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Mobile devices based on Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone platforms are increasingly being supported by enterprises, but its Apples products that dominate, according to a July 25 report from Good Technology. Good, which provides cross-platform support for enterprise customers, reported on its customers mobile device activations during the second quarter.
Key findings from the report include:
- The Apple iPhone 4s, which during the first quarter was activated at the rate of four times any other device, leveled out during the second quarter, accounting for nearly 31 percent of activations.
- iOS activations accounted for nearly 71 percent of all activations during the second quarter, down from nearly 80 percent during the first quarter. Activations of Android phones, meanwhile, grew to 37 percent, nearly doubling its first-quarter presence.
- The Apple iPad was by far the most popular tablet, accounting for 94.5 percent of all second-quarter activations, but Android tablets still made strides during the quarter, increasing from 2.7 percent during the first quarter to 5.5 percent during the second. Driving this growth, Good found, was Samsungs Galaxy Note phablet, which features a 5.3-inch display.
- Samsung devices put in a good showing overall, with the Galaxy S II, the Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy Note being among the top 10 devices to be activated by Good customers.
- More specifically, the top devices, in descending order, were the Apple iPhone 4S (nearly 31 percent), the iPad 3 (13.5 percent), the iPhone 4 (12.5 percent), the iPad 3 (10 percent), the Samsung Galaxy S II (4.5 percent), the Motorola Droid Razr (3 percent), the iPad (2 percent), the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (nearly 1 percent) and the Galaxy Note, at about a half a percent.
- Windows Phone 7.5 devices, which Good began supporting in April, accounted for 1.2 percent of overall activations, which Good expects will increase with time, and particularly the release of Window 8 and Windows Phone 8 during the fourth quarter.
- Mobile deployments rose within government and public sector industrieswhere BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has been losing groundas well as manufacturing and wholesale and retail industries, Good found.
On the whole, the report echoes similar indicators of a market in which Apple, despite its might, is losing market share to Android devices, and Microsoft, with partners including Nokia and HTC, are fighting for a foothold from which to work to build market share.
Androids gains in this quarter mirror the pattern Good saw in Q2 2011, where Android picked up steam once the latest iPhone hardware had been on the market for a while, according to the Good report. By comparison, Android activations were 29 percent in Q4 2011, 32 percent in Q3 2011 and 25 percent one year ago in Q2 2011.
The report is the among the latest to suggest that Apples one-device-a-year policy it part of the reason that Samsung has gained on it and become the worlds largest manufacturer of both mobile phone and smartphones.
Good attributes Androids growth this quarterwith activations nearly doubleto the availability of new and feature-rich Android devices by Samsung, the report continued. The company attributes the iOS decline to market saturation, as most iOS device hardware has been available for some time.
Despite the above-mentioned industries that showed particular growth during the quarter, Goods financial services customers, by far, continued to lead in mobile device activations. Finance activations were 37.8 percent during the quarterup from 36.1 percent during the first quarterwhile the next-largest industry, professional services, accounted for just more than 10 percent of activations.
Good believes the wealth of financial services activations is a direct result of the industrys continued embrace of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) model, the company wrote.
This group also overwhelmingly led tablet activations, exceeding 45 percent during the quarter, while the next-largest industry accounted for 9 percent of activations.
Mobility is not simply another device for IT to support or hurdle to overcome. Rather, its a much broader shift to a new way to empower employees, customers and partners with new applications to connect and collaborate as never before, John Herrema, senior vice president of corporate strategy for Good, said in a statement on the report.
The report suggests, Herrema added, that Good customersand presumably similar businessesare really embracing mobility as a new strategy for boosting productivity and business insight.