Some of the key findings of the survey include

• European mobile workers will grow 5% over the next three years, with 5%-10% growth in Sweden and the Netherlands and in large companies in finance and retail sectors.
• The recessionary desire of "more for less" among ICT buyers continues in 2011, as the majority of respondents predict a stable spending environment across fixed and mobile services. Media, transport, and retail verticals, however, plan to buck this trend, predicting significant spending increases in mobile data in 2011.
• Surprisingly, most respondents are skeptical of the much-discussed consumerization trend affecting IT today such as "bring your own" smartphones and individual-liability schemes for mobility. Almost unanimously, most countries and sectors predict an increase in company-paid devices and service contracts for their mobile workforces over the next three years, while forecasting a decline in personally owned devices for business use. Firms in Italy, Sweden, and the U.K. are most skeptical of this trend overall.
• Respondents also predict a heterogeneous world in terms of business devices in the future. Smartphones and, to a lesser extent, tablets PCs and netbooks will see the largest growth over the next few years, largely at the expense of conventional mobile phones rather than laptops. Smartphone growth will be most significant in under-penetrated verticals today such as utilities, transport, and retail, as well as in countries such as the Netherlands and Sweden, according to the survey.
• BlackBerry comes out as the preferred smartphone platform of choice among business decision makers, with leading penetration in the finance sector and in 1,000+ organizations. Microsoft claims second spot overall, followed by Symbian, Apple iOS, and Android, respectively.
• BlackBerry will also be the preferred platform in three years' time. Symbian will see the largest decline over the next three years, courtesy of Apple iOS and Android, the two fastest-growing mobile smartphone platforms for businesses in Europe, according to the survey.
• Specifically, Apple iOS will outpace Symbian in Netherlands, Spain, Germany, and the U.K. over the next three years to become a top-three platform by 2013. Apple iOs is predicted to be the number-one platform in media and telecommunications verticals in three years, according to the survey.

"As IDC has long argued, increased workforce mobility and the popularization of mobile technologies are raising awareness of the benefits mobility can deliver across many aspects of Europe's businesses, including customer service, decision making, workforce productivity and, especially in 2010, business continuity", says Nicholas McQuire, research director of Enterprise Mobility EMEA for IDC. "But most of these benefits cannot be fully realized because many large and small European organizations lack centralized cost control, visibility, and efficient security and management mechanisms for mobility across their ICT environments."


The EMEA Enterprise Mobility Survey, conducted annually, is designed to gather the latest customer insight on business and IT strategic priorities and the latest perceived wisdom on the benefits and challenges of mobile working, and to understand purchasing plans over the next three years across a range of business mobility areas such as devices, operating platforms, applications, and services.