A handful of tech companies are betting that smartphones will eventually serve a different role in the workplace than they do outside.
The "bring your own device" trend — employers cutting IT budgets by requiring employees to use personal phones instead of company-provided devices — creates a need for a new generation of special workplace communication apps, some entrepreneurs say. A recent Gartner report estimates half of employers globally will implement a "BYOD" policy by 2017.
The market has drawn the attention of startup CoTap and corporate veteran BlackBerry, which both plan to release new workplace texting platforms in the next few weeks. Voxer, which lets users record and send sound bites, unrolled a business version of its consumer app about a month ago.