Android gains ground in the enterprise

App icons coming out of a phone

iPad and iPhone apps dominate the enterprise market, but Android apps are gaining ground, according to latest figures.

Good Technology's second quarter Mobility Index Report, found that iOS maintained its domination of the mobile enterprise market even though it lost four per cent of its market share to Android. iOS enterprise app activations still accounted for 88 per cent of the market during the second quarter.

The report also found that iOS device activations were around 67 per cent of the total, down five per cent from the previous quarter. Android had 32 per cent of the mobile device activations for the quarter.

Windows Phone devices remained stuck at one per cent and have done so for the last five consecutive quarters. The report did not include Blackberry activations as it does not have access to data from BlackBerry Enterprise Server. However the report's authors said that the results provide a good insight into how organisations are incorporating mobile devices into workflows as data is derived from 5,000 of its customers globally.

The total number of enterprise app activations continued to see significant double-digit growth, increasing 20 per cent quarter over quarter, according to the report.

The gap in activations between tablet apps and smartphone apps appears to be decreasing, coming in at 58 per cent and 42 per cent respectively.

Other findings in the report highlight the high usage of document editing apps, which maintain the top spot for most widely used enterprise app. Secure instant messaging edged out custom apps as the third most activated app category.

Christy Wyatt, Chairman and chief executive of Good Technology said that it's more apparent than ever that enterprise mobility is disrupting legacy desktop environments.

"We continue to see companies deploying a breadth of devices and a diverse set of applications to drive higher value for their business, across all vertical markets," she said.

"Most exciting to us is the rapidly-growing segment of customers creating and deploying their own secure enterprise apps, across platforms, to fuel their business needs."

Rene Millman

Rene Millman is a freelance writer and broadcaster who covers cybersecurity, AI, IoT, and the cloud. He also works as a contributing analyst at GigaOm and has previously worked as an analyst for Gartner covering the infrastructure market. He has made numerous television appearances to give his views and expertise on technology trends and companies that affect and shape our lives. You can follow Rene Millman on Twitter.