Mobile application management becoming important

Companies whose employees rely on smartphones and tablets on a daily basis may soon want to prioritize mobile application management practices given the conclusion of a new report from Sogeti Research's International Research Institute VINT.

VINT, which stands for Vision, Inspiration, Navigation and Trends, took a close look at the importance of mobile applications among smartphone and tablet users and how they are affecting their lives. According to the researchers, all mobile users will become "addicted" to mobile apps during the next nine years.

"One will no longer be able to draw a clear distinction between information-related behavior and regular behavior," VINT director Van Ommeren said. "While other media have always had a remote relationship with the user, the arrival of apps marks a turning point: the individual has become the sole focus."

Researchers dubbed the trend the "App Effect."

The mobile application has served as a novelty of sorts during the past several years. Mobile users leveraged the software to access restaurant reviews or pass the time with mobile games.

However, as the mobile market grew, so too did the innovation for applications, and they have now become a necessary aspect of any enterprise mobility program. Still, according to VINT's research, the current state of app use doesn't come close to where it will be in 2020.

"At present, such behavior is considered an exception, a generational idiosyncrasy. In 2020, it will be the norm," Ommeren said. "For better and for worse, by 2020 we'll all be immersed in information. Apps will become the go-to tool for augmenting our senses."

Such a trend could serve as both a gift and a curse for companies and their mobile professionals. On the one hand, increased reliance on mobile applications has the potential to give employees even greater access to information and make them more productive. At the same time, however, greater app use could have implications for the organization's mobile budget as well as the security of data stored on smartphones and tablets.

In order to fully leverage mobile apps, companies are encouraged to add a layer of mobile application management practices to their overall mobile device management program. Through greater oversight of applications, companies can better control which ones employees download and use. They can also restrict access to enterprise data to just a select few approved apps.