ME’s smartphone population expected to swell to 670.9 million by 2017
The steadily rising use of smart mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets in the Middle East workplace is expected to offer enormous opportunities to ERP according to the latest survey conducted by IDG Connect, a subdivision of market intelligence firm International Data Group (IDG).
The respondents were IT managers in key Middle East markets such as Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Around 83% of respondents said they expect to increase their use of smartphones in the next five years, while around 85% said tablet penetration will grow. The volume of smartphone and tablet devices will possibly expand by around 30-35% during the period.
Keith Fenner, Senior Vice President Sales – Sage ERP Africa and Head of Sage Middle East. said these findings reveal how the region’s ERP landscape is set to transform in the near future with porting ERP applications onto devices – in a secure and reliable manner – becoming less of a “nice-to-have”, and more of a non-negotiable end-user requirement in most cases.