Survey: Mobile adoption becoming about the apps

Good Technology finds mobile app activations are increasing in the enterprise

Mobile technology continues to enjoy stellar adoption in the business world, but new research indicates mobility is increasingly more about the app than the device.

A survey of 5,000 enterprise users of Good Technology mobile security platform shows an impressive 42 per cent quarterly jump in the number of mobile app activations. That growth is being driven by the adoption of customised enterprise applications, which rose 52 per cent in the same period.

This explosion in mobile app activations is happening across the spectrum of devices and operating systems, the Good survey reveals. Total device activations for the quarter rose nearly 60 per cent from the same time last year, with 81 per cent of mobile apps being activated on a tablet.

While Google's Android mobile OS is gaining enterprise market share on the device side, Apple's iOS remains the far-and-away platform of choice for enterprise app deployments, with 72 per cent of total app activations in Q3 respectively.

Android accounted for 27 per cent of device activations in Q3, while Microsoft's Windows Phone OS activations made up the remaining one per cent.

"As we continue to see tremendous adoption of secure enterprise mobility across our customer base, platform diversity remains a key theme," said Good Technology CEO Christy Wyatt. "Customers [are] embracing the transformative opportunity that comes with harnessing the power of mobile apps, not just mobile devices."

Document editing remains the largest app category with 56 per cent of total activations a 42 per cent jump from the previous quarter.

File access and sharing came in a strong second place with nearly 20 per cent of all enterprise mobile app activations. Some 91 per cent of all the apps deployed on tablets fell into these two categories.

On the device side, the Good report shows that while tablets rule the roost overall, they take a back seat to smartphones for uses like instant messaging.

From an industry perspective, the Good research shows professional services with the highest quarterly increase in share of mobile device activations, rising nine per cent. The financial services, health care and legal verticals also saw significant mobile adoption growth quarter over quarter.

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