iPhone 6 devices help Apple regain enterprise market share from Android

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

iPhone 6 devices help Apple regain enterprise market share from Android

Although Google’s Android easily dominates the operating system market on a global basis, there are still areas where Apple’s iOS prevails. One of those areas is in the enterprise where Apple enjoys a slightly more than a 2-1 lead. That dominance had been slipping a bit during Q2 of 2014, but new data from Good Technology suggests the release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus helped Apple regain some share it had lost.

According to Good Technology’s Mobility Index Report, iOS activations of enterprise devices during Q3 increased 2 percent to 69 percent over the prior quarter and there was a corresponding 2 point drop by Android. According to Good Technology, “The release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus accounted for all of this gain.” Good Technology’s month-by-month detail shows iOS activations had actually dropped to 66 percent during July and August, but got a massive bump up to 73 percent during September after Apple’s release of the new devices.

Meanwhile, in the tablet space, iOS continued to maintain an even greater advantage, although Android did tick up slightly to 11% of the enterprise market.

The Good Technology report also revealed a few other interesting bits of information about how these enterprise customers are making use of their mobile devices. One of the biggest growth areas for developers is custom app development, which became the number 1 app category amongst smartphone enterprise users. Custom apps was followed by secure instant messaging and secure browsing solutions. For tablets, users have started using their devices for document editing and document access, putting apps in those categories in the number 1 and number 3 spots, with custom apps coming in at number 2.

Sources anticipate Google will try to make a new push in the enterprise space based on the release of Android Lollipop.