Consumer-owned devices invading enterprise: Gartner

The share of computing devices bought by consumers worldwide is forecast to grow from 65 percent in 2013 to 72 percent in 2017, as more enterprises embrace the bring your own device trend, according to Gartner.

The analyst firm said the forecast signifies the growing importance of designing product for the consumer inside the enterprise.

Hpwever, worldwide PC sales are expected to continue to decline. Gartner forecast a drop of 10.6 percent in 2013.

The analyst firm’s latest worldwide device numbers show Apple and Google are likely to be big winners from the ongoing shift in consumer preferences.

Tablet shipments are expected to grow 67.9 percent, with 202 million units, while the mobile phone market is forecast to grow 4.3 percent, with volume of more than 1.8 billion units.

Google’s Android operating system is expected to dominate, with more than 1 million devices running Android expected to be shipped in 2014, compared with 354,849 devices running Apple’s iOS and just 22,291 BlackBerry devices.

“Although the numbers seem to paint a clear picture of who the winner will be when it comes to operating systems in the device market, the reality is that today ecosystem owners are challenged in having the same relevance in all segments,” Gartner research vice president Carolina Milanesi said in a statement.

“Apple is currently the more homogeneous presence across all device segments, while 90 percent of Android sales are currently in the mobile phone market and 85 percent of Microsoft sales are in the PC market.”