Fifth of enterprise BYOD projects doomed to fail by 2016, claims Gartner

A fifth of enterprise Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) projects will fail by 2016 because of IT departments' heavy-handed approaches to mobile device management (MDM).

Gartner has made the prediction, claiming employees are wising up to the fact many MDM tools allow IT departments to access their personal information and apps.

Therefore, the market watcher is urging IT decision makers to opt for products that keep their work and personal data separate.

Even so, Ken Dulaney, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, said fears about losing important data means IT departments tend to push for the strongest MDM controls available.

"Whether via a formal BYOD programme, or just via devices coming in the back door and being configured to access corporate systems, the use of consumer technologies in the work environment presents a threat to IT control of endpoint computing resources," said Dulaney.

"Given the control that IT has exercised over personal computers by developing and deploying images to company-managed PCs, many IT organisations will implement strong controls for mobile devices."

The analyst house also had some words of warning for mobile app developers who hope their offerings could put them on the road to riches.

The organisation predicts, through to 2018, that less than 0.01 per cent of consumer mobile apps will be considered a financial success by their development teams.

However, Dulaney claims few apps are designed to be profit-making, but those who are serious about making money from their offerings could be disappointed.

"The vast number of mobile apps may imply that mobile is a new revenue stream that will bring riches to many," he said.

"Our analysis shows that most mobile applications are not generating profits and that many mobile apps are not designed to generate revenue, but rather are used to build brand recognition and product awareness or are just for fun.

"Application designers who do not recognise this may find profits elusive," Dulaney added.

Another issue flagged by Dulaney is the high prevalence of high quality, free apps on the market.

"There are so many applications that are free and that will never directly generate revenue. Gartner is forecasting that, by 2017, 94.5 per cent of downloads will be for free apps," said Dulaney.

"Furthermore, of paid applications, about 90 per cent are downloaded less than 500 times per day and make less than $1,250 a day. This is only going to get worse in the future when there will be even greater competition, especially in successful markets."