4 Big BYOD Trends For 2013

StackMob's Amell agreed, remarking that "consumer technology has surpassed enterprise corporate technology" in many ways. As a result, employees have grown accustomed to powerful tools with friendly, intuitive interfaces, not exactly the hallmark of many traditional business tools. Now that BYOD has allowed employees to access their preferred platforms, few of them are willing to go back to a locked down, narrowly defined system.

Although he said he had no quantifiable data, Forrester analyst Johnson agreed that BYOD has become a de facto recruiter. The best and brightest job candidates, he said, "don't want to feel like they live inside a bureaucracy. If everything else is the same -- pay, location -- they'll look for the freedom to be successful."

4. Apple Will Remain BYOD Leader.

iOS is easily the most popular mobile BYOD platform in 2012, said Michael Finneran, dBrn Associates principal, and Interop Las Vegas mobility track speaker. Android has more market share overall, but within the enterprise, Apple wears the crown, Finneran said.

Still, as Finneran pointed out in a January blog post, Apple's recent releases have fallen short of the revolutionary upgrades its customers have come to expect. The post also notes that Cupertino's desktop and mobile operating systems, though not as divisive as the two sides of Windows 8, aren't as harmoniously integrated as they should be. Between rough patches in the platform and a series of incremental upgrades, the stage is set for a new contender to gain ground.

Windows 8 is that contender. Employees were keen on a fully-featured Windows tablet prior to the operating system's launch, but interest fell off once the initial round of Windows 8 devices failed to impress.

"The iPad is the favorite for what it can do: email, web surfing, media consumption. It's fun," Finneran said. Windows 8 options such as the Surface Pro will play a role for "serious work," he said, but such devices will fill only "specialized slices of the market."

According to Forrester's Johnson, newcomers will struggle to make waves because IT departments are already accustomed to managing today's most popular platforms. "What's happened is familiarity," he said. "They feel like they understand iOS and Android from a daily confidence standpoint." He said when Forrester clients discuss Windows 8 options, "they see it as a fairly expensive problem to solve because of all the things you have to do during a PC lifecycle," such as patching and provisioning. With iOS and Android, in contrast, Johnson said, "They're beginning to realize that using these devices in new ways is entirely possible, and that they're easier to manage."

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