Report: Government Mobility Spending Lags Behind Private Sector

Government agencies spend less of their total budget on making operations mobile than commercial groups do, according to new research from IDC. Public-sector spending is about 17 percent of its budget, compared to about 25 percent of private-sector counterparts, according to an as-yet unpublished survey from IDC.

Analyst John Jackson described some of the findings at an AT&T event Sept 7 in Washington. Concerns about the security of apps and the data stored in those apps have been the primary barrier to adoption, Jackson explained. And for at least the past three years, concerns about integrating back-end systems into a mobile strategy have been the second largest barrier to adoption. Jackson predicted public- and private-sector organizations will soon spend more on software services, but spending on software itself is not likely to move much, he said.