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Do Just 20% of Employees Actually Want BYOD in Their Workplace?

Bring Your Own Device. A play on the timeliness BYOB party mantra, BYOD is sweeping corporations worldwide. After decades of using company-bought, company-owned, and company-controlled pagers and phones, today's workforces are demanding to bring in and use their personal smartphones instead.

Or are they?

A new report by IDC found that half of all organizations in Australia and New Zealand are planning to deploy formal BYOD policies within the next 1.5 years. And yet, IDC's Next Generation Workspace Ecosystem research found that just 20% of employees want to use their own device for work.

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Enterprise to Account for 30% of All Tablet Sales by 2016, Canadian Research Firm Says

Tablet adoption in the enterprise space continues to pick up steam. Canadian research firm TechSci has gone so far as to say the enterprise will account for nearly one-third of all tablet sales in the US by 2016.

According to TechSci, the global tablet market will be worth almost $80 billion within four years, boasting a compound annual growth rate of about 35%. In North America, the CAGR will be lower, at roughly 25%, with 30% of that being driven by the enterprise.

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The Benefits of CEOs Who Tweet are Legion, Survey Finds

C-level executives who tweet on Twitter are held in high regard, a new study by social media branding firm Brandfog has discovered.

In a survey conducted by the firm, 78% of respondents said CEOs who participate in social media leads to better communication, while 94% stated that it leads to an enhanced brand image. And 64% believe it provides greater transparency.

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Canada is the Most Cost-Effective Country to Run a Digital Business, KPMG Study Finds

According to a new study conducted by KPMG, Canada is the most cost-effective country to run a business in the digital sector. Comparing business costs and competitiveness in 14 countries, KPMG found that Canada tops them all.

The Competitive Alternatives 2012 report reveals that Canada's cost competitiveness advantage over the US is an impressive 15%. Britain placed a distant second, 8% ahead of the US.

Canada offers "the lowest effective corporate tax rates for digital operations," KPMG says. This helps explain why Canada has the third-biggest video game development industry in the world.

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A QR Code Was Scanned by 1 in 6 Canadian Smartphone Subscribers in December 2011

The 2012 Mobile Future in Focus report recently released by comScore says that 53% of Canadian smartphone owners used their phone for retail-related activities in a store.

One mobile media trend called the QR Code, scannable via a barcode scanning app on your smartphone, continues to gain in popularity as NFC remains slow to take off and could still be two or three years away. The report states that 16% of smartphone owners in Canada scanned QR Codes during December 2011, while 20% did so in the United States. 

All that scanning is taking place on Apple and Android phones though- the report shows that the operating share of device traffic for mobile was just 6.5% for RIM, but 47.4% for Android and 37.7% for iOS in the United States.

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Tunecore's New Rules For The Music Industry

Techvibes reported that Tunecore, which allows artists to sell their music in three steps, officially launched in Canada back in January. They have since come out with a handbook called the "Music Industry Survival Manual: New Rules For The Music Industry."

While you can view seven volumes here and order them for free, I'm going to outline in brief Tunecore's nine new rules for the music industry as it continues to shift from traditional to one with digital downloads, on-demand streams, and unlimited digital shelf space. Artists that use Tunecore have made over a quarter of a billion dollars from 500 million units of music. 

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Calgary is Canada's Top ICT Cluster, TBOT Finds, but America Crushes Us

A new report released by the Toronto Board of Trade has found that Calgary has Canada's top information and communications technology cluster. Calgary bested cities with larger ICT industries, such as Vancouver and Montreal, thanks to impressive growth.

According to the report, Calgary's ICT sector grew by 5.7% from 2002 to 2010, compared with just 1.9% in Toronto. However, Canada fared poorly overall when pitted against the US, which saw Silicon Valley and other American cities rank well ahead of Calgary and co.

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Death to the Cash Register: Tablets the Future of Retail?

Tablets, with regards to commerce, are typically seen as tools for consumers to purchase goods online, on-the-go. But they are quickly serving another purpose. Turns out, they're killing the cash register.

Clever retailers have found a way to bring tablets into bricks-and-mortar stores—and consumer reception is thus far very positive. These mobile devices, which act as point-of-sale devices, allow staff to move about the store instead of being stuck behind the cash register. And when a consumer wants to make a purchase, they don't have to line up in front of a counter—the nearest employee can make the sale right from the tablet, where in the store.

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