Mobility — Emerging Challenges

Abstract

There are over five billion GSM mobile phone connections globally and a growing number of other mobile information technologies permeate all aspects of life.¹ The number of mobile phone subscriptions in developing countries (non-OECD members) was in 2008 estimated to be three billion out of the then four billion total subscribers, dwarfing the global total of two billion Internet connections in 2010 (Kluth, 2008; The Economist, 2009). The mass diffusion of miniaturised computers linked together in personal, local and global networks has created unprecedented technological intimacy over global infrastructures. Mobile information technology touches an increasing proportion of our human existence. Whether at home in bed, on holiday on a beach or at work at the desk, we have instant connectivity. Of all such technologies, the mobile phone makes up by far the largest and most visible single category. So far, an emerging research field has explored the general social impact of this single technology, the mobile phone, while very little research has investigated enterprise mobility — the application of diverse mobile information technologies in the context of work (Barnes, 2003; Basole, 2008).