Most, if not all, attendees of ITEXPO (News - Alert) East 2012, happening now through Feb. 3 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami FL., will embrace some type of bring-your-own-device program in 2012. That was the word from Wednesday ITEXPO keynote speaker Tim Wagner of Samsung (News - Alert), who used his talk to offer an update on the company’s Samsung Approved for Enterprise – or SAFE – strategy.

SAFE is the company’s business-focused effort that is based on four pillars: mobile device management; corporate e-mail/calendar/contacts synchronization and more; on-device encryption (which involves hardware within endpoints); and VPN (for which Samsung works with leading VPN providers).

Unveiled in October, SAFE offers horizontal application hooks to MDM, application security and VPN providers; IT compliance with various partners; horizontal solutions in partnership with others; and vertical solutions aimed at mobile professionals, entertainment/gaming, point of sale, field services, mobile learning, and health management applications.

“This is the model we’ve created, and it’s been very successful to date,” said Wagner.

At the Consumer Electronics Show Samsung, which is the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S., announced the Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy Tab 7.7 as the first SAFE devices. Today the company has a wide variety of devices that fit into the SAFE program.

“We want to have devices in every single price point that are SAFE, with all four pillars,” said Wagner, who joined Samsung from RIM in December 2010, a move he joked was fortuitous.

And although his move to Samsung was clearly good timing, he talked about his lack of any kind of work/life balance, which he said is a common theme these days among professionals and explains in large part the consumerization of mobile and BYOD trend.

Indeed, CIOs today have to address with surge of wireless devices, including tablets, many of which employees bring in on their own. More than 70 percent of people in the U.S. have smartphones, he said. And between mid December 2011 and early January 2012, he said, the share of adults in the U.S. with tablets nearly doubled from 10 percent to 19 percent, he said. “That is extraordinary,” he added.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, happening now, in Miami, FL. ITEXPO offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration, click here.

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