumerization of it in CIO's Consumerization of IT Drilldown.

This story is reprinted from CIO.com, an online resource for information executives. Story Copyright CXO Media Inc., 2012. All rights reserved.

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