Businesses warned to get into mobile as it overtakes desktop usage

Mobile devices will finally overtake their desktop cousins in 2012, according to a new report.

Predicts 2012: The rising force of social networking and collaboration services, produced by Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, says that Google Apps will start to eat into the Microsoft Office market as businesses increasingly gear their offerings towards consumers’ smartphones and tablets.

The report says: “Social networking and collaboration applications will ultimately be constructed for deployment first on mobile devices, making the desktop device secondary to its mobile brethren.”

According to the research, this development will have severe ramifications for employees. It says:  “The always-on and always-connected employee-base will increasingly be expected to be available to the business around the clock and on weekends and holidays.”

Writing about all of these points, the report’s authors state: “All of these dynamics reveal an atmosphere of deep and constant change, which can lead to significant business advantage or to business disadvantages.”

They also note that businesses who do not engage with their customers via social media will find that their decision damages their business, stating: ““Responding to inquiries via these channels will be the new minimal level of responsiveness expected,” the report reads. Clearly this willl have implications for web designers.

“Those who do not measure up will incur the same level of wrath from customers as those who ignore the basic expectations of responding to email and telephone calls today.”