Consumerization

Consumerization refers to a trend in which new technologies first emerge for the use of consumers or end-users before spreading to enterprise IT. Some well-known instances of consumerization include the use of laptops and smartphones at work, as well as the adoption of cloud storage and social media (for marketing purposes). Apple’s iPhone, for example, was first introduced to the consumer market before seeing widespread adoption by business users as a better alternative to company-provided PDAs. Traditionally, new technology products were first developed by governments and large enterprises before seeing general availability. Consumerization is a relatively new phenomenon and marks a major shift in the IT field.