Global Nerdy

Here’s another roundup of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) news…

Gartner: 1 in 5 BYOD programs will fail because of overly restrictive BYOD policies

Creative Commons photo by v1ctor Casale. Click to see the source.

Most IT departments are used to having full control over company-owned desktop and laptop computers, and many come into BYOD programs expecting the same level of control over BYOD devices.  They’re not used to the delicate balancing act of dealing with both access to company information and resources and doing so on workers’ personally-owned devices. ZDNet points to a Gartner report that says that by 2016, 20% of companies that implement a BYOD program because they’ll exert too much control over employee-owned devices in the name of information security.

What can the company see on a BYOD/COPE device, anyway?

In response to concerns expressed by a number of people about having MDM software on their devices, Talkin’ Cloud’s Ashar Baig put together a quick table of what an employer can see or access on a device with MDM:

What an employer CAN see or read	What an employer CAN’T see or access
Carrier Location OS version (and if the device is rooted or jailbroken) Battery level The phone number associated with the device List of apps installed on the device Memory/storage usage Company email and data	Personal email data SMS messages Videos Voicemail messages Web browsing activity

Enterprise mobile stats and IT departments under pressure

Creative Commons photo by N. Feans. Click to see the source.

SC Magazine reports these numbers from Forrester’s most recent “State of Enterprise Mobile Security” report:

• 70% of enterprises in North America and Europe have made it a critical or high priority to provide more mobile support to their staff.
• 60% of tablet owners and 55% of smartphone owners have selected their own device to use for work purposes.
• 46% of tablet owners and 32% of smartphone owners have bought at least one off-the-shelf app for work.
• 15% of employees have said that they have accessed sensitive info, such as customer information and non-public financial data, from non-work-sanctioned devices.
• 74% of firms plan to purchase or have already purchased smartphones for employees.
• 74% of firms plan to purchase or have already purchased tablets for employees.
• 33% are planning to build enterprise app stores.
• 49% plan to increase mobile app and middleware spending by 5% or more in the coming year.

The trends indicated by these numbers are creating tremendous pressure on IT departments, many of who have their hands full with their server/desktop/laptop/networking caseloads, never mind the relatively new and rapidly-changing area of mobile technology. Phil Cracknell, head of security and privacy services at Company 85, says:

BYOD is putting pressure on IT right now. Many of the elements which reflect a total cost of ownership of BYOD are not being fully recognised when business is considering and implementing or at least planning to implement.

HR/Legal issues, responsibility for a replacement device in the event of theft or malfunction – who would that lie with? The individual or the company? What would that person do if they couldn’t afford a replacement right away?

The article also quotes Richard Absalom, an analyst with Ovum, who says that in certain cases, a COPE (Company-Owned, Personally-Enabled) approach might be more appropriate and still just as palatable to employees who want devices of their own choosing:

BYOD isn’t always the right way to go, as organisations in highly regulated industries in particular may have very legitimate security and privacy concerns around it. But they do need to do something about it as it will simply go unmanaged and cause even more problems if they don’t.

It’s important therefore for a mobility strategy to understand and address the drivers of BYOD, such as employees wanting to use a single device rather than carry two phones around with them, one for personal and one for work usage. Having a CYOD (choose your own device) or a COPE (corporate owned, personally enabled) policy would still mean corporate deployment but may go down just as well as BYOD with employees.

In January 2012, the Android version situation looked like this:

At that time, the latest major version of Android was 4.0 — the first half-decent version, in my opinion — which was released three months prior, in October 2011. If you were building an Android app back then, you’d have to target the 2.1 version of Android if you wanted it to run on most people’s Android phones and tablets.

By way of comparison, the current version of iOS at the time — iOS 5 — hit 20% adoption within 5 days of release. That’s because you get iOS updates directly from Apple, while with Android, you get your updates from your carrier. They’d much rather have you update your OS the more lucrative way: by buying a new phone and matching contract.

The situation was greatly improved the following year, driven by the success of Samsung’s Galaxy S III (released May 2012) and Galaxy Note II (released September 2012), both of which came with Android 4.0.4 or later. I wrote about this change last year:

At that point, we finally hit the point where modern versions of Android — 4.0.x or later — made for more than half of all the versions out there. You still had to account for the just-tolerable 2.3.x variants if you wanted to reach most of the market, but if you just wanted to target devices with not-so-oldie-and-moldie Android, it was actually practical to do so.

Here’s the present situation, taken straight from the Android Developer site’s Dashboards page, based on data collected for the 7 days leading up to February 4, 2014. These days, its data comes from the Google Play Store app, which runs on Android 2.2. or later, which is why pre-2.2 versions of Android (Cupcake, Donut, and Eclair) don’t appear on the graph:

If you want the latest data on Android version shares, you’ll want to bookmark the Android Developer Dashboards page and hit it weekly.

Those stubborn Android 2.3.x versions still make up one in five Android versions out there in the wild, but the good news is that over three-quarters of the Android world is now running 4.0 or later. If you’re targeting those Samsung Galaxy S III/S4, Moto X, HTC One or other modern device users, you shouldn’t feel bad about doing this on ADT’s New Android Application window:

Good news, indeed.

Click the poster to see it at full size.

Microsoft had a kick-ass mantra in its first 24 years. From 1975, when computers were thought of as machines that occupied entire walls, if not entire rooms, to 1999, when the final line on most startups’ business plans was often “And then we get bought out by Microsoft”, that statement was:

A computer on every desk and in every home.

In nine words, it made a very clear, easy-to-understand point. It was also a BHAG — a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, which has its own Wikipedia entry.

The problem, as I wrote back in 2009, was that they met that goal. In 1975, it was unusual to see a computer in a home; in 1999, it was unusual to not see a computer in a home. Since then, they’ve been flopping from vague mission statement to hand-wavy platitude:

• 1999 – 2002: “Empowering people through great software – any time, any place and on any device.”
• 2002 – 2008: “To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.”
• 2008 – 2009, when I wrote my article about Microsoft’s mantras: “Create experiences that combine the magic of software with the power of internet services across the world of devices.”

And if you read Steve Ballmer’s final letter to shareholders, the current mantra is:

…to create a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they value most.

There’s a lot of sound and fury there, but not much to signify. Starbucks could just as easily claim it as their mission statement: lots of people rely on their devices and services to be empowered at home/work/on the go, in the activities they value most.

As I also wrote in my 2009 article on Microsoft mantras, I looked at Microsoft’s post-1999 ones and couldn’t help thinking of Jeffrey Zeldman’s quote:

“…provide value added solutions” is not a mission. “Destroy All Monsters.” That is a fucking mission statement.

In his most recent post on Daring Fireball, John Gruber looks at Microsoft’s history and the opportunities that its new CEO, Satya Nadella, brings to The Empire. He says — and I agree — that it’s a good sign that Nadella comes from the Server and Tools Business (STB) group, and that Microsoft’s cloud offerings are the part of the company that are best-suited for the present and future world:

Cloud computing is one potential path forward. The cloud is nascent, like the PC industry of 1980. In 30 years we’ll look back at our networked infrastructure of today and laugh, wondering how we got a damn thing done. The world is in need of high-quality, reliable, developer-friendly, trustworthy, privacy-guarding cloud computing platforms. Apple and Google each have glaring (and glaringly different) holes among that list of adjectives.

He even suggests a new Microsoft mantra, based on its original one, but far better-equipped for today:

Microsoft services, sending data to and from every networked device in the world.

If Microsoft doesn’t officially adopt it, they should at least embrace and extend it.

WOES, a clever coinage for the suite of technologies essential to TPS report writers everywhere — Windows, Office, Exchange, and SharePoint — is the creation of Brent Simmons, who developed the iOS note-taking software Vesper with John “Daring Fireball” Gruber, and before that, the notable Mac applications NetNewsWire and MarsEdit, both of which have been passed on to other developers.

Simmons came up with WOES while writing about his take on Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, who comes from the Server and Tools Business (STB) group, and was a key player in Microsoft’s cloud play with Azure. Here’s the relevant excerpt, where he coins WOES while talking about Microsoft’s new willingness to play well with others:

Creating services for iOS apps doesn’t sound at all like the Microsoft I used to know. Using Node.js and JavaScript doesn’t sound like that Microsoft. The old Microsoft would create services for their OSes only and you’d have to use Visual Studio.

There’s still a lot of the old Microsoft there, the Windows, Office, Exchange, and Sharepoint (WOES) company. It’s most of the company by far, surely. (I just made up the acronym WOES. It fits.)

But in the Azure group, at least, there’s recognition that Microsoft can’t survive on lock-in, that those days are in the past.

Even if you don’t choose to use Microsoft’s cloud services, I hope you can agree on two things: that competition is good, and that Azure’s support-everything policy is the best direction for the future of the company.

I can’t properly mention TPS reports in an article on Hump Day without including that scene from Office Space, so enjoy:

It’s not much of a surprise, given all the leaks last week, but it’s official now: Satya Nadella is Microsoft’s new CEO, replacing Steve Ballmer, who’s held the position since January 2000. According to Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, Nadella’s first day is today, February 4th, and Steve Ballmer’s stepping down is effective immediately.

Microsoft is retooling to become a “devices and services” company, and key to that second word — services — is the cloud. They’ve been doing “cloud” well before the term became popular, going back to the days of services like Passport (later Live, now “Microsoft account”) and Hotmail, and now Azure, on which big services like Xbox Live, Bing, and Office 365 now run. Nadella’s background as the president of the Server and Tools Business division as well as the key role he played in moving the company’s tools and technology towards Azure were likely significant factors in his selection.

The practical upshot for mobile and mobile management: A CEO who lives and breathes the cloud means that there will likely be an emphasis on cloud-based services like Office 365, cloud-based Exchange, and the management tool Intune, as well as deeper forays into the business of BYOD and MDM. Less certain is how they’ll do on the devices half of the equation — we have yet to see who’ll play devices yin to Nadella’s services yang.

My former coworker Jeff Sandquist (he’s now Twitter’s head of developer and platform relations) points out: “one positive impact for Microsoft employees will be incredibly well designed internal t-shirts. Satya always made sure of that [for the Server and Tools Business]”, and he’s right — I always tried to get one of their shirts when I was there:

Bill Gates will step down as Chairman and cede the position to this gentleman, who led Microsoft’s search for a new CEO:

John W. Thompson is the CEO of Virtual Instruments, and before that, he was the CEO of Symantec (during which time he was the only African-American leading a major tech company). The Obama administration considered him for the position of Commerce Secretary.

Bill Gates may be stepping down as Chairman, but he’s stepping up his role within the company, devoting more time to “supporting Nadella in shaping technology and product direction”. Gates did try to push a couple of ideas that the company eventually gave up on, including the early Tablet PC and smartwatches.

InformationWeek’s 2013 Mobile Security Survey (which you can download in exchange for registering for free at their site) has some statistics that are cause for concern, what with:

• 54% of the respondents surveyed saying that there was no passcode-lock requirement for mobile devices that accesses enterprise data, resources, or networks,
• 61% of the respondents said that they weren’t using MDM, and
• 45% saying that they had some kind of data-loss incident in the past 12 months, and of them, 11% said that they had to disclose that such an incident occurred.

They’ve summarized the results of the survey in an easy-to-read, easy-to-share infographic, and we’ve posted it below:

TV Heads Dancing by Banksy.

It’s Friday! If things slow down where you work, you might enjoy these videos on the mobile industry and mobile tech; if things don’t slow down, you might enjoy these over the weekend. Enjoy!

How mobile technology could shape the consumer goods sector in the future

Video duration: 3 minutes, 1 second.

What’s the first thing you reach for when you wake up? For a lot of people, myself included, it’s my mobile device (sometimes it’s one of my phones, sometimes it’s my tablet). 77% of the world’s population have a mobile phone, and it’s changing everything, including consumer goods. This video is a narration-free “moving infographic” that presents some stats about the mobile industry, and how it’ll affect consumers and the consumer goods industry, all to a peppy dance beat.

Why mobile technology may well define the future of healthcare… for everyone.

Video duration: 2 minutes, 15 seconds.

A quick look at mHealth — that is, the delivery of healthcare services through mobile devices — and how quickly it’s moving from concept to reality.

Talking Tech with Consumer Reports at CES 2014: Smart phones, tablets & wearable tech

Video duration: 19 minutes, 17 seconds.

Here’s something a little longer: Consumer Reports talks about the mobile tech they saw at CES 2014 — the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

PocketNow Weekly #81: Lenovo eats Motorola, Galaxy S5 leaves fingerprints, Ryan Negri drops by

Video duration: 1 hour, 51 minutes, 35 seconds.

Love mobile tech? Got a couple of hours to kill? Maybe want some ear candy on in the background? Then you want to listen to The PocketNow Weekly podcast, episode 81, which covers:

• Lenovo’s acquisition of Motorola from Google
• Galaxy 5S speculation, including a possible fingerprint sensor
• Nokia’s plan for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month
• Pebble’s app store
• Samsung’s augmented-reality wearable headgear
• Ryan Negri, CEO of Negri Electronics, talks about starting a wireless retail company from the ground up, wearables, and carriers playing with smartphone pricing