iPhone Tops Blackberry As Top Enterprise Phone
IPass, Inc. reports in their quarterly Mobile Workforce Report that the iPhone has unseated the Blackberry as the top phone for business enterprise. Among mobile employees, the iPhone has captured 45 percent of the market share and overall business smartphone usage has increased to 91 percent.
The report finds that business smartphone usage is on the rise with 95 percent of mobile employees using smartphones, up from 85 percent in 2010, with 91 percent using the devices for work which is up 26 percent compared to 2010.
Many companies have adopted a “bring your own device” policy with their enterprises which helps account for the increase in smartphone usage. Out of mobile employees, 42 percent use individually-liable smartphones for work up from 34 percent in 2010. The report also found that smartphone users are not just those employees who travel, but they are also the knowledge workers who need to stay connected.
Evan Kaplan, president and CEO of iPass said, “Today’s mobile employees are critical to the success of every enterprise, contributing more work hours a year than their non-mobile counterparts. Connectivity is essential because work is no longer where you go but what you do.”
The iPass report also indicates how attached employees are to their smartphones. Employees with smartphones are sacrificing sleep and exercise for their jobs. The report says that one in three mobile employees claim they sleep less due to work and one in four mobile employees sleep less than six hours a night. Over half of the employees claim that if they exercise it is infrequent, 60 percent of the respondents claim their lack of exercise is due to work.
The report discusses the emotional attachment that workers have toward their smartphones, 59 percent would feel disoriented, distraught or lonely without their smartphone for even a week. But employees with smartphones are less likely to be distracted with the technology they use. Employees will only waste 28 minutes on technology distractions, the first being work email, the second technical issues and the third is social media.
According to iPass, Blackberry usage is on the decline with their market share dropping from 35 percent in 2010 down to 32 percent today. Android usage has doubled year over year and jumping into the number three spot with 21 percent market share, jumping over Nokia/Symbian.
Kaplan said, “While increasing iPhone usage in the workplace was inevitable, this is the tipping point when the iPhone has overcome the Blackberry on its traditional enterprise turf, and business smartphones are in the hands of nearly every knowledge worker.”
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