In a bid to reduce capital expenditure costs, some organisations are even adopting a flexible attitude toward hardware and allowing employees to bring their own devices to the office, what's known as the 'BYO model'. In many other organisations, however, these mobile devices are being used by workers -- whether the CIO wants them to or not.

No matter how mobile devices are entering your enterprise, the question facing CIOs is: Are the productivity benefits worth the device management and control issues they create for the IT department? Andrew Rowsell-Jones, vice-president and research director in Gartner's CIO and Executive Leadership Research Team, is sceptical about the benefits -- at least for the moment.

"Organisations are expecting great things from these devices, but right now what we're seeing is a lot of experimentation," he says.

"Undoubtedly the consumer mobile space is currently in a great state of flux. People think iPads and smartphones are marvellous things, but when you ask about the business benefits, they scratch their head and find it hard to answer.

"Can CIOs prove they contribute to increased sales? Can CIOs prove they're actually cheaper or more effective than more conventional mobile devices? It's an area where the business case has yet to be established for many organisations."