New PGi Report Reveals the Smartphone as the Go-To Device for Unified Communications & Collaboration Services

Findings Reveal a 70 percent Decline in Users Accessing Meetings via Desk Phonesย in Past Five Years.

ATLANTA,ย Februaryย 21, 2018ย โ€“ Todayย PGi, the worldโ€™s largest dedicated provider of collaboration solutions,ย published the results ofย researchย undertaken with Mobile World Live, which highlights that nearly half (44 percent) of mobile industry respondents rank the smartphone as their chosen device for unified communication and collaboration (UC&C) services in the next few years. Mobile World Live is the media arm of the GSMA.

This projected mobile growth contrasts with a decline of 70 percent in the past five years of desk phone usage for conference calls. In the past twelve months, 55 percent also stated that their desk phone usage for conference calls had declined.ย  After the smartphone, the other go-to-devices for UC&C services were the PC/laptop (43 percent), desk phone (9 percent) and tablet (four percent).

The PGi global report, entitled, โ€œThe Future of UC&C on Mobile,โ€ showed thatย HD audio with background noise suppression is ranked as the most likely feature (43ย percent) to encourage greater smartphone usage, followed by ease of accessย (25 percent), enhanced battery life (16 percent) and improved data plan usage (12 percent). The top network developments to drive future UC&C on mobile include improved network coverage (33 percent), enhanced call quality (29 percent), faster download speeds (13 percent) and enabling 5G (13 percent).

The findings also showed thatย mobileย networkย operatorsย (MNOs)ย or mobile virtual network operatorsย (MVNOs) are mostย expected to drive the use of UC&C services on smartphones over the next five yearsย (38 percent). This contrasts with 37 percent of respondents that consider Over-the-Top (OTT) application providers to be wellย positionedย in this sector. The MNO lead could be due to their role in improving network coverage, enhancing call quality and their established UC&C expertise.

Frank Paterno, vice president, global carriers, PGi, said:ย โ€œThis global survey of mobile industry professionals shows thatย collaboration fuels enterprise success and that the smartphone is now the go-to device for UC&C services. At PGi, we have seen the numberย ofย mobile devices connecting to our flagship collaboration product,ย GlobalMeetยฎ,ย significantly increase year over year. In fact, weโ€™re estimating that over 50 percent of endpoints on our audio or web conferences will be from a smartphone by 2020. Thisย survey and our own user data continue to prove that mobility is a standard professional tool that enables better productivity, more flexibility and powers global, digital workers to get more done from anywhere at any time.โ€

The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend within the enterprise means that employees have access to aย smartphone both at work andย home, making it the obvious choice for communications.Smartphone adoption has grown exponentially, and further strong growth is expected.ย According to the GSMA Intelligence report,ย The Mobile Economy 2017, global smartphone connections are expected to rise by 1.9 billion from the end of 2016 to 5.7 billion by 2020.

Survey Background onย โ€œThe Future of UC&C onย Mobile:

The globalย reportย surveyedย 333ย mobileย industry leaders on unified communication and collaborationย (UC&C)ย with a focus onย mobileย usage.ย The largest segment of respondents included device and network equipment vendorsย (26 percent), followed byย mobile operatorsย (24 percent) and then MVNOs, fixed operators, business service resellers, software developers and mobile specialists (50 percent). The report providesย insight into how operators andย manufacturers around the world rate theirย UC&Cย experiences on a mobile device, and what impact current and emerging technologies will have on the future use of smartphones for UC&C services inย the mobile enterprise. Theย reportย also explored the expectations thatย mobile devices and features,ย such as high-definition (HD) audio (or HD voice)ย play in improving the quality and usability of these services in the future.ย Additionally, the survey investigatedย attitudes towards the use of over-the-top (OTT) applications for UC&C.ย The survey ran during Q4 2017.

Check out the full reportย here.

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I work for Compare the Cloud as programme manager. I enjoy cybersecurity, fintech and, on the less boring side of things, photography, trains (I said less boring, right?) and, like everyone else, music.

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