IT consumerization and the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend are changing companies and as consequence, their IT departments. If a couple of years ago, a company’s chief information officer (CIO) was “the man” who decided all, current employees – and many high-level executives – are now forcing CIOs to adopt devices that the users want and not the ones that IT teams choose. This is a huge transformation that impacts not only corporate use but also device vendors. Which device manufacturer will capture more users’ attention and dominate the business market?

“We are noting an individualization and personalization of technology. Now, the people who bring the newest technology inside companies are non-IT employees and then the CIOs need to support them,” said Luciano Crippa, IDC’s research manager for consumer and commercial devices, during a press conference in São Paulo last week.

IDC forecasts that nearly 660 smartphones will be sold worldwide in 2012. In Brazil alone, the consulting firm calculates that 15.5 million smartphones were sold, significantly more than the 9 million sold last year. By 2014, the number of smartphones sold will be higher than laptops, tablets and desktops, and very close to the number of feature phones sold.

Follow RCR Wireless News – Americas on Twitter, Facebook and subscribe to our free periodic newsletters

A big driver of increased smartphone use is the increase in applications focused on mobile platforms. IDC showed that there are about 75,000 applications for PC while there were 1.3 million for mobile devices.

According to an IDC survey, globally, the support for non-standard devices is a result of the influence of high-level executives (VPs, CEO) who are responsible for 43% of requests, followed by C-level executives (CXO) at 42%, and managers at 26%. The pressure from users is responsible for 18% of total IT support requests for non-standard devices, and 17% said that support starts after the users bring in new devices. Only 7% is the result of IT planning.

Personally-owned equipment is also more common nowadays. In 2011, 40.7% of devices used to access business applications were personal PCs, smartphones or tablets, a rise compared to 30.7% of 2010. In Latin America, IDC noted that 43% of personal smartphones and 19% of tablets are authorized to access corporate data. “Users have been promoted to CIO,” said Crippa.

As BYOD expands, CIOs become more concerned about issues such as security, compliance, culture, company’s brand and costs. Among the greatest barriers to enabling employee to use their own PCs and devices at work are security concerns, which was cited by 83% of managers interviewed by IDC, followed by viruses from social networks, cited by 56%. “The protection has to move from securing the device to protecting the information,” noted Crippa.

Security issues are also related to costs. The perception of 50% of respondents is that costs will rise moderately or severely due to the platforms required to ensure security. However, added Crippa, the price for not adapting could be higher.

Be sure not to miss

• Gartner VP: CIOs have to ‘learn to lose control a little’ over BYOD
• Eyeing BYOD potential market, IBM bets on endpoint management for mobile devices
• Cisco bets on unifying BYOD policies management
• Apple partners with Scopus, PromonLogicalis to tap Brazil’s corporate market
• New iPad’s corporate impact to boost BYOD
• Mobile devices create challenges for enterprise security