It’s All About Mobility and Consumption

It’s not too soon to note that ANPI will be participating in the upcoming Cloud Partners, a Channel Partners event. It came to mind as I was reading about the state of PC shipments worldwide. According to an IDC forecast PC shipments will decline 11.7 percent in the second quarter of 2013, 4.7 percent in the third quarter and 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter. Overall, 2013 will continue and accelerate the trend away from PCs to other computing devices. In 2012 the drop in shipments was 4 percent; 2013 is estimated to reach 7.8 percent.

Obviously, the desire to interact with people and information anywhere and anytime drives the shift away from PCs to smaller more mobile devices such as tablets. Tablet sales are expected to grow 67 percent this year with Android-powered tablets outselling iOS iPads. Apple is still the market leader, but its market share has fallen significantly. However, Apple must still be viewed as the first company to understand the need for access anywhere and anytime and the switch from creating content to consuming content.

The PC (desktop, laptop, ultra notebook) is still the best device to create new content. Consequently, ownership of PCs remains high. While PCs and tablets can be used to consume information, tablets are a better match for consumer behavior. Tablets and smartphones are the preferred device for consuming information. Primary uses for these devices are to monitor Facebook, read email, view information or engage in entertainment. Certainly, there is little argument as to which set of devices support creation activity better. Yet, it is incorrect to view consumption as a less worthy cause.

Tablets specifically and sometimes smartphones are supporting retail sales at markets, taxis and other selling environments. They are also used to support the need for portable presentations from sales pitches to limo driver signs. And as more created content or data is stored in the cloud versus on a device, tablets users will engage them more broadly. V3 Systems is an example of a company providing a virtual desktop that allows tablet users to leverage a cloud-based appliance running Windows to create and consume as efficiently and effectively as a PC.

ANPI believes mobility is a key driver for hosted unified communications as it dramatically improves worker productivity with expanded accessibility to applications, systems and processes. As for the device, we are truly BYOD to support any preference. This and more will be discussed during the upcoming conference.

David Byrd is chief marketing officer and executive vice president of channel sales for

ANPI ZONE

. He previously spent five years as vice president of marketing and sales for Broadvox and before that was vice president of channels and alliances for Eftia and Telcordia.