According to Ambient Insight, the top 5 dynamics leading to this “perfect storm” in the adoption of mobile learning include:

The Buyer Demographic is Growing

There is a large and growing buyer demographic using a variety of Internet-connected handheld computing devices. In terms of revenue, consumers, healthcare, and federal government agencies (particularly military agencies) will dominate the market over the forecast period, followed by corporate buyers.

The Content Distribution Channel is Expanding Rapidly

Applications are now sold in a growing number of commercial “app stores. “As of February 2011, there were over a hundred app stores and the number is growing by 1-2 stores a month. There are now global mass-ˇmarket stores operated by GetJar, Amazon, and Opera.

There are over 650 telecom operators and there are now ”white-label” app store platforms that allow them to launch branded pre-stocked app stores quickly. The new carrier and device maker initiative called the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) launched a commercial development platform in February 2011. IBM, Oracle, Accenture, Ericsson, and Telefonica launched white label services based on WAC at the same time. China Mobile, MTS, Orange, Smart, Telefonica, Telenor, Verizon, and Vodafone launched their own WAC stores in February 2011 with over 12,000 apps.

The Networks are Getting Faster and the Devices are Getting Smarter

There was a spike in the sales of smartphones, ebook readers, and tablets in 2010.  In 2011 alone, the estimate is for more than 60  million media tablets to be sold and an increasingly number will be corporate users.

So-called 4G (fourth generation) wireless networks started rolling out in the US in late 2010. Once considered a laggard in wireless broadband, the US is now taking the lead in 4G network deployment.

The Time To Re-Think Corporate Learning Is Here…  It Will Be More Social, Collaborative and Engaging

At Future Workplace we recently completed a comprehensive report on the adoption of mobile learning. But the bigger issue is how will our Mobile lives” impact the way we work, learn and communicate with each other. Here are 10 predictions for the way the workplace will be impacted by mobile learning:

1. Mobile will be part of the way we do business- – Learning & working will be increasingly mobile and companies will need to evaluate how they are leveraging this trend in sourcing and recruiting talent,  corporate learning, and performance management.
2. LMS’s need to become re-imagined – Shouldn’t LMS’s be more than an experience on Amazon? One where you can easily rate, tag and add comments?  And do this all from your mobile device?
3. Media tablets will become a dominant device – Because of their ideal form factor for video and display of text and graphics, media tablets will increase dramatically as a tool for immediate access to corporate learning and performance support.
4. Performance review can be and should be immediate – The annual performance review may soon be a thing of the past as companies embrace mobile devices for relevant, quick and easy micro feedback.
5. Augmented reality apps and search will deliver JIT – Because mobile devices have a built-in ability to know a user’s location, including orientation, augmented reality apps will deliver location relevant information when needed.
6. Design and development of learning will be crowdsourced- – Instead of instructional design where an expert creates  a curriculum in isolation, learner will be involved in both the creation and consumption of learning programs and solutions.
7. Social Games for recruiting- Given the success of Farmville, more companies will create social games for recruiting and sourcing employees.
8. Choice and continuity across multiple mobile devices – Employees will come to work with a BYOT mindset (Bring Your Own Technology) The combination of “cloud-based” computing with mobile devices will create opportunities for learners to seamlessly move from one device to another.
9. New skills and competencies needed – With all this change in the way work will get done,  new skills and competencies will be needed for both human resources as well as learning professionals in the areas of social technologies,  social facilitation and social gaming.
10. The revolution in the workplace and corporate learning is just beginning…We are at the beginning of a major shift in the workplace–one where employees are increasingly  empowered to contribute, share ideas and comment on new ways of working and learning. Employees across all industries will have a bigger voice in how, where and when they work and learn. Human Resources departments must adapt or be left behind.

How is your organization re-thinking and preparing   for the workplace in 2020? What are you doing today that was not even on your agenda  last month or last year?  Share your thoughts with us here!

According to Gartner, worldwide sales of tablets will jump from 19.5 million units in 2010 to 208 million units in 2014. The expanding tablet market is likely to cannibalize the market share of netbooks, media players, and stand-alone eBook readers.

Future Workplace & IESE Business School research entitled M-Learning: From Anticipation To Reality, identified three key trends:

1. By year end of 2011: nearly forty percent of executives plan to incorporate media tablets into learning and development initiatives and three-quarters of these learning executives plan to incorporate smartphones by the end of this year.

2. By 2015: Human Resource executives plan to leverage mobile devices not only for learning & performance support but also for coaching and mentoring employees (37%), micro-blogging (27%), augmented reality (14%), and mobile gaming (12%).

3. In order to expand mobile learning, companies need to deal with top five barriers expressed by our research sample which include:

• Cost of developing content across all types of mobile devices and platforms.

• Security of issues associated with mobile devices

• Non-clarity on how to participate in mobile learning

• Out-dated IT policies

• Lagging instructional design expertise

Which barrier is the largest in your organization? How are you dealing with this?