Good
Technology, a provider of secure and managed enterprise mobility for the Apple
iPhone and iPad, Google Android, and other smartphone platforms, released its
quarterly data report detailing the changing landscape of IT and mobile
enterprise technology. The report found in the third quarter of 2011, Apple
devices held onto their lead in the enterprise deployments, while Android
smartphones gained steady ground in terms of activation volume.
"This
quarter, we saw Android smartphones gain in percentage of total
activations," said John Herrema, senior vice president of corporate
strategy at Good Technology. "This is likely due to consumers holding back
purchases of new iPhones in anticipation of Apple's latest release (the iPhone
4S)—as our reports indicate, consumers are setting the agenda for enterprise
mobility."
Good
Technology ran preliminary numbers on just the opening weekend of the iPhone
4S' availability (Oct. 14-16, 2011) and found a 25 percent increase in
activations compared with the third-quarter daily average for the iPhone 4.
"Looking forward to Q4 2011, we expect to see the iPhone 4S to be the
catalyst for an Apple rally," Herrema said.
The
report also found that while Android continues to gain market share overall,
Good's enterprise end users are showing "clear preference" for Apple
products. Among the top 10 industry verticals, financial services continued to
see the highest level of iPad activation, accounting for 46 percent for the
quarter—more than tripling the amount of activation in any other industry
The
iPad and iPad 2 represent over 96 percent of total tablet activations, while
Android tablets increased slightly to 4 percent of overall tablet activations
for the quarter. Android smartphones represented nearly 39 percent of all
smartphone (nontablet) activations, compared with iPhone's 61 percent, despite
Android's overall market share growth. In addition, iOS devices (iPhone, iPad
and variants) accounted for over 70 percent of activations in Q3.
Based
on feedback from Good customers, the company is seeing a greater tendency for
iPads to be supported on both bring your own device (BYOD) and company-owned
scenarios. The report said this is based on the desire for broad-based
productivity benefit that BYOD enables with proactive deployment in support of
particular roles (such as a sales force) or applications (such as field force
automation or in-store retail applications). This contrasts with the overall
activation model for iPhones and Android smartphones, where BYOD is the more
dominant approach overall with 70 percent of Good’s customers now proactively
supporting formal BYOD programs.
