Although Apple is losing tablet market share to cheaper Android tablets, the iPad is still the clear leader in corporations.
According to a report from mobile device management outfit Good Technology, the iPad accounted for 93.2 percent of tablet activations across its business oriented consumer base. Android ended up with just 6.8 percent.
Mind you, Good Technology serves one in two Fortune 100 companies, which means its clients are not Facebook addicted teens.
However, Google is making up ground. A year ago, Google’s share of tablet activations was a mere 2.7 percent and it more than doubled in under a year. At this rate it will barely creep into double digit territory by the end of 2013.
Good Technology attributes Apple’s massive lead in business to a combination of factors, such as BYOD, the sheer popularity and user base of the iPad and the consumerization of IT. Then there is the ecosystem. Apple still enjoys a clear lead in iOS productivity apps and tablet centric apps in general.
Oddly enough, Apple’s lead extends to smartphones as well. The business crowd is usually associated with boring BlackBerry devices, but Good’s figures reveal that the iPhone accounted for 77 percent of activations across its user base and its share is still growing. It was 71 percent in Q4 2011. The ecosystem gap between iOS and Android is not as significant in phones as it is in the tablet space, so it is more than likely that business users are choosing it for the sake of compatibility, or superior build quality.
Now it’s Microsoft’s turn to take on the iPad in enterprise, with Windows RT and Windows 8 tablets. And fail.
