Apple, Google, Microsoft and BlackBerry bear down for the great mobile enterprise race in 2013. Here are the results from an exclusive survey on mobile app deployment plans for all mobile platforms. The winners and losers may surprise you.
In a survey done by the Aberdeen Group, some 348 enterprise application developers were asked which mobile platforms they’ve released or were planning on releasing their products to.
While iOS and Android were unsurprisingly at the top of the chart, Microsoft’s mobile OS’s saw some great responses by developers, with the Windows Phone and Surface Tablet having 25% and 35%, respectively, of developers planning on releasing apps within the next 12 months.
Aberdeen ties this rise with the growing emergence of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in the corporate world. Samsung has been heavily promoting that campaign hoping that it will help boost the sales of devices like the Galaxy Note II.
Of the total surveyed 348 organizations, 35 percent of respondents are planning to develop apps on the Surface tablet/Windows 8 over the next 12 months and 25 percent planning to develop apps on Windows Phone. If notice the above chart, both the Microsoft platforms are on top of the chart in CIOs list.
Aberdeen research director Andrew Borg says the following on strong interest on Microsoft platforms,
“The data shows that IT is holding out hope that Microsoft’s mobile strategy will be well-integrated with their overall data center and cloud strategy,” Borg says. “You might say IT has been waiting for Microsoft to make its enterprise mobile play.”
In light of what looks like a bright future for Microsoft, the news is not so good for BlackBerry. Despite the release of the BlackBerry 10 OS, businesses have all but lost faith in the Canadian company, due to their oft-delayed operating system, and unclear plans for the future, especially in regard to its PlayBook tablet.