I was reading the linked article about Apple’s newfound lead in the client computing market, and that started the wheels spinning in my head thinking about client computing,PCs and all the devices we use today to access business technology.
Computing certainly is changing, no doubt for the better, when you can pick up just about any device and instantly get the answer to a question that may have formerly required a visit to a colleague, a stroll to your own office computer, or firing up the VPN on your trusty laptop.
However, as I look around any given workplace I no longer see one predominant brand of smartphone the way I did just a few short years ago. Where everyone used to have say, a BlackBerry, today you’re likely to see a panoply of devices from iOS to Android to Windows all accessing the same back-end corporate information as well as what’s served up on the web.
What’s made this possible <em>isn</em>’t the BYOD phenomenon, but the underlying move to abstraction layers like desktop virtualization and mobile apps – much morfe the former than the latter – that enables BYOD in the first place. Savvy developers are utilizing these abstractions and web front ends whether HTML5 or not to deliver a rich user experience independent of the device platform, much less the brand.
So if your organization is supporting the device-of-the-month club with BYOD, does it really matter which brand of phone/tablet/PC is leading the pack anymore? Is the hardware brand now just a matter of personal choice like Shick over Gilette? It has to make hardware product managers think.
What’s your opinion? I’d love to hear what you have to say.
Linked article Apple is PC Leader – But does it matter?