Android Grows, But Apple's iPhone, iPad Remain Kings of the Enterprise

The days when every businessperson owned a BlackBerry are long gone.

New research from Good Technology shows that the two most recently released versions of the iPhone and iPad 4S and third-generation, respectively were responsible for the majority of activations in the enterprise market between April 1 and June 30. The iPhone 4S drove nearly twice as many activations as any other smartphone, the report says nearly one-third (31 percent) of activated smartphones were the 4S.

The second quarter was also big for Android, however; Good Technology says corporate use of devices running Google’s operating system grew 10 percent quarter over quarter, capturing 37 percent of total activations, led by the Samsung Galaxy S II, which ranked fifth in top devices this quarter, at 4.6 percent. The S II was followed by the Motorola Droid Razr.

The jury’s still out on Windows Phone. The Microsoft mobile operating system made its debut in Good’s data report this quarter, accounting for just 1.2 percent of overall activations; of course, there’s plenty of room for growth for this nascent OS as more devices are introduced.

Smartphones still outnumbered tablet use in the enterprise by a three-to-one margin last quarter. The iPad accounted for a whopping 95 percent of tablet activations in the business market.

Good’s report also showed what it calls a notable shift in the use of mobile devices by government/public sector organizations, manufacturing and retail organizations.  As compared to Q1 2012, government deployments rose from approximately 5 percent to 8 percent of total activations; manufacturing rose from 4 to 7 percent, and retail activations rose from 3 percent to 5 percent during the quarter. These sectors have traditionally been slower to adopt mobility solutions.

"Mobility is not simply another device for IT to support or hurdle to overcome. Rather, it’s a much broader shift to new way to empower employees, customers and partners with new applications to connect and collaborate as never before," said John Herrema, SVP of corporate strategy for Good Technology. "Our device activations report shows that more and more of our customers across all industries are really embracing mobility as a new strategy for boosting productivity and business insight. We expect to see continued growth of support for iOS, Android and Windows platforms in Q3 as more of these devices come to market and our customers continue to expand their enterprise mobility programs."