Enterprise and iOS

[Seadog]

A report out shows that 80% of new enterprise mobile devices being activated are running iOS, and only 20% are running Android. All other operating systems are not significant to even register. Even more interesting, 97.3% of tablet activations in enterprise are iPads. Based on these numbers, Apple has picked up the gauntlet that RIM threw away, and has run away with it.

 

[KevinJS]

So what exactly happened to RIM? I'm not convinced that 3 days without Blackberry Messenger brought the company to its knees. there must have already been some trouble brewing.

 

[zphone]

I take it that this survey is tablet specific as I am sure that RIM still has a chunk of the enterprise phone business that is way higher than 0%.

 

[zphone]

So what exactly happened to RIM? I'm not convinced that 3 days without Blackberry Messenger brought the company to its knees. there must have already been some trouble brewing.

I'll tell you what happened to RIM for us. They started to ignore the browser. For the longest time the blackberry browser was the worst on any smartphone.

Though to be sure they still make up about 80 of our enterprise phones. Only executives have really gone to the iPhone in a big way.

 

[Seadog]

This is OS specific and is only about new activations. RIM may still have a chunk of the users, but no companies are subscribing to them. Many of the new iPhone activations are from those who have abandoned RIM and other systems.

 

[seneca18]

I believe RIM simply got lazy and arrogant a few years back. They were riding high on top of the smartphone and enterprise world and just stopped innovating. You can just look at the evolution of BlackBerry and see that not much changed for about 3-4 years. Only recently has RIM begun to step up their game and i'll admit the new BB's are actually pretty intriguing but too little too late.

 

[thewitt]

Our enterprise customers are dumping RIM as fast as they can. The iOS platform is simply better supported with great apps. RIM is not.

A phone is much more than a phone in today's enterprise environment, and RIM did not get that...

 

[KevinJS]

That's the story I'm getting. RIM seemed to be content to pass the iPhone and iPad off as toys, without realizing what great business tools they can be.

Several months ago my boss remarked that it doesn't look good pulling an iPhone out of your pocket in a business environment. He uses a 4S now and doesn't seem too bothered by his use of a "toy".

Sent from my iPad 4 HD mini

 

[Seadog]

With the rate that the iPad is being used by companies, It may be hard to get any progress with any competitor system. Anything is possible, but unless MS comes out with a major improvement, I see little chance that anyone will challenge Apple's dominance for years. Just like the iPod became the only game, the iPad has the same look. I think the big gamble for MS is whether to port Office to iOS or to keep it only for Win 8 tablets. A wrong call on this issue could cost them big money and could threaten the stranglehold Office has on industry.

 

[mdholm]

Just this week my company upgraded out old, old flip phones to Blackberry Bolds. I have to say, I'm loving it. I was hoping for iPhones, but I'll take the Bold. The touch screen/trackball combo is nice.

 

[KevinJS]

@Seadog

I think MS will hold on to Office. Win 8 will need all the help it can get, and IMO Office could be its killer app.

Sent from my iPad 4 HD mini

 

[zphone]

Just this week my company upgraded out old, old flip phones to Blackberry Bolds. I have to say, I'm loving it. I was hoping for iPhones, but I'll take the Bold. The touch screen/trackball combo is nice.

I'd say my bold from 4 years ago was a much better business tool than my iPhone 4 will be even with OS6. It was just much quicker to do things on the blackberry with the shortcuts available, the email rules, caller profiles, the keyboard, the battery lasting 2-3 days. All except two things. Browser sucked (though it's much better now) and marketing. RIM never could market their way out of a paper bag when faced against a real marketing company like Apple.

Don't get me wrong. I like the iPhone, but if you never used a blackberry for business you cannot understand how much better it was at certain things that are very frustrating with iPhone even today.