Apple iOS Rules the Enterprise While Android and Windows Make Gains

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CIOs aren’t imagining it. iPhones and iPads have taken over their workplaces.

Yet, while Apple iOS has made enormous strides in mobilizing the enterprise, the company can’t afford to rest on its laurels, suggests Good Technology’s Mobility Index Report for the second quarter (Q2) of 2015. During that time, Apple saw its share of activations drop from 70 percent to 64 percent, the mobile device management (MDM) specialist found in its analysis of its customer data. Good Technology provides MDM to over 6,200 organizations in 189 countries.

In tablets, Apple’s share dropped even more precipitously, from 81 percent to 64 percent, indicating that businesses are growing more comfortable exploring their non-iPad options. Those include Android, which now accounts for 25 percent of the market, and Microsoft Windows, which grew its share from 4 percent to 11 percent.

Microsoft’s new “mobile-first” product strategy appears to be paying off. Just two quarters ago, Windows had a mere 1 percent of the tablet market, making the company’s gains all the more impressive, noted Good Technology.

“The erosion in iPad dominance points to a change in the tablet market as the long-predicted role of tablets as laptop replacements finally becomes a reality,” stated the report.

Regulated industries continue to default to Apple. iOS is the mobile operating system (OS) of choice for public sector organizations (79 percent), schools (76 percent) and healthcare firms (70 percent). For the first time, Android surpassed iOS among technology companies (53 percent). Google’s mobile OS also experienced gains among energy producers (48 percent) and manufacturers (42 percent).

Businesses are also loosening their grip on corporate information, allowing mobile users to access files and data traditionally nestled behind a firewall. As long as the apps they use are secure, that is.

Sixty-seven percent of organizations now use two or more business apps apart from email. In addition to mobile inboxes, the average business now uses over three apps. For the third quarter in a row, secure browsers lead all other app categories, said Good Technology.

“As the mobile device displaces the desktop as the primary computing platform, enterprise mobility is enabling employees with the secure apps and content they need,” remarked Christy Wyatt, CEO at Good Technology. “We continue to see security at the heart of every enterprise conversation, coupled with end user privacy concerns.”

Custom apps are also growing in popularity. Thirty-two percent of all insurance industry apps are custom, as are 29 percent of apps for financial services firms, up from 18 percent the previous quarter. Energy companies and utilities have pushed the use of custom apps in their industry from a “negligible number” in Q1 to 49 percent in Q2.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.