E-Business
Tablets Drive Business Transformation in Enterprises- IDC Research
The latest International Data Corporation (IDC) study on tablets in enterprises, has shown that a large and increasing share of tablets deployed across U.K., French, and German companies are the only devices that employees are equipped with to perform their business activities.
“The majority of tablet users in enterprises currently have at least another device to perform their business activities,” said Marta Fiorentini, senior research analyst, IDC EMEA Personal Computing. Additional devices are usually desktop or portable PCs, smartphones, workstations, or, depending on the employee’s role, specialized handheld or point of sale (POS) devices.
“However, a large share of tablets is already used by employees as their only work tool, either replacing traditional client devices or for functions previously not supported by any computing device. As digitalization transforms business processes and tablets are optimized for business functions from both a hardware and application standpoint, we can only expect an increase in the share of standalone tablets, as confirmed by the purchase intentions of the study respondents.”
According to the study, tablets are the only business device for 40% of users. This percentage, however, increases significantly for 2-in-1s or convertibles, as these hybrid products are deployed to replace portable and desktop PCs thanks to the option of being used with a keyboard.
This has been observed across the vast majority of user groups since the keyboard functionality eliminates the need for an additional device dedicated to productivity tasks.
The study also shows that hybrids — in either the detachable or convertible form factor — are usually purchased with larger screen sizes than tablet slates.
Indeed, while just over 10% of all slates have a screen size larger than 11in., the current percentage for hybrids is almost 30% and this is expected to surpass 50% over the next couple of years, reinforcing the assumption that 2-in-1s and convertibles can be a replacement for portable PCs.
In spite of the cannibalization effect on traditional client device markets, standalone commercial tablets are also creating a huge opportunity for device makers.
“Tablets are already used by waiters instead of pen and paper, by doctors and nurses to replace paper-based files, or by pilots as a substitute for bulky manuals,” Fiorentini said. “These are only a few examples, and this is where the growth opportunity lies. IDC calculated that in 2014 this incremental market accounted for almost 6% of tablets used as standalone in the U.K., France, and Germany. We expect this percentage to increase quickly in these three countries and exceed 20% over the next 24 months.”
The use of tablets as standalone or companion devices has a strong correlation with the user’s job role.
User groups usually associated with activities involving document creation or editing, such as executives, marketing, sales, engineers, or white-collar employees (including analysts, consultants, doctors, legal, journalists, etc.) tend to use their tablets — especially slates — in addition to desktop or portable PCs.
On the other hand, workers who perform all or the majority of their activities on the road, in the field, or facing customers are more likely to rely solely on their tablets.
Operation agents and production workers equipped with tablet slates, for instance, use them as their only work device in respectively 55% and 64% of cases.
In comparison, only 38% of executives and 44% of white-collars work only on their tablet slates.
As tablet adoption accompanies enterprises’ migration to a more mobile computing infrastructure, the study also looked at the challenges that IT departments face in managing an increasing number of devices and a multi-OS environment.
While the majority of enterprises still use the default tools that come with their computing devices, most confirm their wish to move to a more integrated and ideally a single management tool. Funding has often been the main reason for delay, but where vendors can play a stronger role is in conveying the benefits of the solutions available to support easier integration and management of a growing mobile workplace.
The management of multiple OS also remains a key or moderate challenge for half of the IT decision makers interviewed, with U.K. companies emerging as less concerned and more open to additional OS than their French or German counterparts.
IDC’s Tablets in Enterprise study helps business and IT decision makers understand and take advantage of the opportunity that device proliferation and the incremental market created by tablets across all sectors offer for the IT industry.
IDC’s European multiclient study Tablets in Enterprise: The Big Opportunity is based on over 2,000 interviews conducted with companies’ IT decision makers and lines of business by vertical sector across small, medium, and large businesses in the U.K., France, and Germany. Key vertical sectors include transport, retail, hospitality, and healthcare.
The study includes an in-depth analysis of the opportunity that tablets offer to manufacturers, application developers, and service companies, covering detailed assessment of current commercial tablet deployment across 10 vertical sectors, their different requirements, and future purchase intentions in terms of product specifications, usage, and application development and management requirements.
The study covers the entire tablet devices product spectrum, from tablet slates to hybrid devices, which include 2-in-1s and convertibles.
Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.
The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.
It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.
Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.
Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.
Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.
A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.
“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.
Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.
Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.
It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.
Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.
National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.
According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.
NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”
The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in partnership with the Advocacy for Policy and Innovation (API), has convened a one-day workshop in Abuja to advance dialogue on the draft Online Harm Protection (OHP) Bill to confront harmful online content.
The bill, a rights-based, locally rooted, and multi-stakeholder initiative, is aimed at addressing the challenges of the digital age.
The event, which held yesterday, brought together government officials, civil society, academics, digital platforms, and legal experts to shape a policy framework designed to combat online ills such as cyberbullying, disinformation, hate speech, digital exploitation, and gender-based violence, while safeguarding democratic freedoms and digital inclusion.
In his keynote remarks, Kashifu Inuwa, director general, NITDA urged a paradigm shift in the way society engages with digital technologies.
“For almost two decades, we have viewed digital technology through a consumer lens. But these technologies are not just products and services. They are transforming how we live, work, and interact. They shape our politics, our society, and our democracy,” he said.
Warning against unaccountable digital power in the hands of private corporations, the DG likened the digital journey to the tale of Alice in Wonderland, where initial fascination with innovation has given way to deeper concerns about privacy, autonomy, and manipulation by big tech platforms.
“We thought we were using Google, but now we realise Google is using us. Social media, once a tool of expression, has become a tool of surveillance and influence,” Inuwa noted.
He, therefore, emphasised the urgency of developing a democratic and accountable framework. He explained that following the 2021 Twitter ban, NITDA facilitated dialogue between the government and platform operators, leading to a Code of Practice that stressed Nigeria’s sovereignty and legal standards.
According to him, the same process birthed the multi-stakeholder steering committee and the OHP White Paper in December 2024, laying the foundation for the current legislative push.
Earlier in her opening remarks, Victoria Manya, co-founder, API, observed the moral and civic necessity of the bill.
Her words: “The internet did not break society, it merely revealed its unfiltered version. Every day, Nigerians are exposed to harassment, disinformation, exploitation, and even algorithmic violence. The OHP Bill is not a war on the Internet. It is a peace offering to its users, a social contract for a digital future that is safe, inclusive, and democratic.
“We cannot answer the question of algorithmic power with unchecked state control. We must answer it with shared, rights-based governance. This bill must not be written for the people, but with them.”
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