Is a Cellular-Enabled Tablet Enterprise Mobility or IoT?

K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

• MVNOs that offer IoT services are starting to offer embedded connectivity for laptops or tablets, calling these services use cases for the IoT.
• While this suggests that the two worlds of IoT and enterprise mobility are starting to converge, it also is a somewhat misleading misuse of terminology.

According to GlobalData’s report, “2018 Predictions: What to Expect in the Industrial Internet of Things Services Market” (December 11, 2017), the two distinct ecosystems that provide solutions for enterprise mobility and for the Internet of Things (IoT), respectively, are slowly converging. This can be positive for business customers because they can theoretically go to a single vendor to manage, secure, or provide apps for traditional mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and mobile broadband-enabled laptops, as well as for IoT devices such as machines and robots in factories and sensors collecting data in the field or in smart buildings and smart cities.