However, Ovum's research shows that 50 percent of employees say privacy concerns would stop them accessing their own personal apps on a corporate provisioned smartphone. For half of all employees, a corporately provisioned smartphone or tablet is not a perfect substitute for a personally owned device, and this will continue to give momentum to the BYOD trend.

Ovum also finds a divide in BYOD behaviour and corporate IT attitudes between high-growth and mature economies. "Overall, we are seeing more encouragement of BYOD behaviour in high-growth economies, such as South Africa, Brazil, India and the South Eastern Tiger economies, than in mature economies, notably continental Western Europe," explained Absalom.

"The way people work will have a profound effect on how BYOD is rolled out and managed within an organisation. As such, it's imperative that IT departments act quickly to develop and implement clear policies governing BYOD. BYOD can provide an added advantage in terms of productivity and efficiency but to do this it will be important to get the right blend of process, policy, people, and technology management," concluded Absalom.