iOS Continues to Lead Enterprise Despite Decline in Tablet Market

"It doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine."

Windows Phone finished a distant third place with 3% market share

How times change.

This is not really a surprise, however the conclusion is flawed. Most companies I know use the Good app for "Bring Your Own Device" to work. BYOD is a fancy way of saying you can use your personal device to access your corporate e-mails, schedules, etc. Companies like this as they don't have to buy mobiles for employees. Workers like it so they don't have to carry two phones around.

The key here is the workers are buying more Android/Windows tablets. So, the good app is seeing a rise in BYOD authorisations. It's not necessarily a reasonable conclusion companies are buying less iPads.

I will note from personal observation I'm seeing a lot more Surface tablets in the wild in business. I still don't see many Android tablets. iPads are by far the most popular. I make no claim my observations are a reflection of the overall market. Just sharin' what I see.

In my company, we are restricted to one BYOD device for Good. Since each device requires the company to pay a fee, they will only agree to fund 1 licence per person. That means that I have good on my iphone but not my iPad. This seems important because if, as suspect, many companies have the same policy, then the statistics will be skewed. In other words, I would think Good's statistics represent how BYOD users prefer to see emails. I prefer my phone over the ipad since I do not take the ipad to most meetings. Given that many people have some combination of phones, tablets, and laptops, these numbers cannot reflect the total market.

In my company I see iphones and androids about the same. I have never seen anyone with a tablet other than an ipad or ipad mini in the office.

The problem is that this market share is based on new activations, not actual devices running. I purchased a mini2 at the same time as a nexus7 (mini2 for work, nexus7 to keep the kids off the mini2), and it is already obvious which one is going to fall apart first and will need replacement (and I will not go into details of why I don't think the kids are rougher on the nexus7 than I am on the mini2 ;)). Financially it is a wash, because the mini2 was much more expensive, but in terms of activation figures it is clear who wins...

P.S.: My nexus7 did not show up under enterprise activations, of course, but the point here is durability.

"It doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine."

How times change.

500 dollars? Fully subsidised?

I think a larger iPad would go down very well in enterprise.

I concur.

There are many uses in the enterprise for an iPad once the display reaches laptop size. Especially given the fact it's so easy to pair with Apple Wireless Keyboard, Magic Mouse, or Magic Trackpad. I've found since I purchased these three peripherals a few years ago, they've been very handy with a variety Apple devices I own.

I think a larger iPad would go down very well in enterprise.